October 2011 Archives

The turbulent administration of Mayor Vincent Gray got a bit rockier last week, when the Mayor announced a new plan to fund tax incentives to lure Hollywood movie and TV productions to DC and entice some company to build a movie theater "east of the Anacostia River." 

How does the Mayor want to pay for it all?

Higher taxes on movie concessions.  Yikes! 

Justin Timberlake stars as Will - a 28-year old man in a society where everyone physically stops aging at 25-years old, and trades time like a currency.  Of course, those who are rich can live forever, and those who are poor struggle to find a way to make it day to day and avoid running out of time, which leads to death, if roving gangs of thieves don't get them first.    

After a horrible tragedy, Will meets a man who has collected so much time, he doesn't wish to live anymore.  Before committing suicide, the mysterious man gives it all to Will, who instantly is accused of killing the mystery man as soon as he leaves the poor time zone for the land of the rich, where many don't feel he belongs. 

Friends shouldn't let friends make movies based on other friends' books.  You follow that?

Then, you are one step ahead of me with Johnny Depp's new movie, The Rum Diary, which is based on his pal Hunter S. Thompson's novel, which follows the crazy adventures of a gonzo, hard drinking journalist, Paul Kemp (Johnny "I am playing Hunter S. Thompson" Depp), trying to make it in Puerto Rico in 1960 among all of the fellow drunken, oddball, outcaste writers and some rich guys, Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart) and Mr. Zimburger (Bill Smitrovich), who have a massive scheme to become even more rich. 

Is this based on a true story?  That is the deeper mystery behind the tale playing out in front of us, if you can pay attention to that intrigue with all of the sex and battle for power trying to grab your eyeballs.

Set in Elizabethan England (late 1500's/early 1600's), Rhys Ifans stars as Edward De Vere - the Earl of Oxford who loves the theater, even though it is seen as a pit of revolt, mocking of those in power and a breach of morals.  As part of the royal family, Edward cannot openly participate in productions, but, secretly, has been writing plays for years, even entertaining Queen Elizabeth I before all of the crackdowns.  

Sensing the opportunity for revolution through the power of the pen and the stage, Edward starts slipping his plays to a theater owner, Ben Johnson (Sebastian Armesto), with the promise the true playwright's name will not be revealed.  Ben keeps his word, attributing the works to Anonymous.  However, the situation becomes sticky when an opportunistic, buffoonish actor, William Shakespeare (Rafe Spall), claims the works as his own as they become more popular.

Elizabeth Olsen stars as Martha - a young girl who ran away from home and became part of a loosely organized cult in upstate New York.  She has escaped and moved back in with her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson), and Lucy's fiancée, Ted (Hugh Dancy).  However, Martha can't get past all of the horrible memories of what occurred with the cult, and worries they are searching for her because she knows too much.  However, is life with her sister all that great either?

Sure, everyone is going head over heels for Olsen, but Hollywood types always go crazy for the next It Girl who is pretty, willing to get naked in a movie and shows a shred of acting ability.  You start off with Oscar buzz and comparisons to Meryl Streep, but, before you know it, you end up like Amanda Seyfried co-starring opposite a former pop star in a second rate thriller for 1/10th of the money he's getting.  I guess what I am trying to say is that Olsen, her team and the Fox Searchlight flacks need to work hard to get her an Oscar nomination before she is thrown into the same pile as Rachel McAdams, Megan Fox and Mira Sorvino (and Sorvino has an Oscar, how's that working out for her?). 

While a documentary about a former CIA director sounds like its entire audience can be found living in Georgetown and McLean, The Man Nobody Knew goes a bit further than that to become a study of American foreign policy and CIA involvement in the successful Cold War days post-World War II through the failures of Vietnam and into the light of the post-Watergate world.  If that sentence didn't put you to sleep, READ ON!

Director Carl Colby takes us on an examination of his father's work as William Colby rises to head the CIA, but it is not an apologetic film or even one with the greatest of insight.  Colby openly tells the audience this exploration is to know the father who never shared information about his job or his assignments with the people in his family, so our director is going back and trying to connect the dots with the help of experts who worked with Colby or studied his career. 

Before they directed the super box office smash (and shockingly scary movie), Paranormal Activity 3, I had a chance to speak with Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman about their equally spooky documentary, Catfish. 

Check out the interview here, then rent Catfish to see how Joost and Schulman got started.  You can always say you knew about them back before they were famous! 

 

Set in 1988, we go back in time to see the events mentioned and explored in the first two Paranormal Activity movies.  Kristi (Jessica Tyler Brown) and Katie (Chloe Csengery) are little girls living with their mother, Julie (Lauren Bittner), and her boyfriend, Dennis (Christopher Nicholas Smith).  Things start going bump in the night, and the girls have been talking to an imaginary friend, so Dennis, who videotapes weddings for a living, decides to set up some cameras around the house to capture whatever might be trying to reach out to the family from the other side.

What is it?

What does it want?

It's Hoosiers in high heels with a splash of holy water. 

Set in 1971, and "INSPIRED" by a true story (which means you are about to see a bunch of phony baloney with the real names used where appropriate and legally permitted, but I digress), Carla Gugino stars as Cathy Rush - a former star college basketball player recently married and looking for a job where she can continue to pursue her passion for the sport. 

She ends up at Immaculata College, an all-female Catholic college just outside of Philly, where she has been hired to coach the ladies basketball team by Mother St. John (Ellen Burstyn trying to get in good with God before judgment day?).  The school is going broke, they have uniforms straight out of the 1920's, their court is used to store gifts given to the nuns, and no one sees the team as anything other than a pleasant activity for the young ladies, but Rush is committed to making tiny Immaculata into a championship team.

Can Cathy motivate the team, the college, Mother St. John and her own husband Ed Rush (David Boreanaz) to see the potential for greatness and a chance to win the championship?  

The never ending saga of Lindsay Lohan's run-ins with the long arm of the law got even more complicated today when Lohan was cuffed and taken to jail after she was found to be in violation of her parole with orders to appear in court on November 2 for possible sentencing of 18 months in the joint, the big house, jail! 

Lohan has been accused of failing to perform her court mandated community service, skipping the required psychological counseling and switching her community service assignment from the Downtown Women's Center to The American Red Cross.  The switch, and Lohan's statement to her parole officer that she didn't find the Women's Detention Center work, "fulfilling," made the judge ANGRY ANGRY ANGRY!

The judge wants Lohan to spend a year and a half in jail, but overcrowding in the Los Angeles Penal System could lead to another term of house arrest for Lohan, or a much shorter sentence or both. 

However, the judge has expressed an interest in making Lohan serve some of her time working in the LA Morgue!

Tune in November 2 for the latest in Lindsay's Legal Squabbles.   

We have seen many film adaptions of Les Miserables, but Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe are aiming for an Oscar with their version, set for release in December 2012.

Don't worry that the rough and tumble Aussies will be doing it all on their own.  Tom Hooper, Oscar winner for The King's Speech, will be directing and it was just announced former Oscar host Anne Hathaway will be joining the cast as Fantine, while Jackman is slated to play Jean Valjean and Crowe will take on the role of infamous Inspector Javert.

Rumors also are flying Hooper will be reunited with The King's Speech co-stars Geoffrey Rush (who played Javert in the 1998 version) and Helena Bonham Carter.  Can Colin Firth be far behind?








 

It does not make me want to kick off my Sunday shoes.  Oowhee Marie.  It's time to cut Footloose from your list of movies to see this weekend (get used to the Footloose lyrics, I am going to do this all the way throughout the review until Kenny Loggins sues me for copyright infringement.)

In case you didn't see the original (and, believe me, all of the same scenes are here if you didn't), Kenny Wormald stars as Ren McCormack - a troubled teen from Boston who moves in with his Uncle Wes (Ray McKinnon) because the kid's mother has passed away.  Ren finds himself a long way from chowder land as he tries to settle into this small town of Bomont (Georgia?), and, when he's not working so hard and punching his card, the kid wants to dance!  However, Bomont banned dancing a few years ago after some kids got killed in a horrible car accident coming home from a dance party (if you are looking for logic, you are in the wrong theater).

Sure, Ren wants to play it cool and obey every rule, but he has got to cut footloose!   Between trying to convince the town's preacher, Rev. Moore (Dennis Quaid), dancing is OK and trying to win the heart of the Reverend's wild child daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough), he's going to hit the ceiling or else he will tear up this town!

Jack Black stars as Brad Harris - an avid bird watcher (or birder) who has dreamed of competing in The Big Year.  It's a year-long battle to see the most species of birds on the North American continent, and Brad has been training to beat the world record set by legendary bird watcher (or birder), Kenny Bostick (Owen Wilson).  Also attempting to compete in The Big Year is Stu Preissler (Steve Martin) - a corporate titan who is retiring, so he can spend the year traveling around. 

How far will each one go to win?

Set in 1982 as a prequel to director John Carpenter's 1982 movie, The Thing (which was a remake of the 1951 movie, The Thing From Another World, which means we can expect a 2041 remake of The Thing, which will be a comeback vehicle for Suri Cruise and Willow "Whip My Hair" Smith), Mary Elizabeth Winstead stars as Kate - a graduate student who is very good at examining fossils found in ice, so she is the perfect candidate to join an oddly domineering scientist, Dr. Sander Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen), who is heading to Antarctica for a massive project.

So far down by the South Pole you don't even see a penguin frolicking in the snow, a strange out of this world spaceship has been found, and one of the aliens has been discovered frozen near the ice's surface.  Of course, these guys cut out a block of the ice with the alien inside, and defrost it (not one of the smartest ideas in the history of movies or mankind).

When the alien gets loose and has a special power that causes all of the expedition crew to distrust each other, who will live and who will die?

Will the alien escape the camp?

Michael Shannon stars as Curtis - a man who appears to be on a steady mental decline.  After watching his mother suffer from mental illness, Curtis becomes worried as he starts to have violent dreams, hallucinations and premonitions of a tornado that could wipe out his house and family.

Is Curtis becoming a paranoid schizophrenic?

Can he get the help he needs?

Early prognostication has Glenn Close and Meryl Streep battling it out for the Best Actress Oscar this year.

After seeing the trailer for Albert Nobbs, do you think Close has a chance?

They are popping some bubbly down at 9th and Pennsylvania this morning as the FBI has stopped a massive assassination plot to take out the Saudi Arabian Ambassador here in DC and nabbed the hacker who stole "personal" (aka NUDIE) photos of Scarlett Johansson and Vanessa Hudgens, then passed them to websites all over the world.

According to TMZ.com, the guy was acting on his own and didn't take any money for the photos.  The FBI says he wanted to do it for the thrill of it.  It is believed this Florida man was also responsible for leaked photos of Jessica Alba and Ali Larter. 

Was he behind even more photos, like the ones of Blake Lively and Mila Kunis? 

Look for more on this over the next few days.

Is The Ides of March the first movie of 2011 to disappoint its way out of the Oscar race?

Ryan Gosling stars as Stephen Myers - a hot shot political operative working for his dream candidate, Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney).  The Governor is locked in a heated presidential primary battle in Ohio with a southern senator, and the winner likely is to go on to become the Democrats nominee.  

Just as the campaign's director, Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), heads out of the state in an attempt to secure a major endorsement, Stephen receives an invitation to meet with the rival campaign's director, Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti).  He shouldn't do it, but, when he does, the meeting changes everything for Stephen and the campaign.

Is Stephen ready for the revelations and events that are coming?

I almost had to go on the Movie Critic Disabled List for strained eyeballs because I was rolling them so much during the trailer and commercials for Real Steel.  It was so cheesy, I was ready to call it a Feast of Fromage.  Yet, amazingly, shockingly, in defiance of everything I hold dear, Real Steel didn't stink.  I am almost embarrassed to admit I kind of liked it.  They're going to take away my movie critic card (I really do have one). 

Set in the near future (about 2027, also known as the year Nostradamus predicts Suri Cruise takes over the planet), Hugh Jackman stars as Charlie Kenton - a former human boxer who has become involved in robot boxing by traveling from town to town in the dirtier underworld of the sport, picking up any robot he can, and hoping to win a few fights to pay off some of his debts.  Sadly, he's not all that great at it, but Charlie has a new challenge ahead. 

Charlie had a kid about 11 years ago, but hasn't been any kind of father to the boy.  Now, the mother has passed away, and opportunity arises.  In a deal that would make Michael Lohan look like Father of the Year, Charlie agrees to forgo any parental rights to the boy, Max (Dakota Goyo), in exchange for $100,000.  The only catch?  He has to take the kid for the summer, and, together, they rise to heights neither one could on his own.  

When Max finds his own robot boxer, can he and Charlie find success?

Can Charlie find redemption and become a better man?

Have we reached the moment in time when movie theaters will go extinct?  Theater owners are worried about it, and Universal may have caused all of them to quake in their shoes a little bit more yesterday.

Comcast, which owns Universal, announced this November, it will test a Video On Demand release of the new Ben Stiller/Eddie Murphy movie, Tower Heist, in Portland and Atlanta. 

What's new about this? 

Portland and Atlanta Comcast customers will be able to watch the movie On Demand only three weeks after Tower Heist premieres in theaters, and is still playing in the cineplex.  And, it will cost $59.99. 

Theater owners need to be scared! 

No company knows how to re-brand, update, re-release and re-hash product like Disney.   Even George Lucas has to look on with some envy. 

Now, with the mega-successful release of a 3D version of The Lion King, Disney has gotten bold enough to bring out more Disney classics in 3D.

The rumbling, whispering and trial ballooning has begun.  The story du jour is Madonna being signed up to play halftime at the Super Bowl next February.  Can you hear the cringing at the FCC as we speak?