December 2011 Archives

Hang wringing, finger pointing and overall assessment of blame is the hottest topic in Hollywood this holiday season.  While every week seems to bring a new blockbuster with plenty of buzz, marketing and commercials trumpeting its release into theaters, customers weren't convinced to break down the doors to the local cineplex. 

With the lowest number of tickets sold since 1995, Hollywood is searching for answers in a complex multi-media world.  The total number of tickets sold domestically declined 4.8% in 2011 to 1.275 Billion.  Even with more 3D and IMAX premiums raising prices of many tickets, total revenue also was down by 4% to $10.15 Billion.

What drove this decline?

Right now, 5,783 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (or their personal assistants) are running out to their mailboxes to retrieve the most valuable and powerful tool in all of Hollywood.  The Oscar ballots have been mailed (I don't know about you, but I am picturing Tom Hanks wandering out from his mansion like Tony Soprano wearing slippers, 2 days of stubble, skivvies and a robe as he looks into the mailbox with great anticipation).

The Academy is broken up into several branches - Producers, Actors, Directors, Cinematographers, etc. - with each one nominating the best in their category to make up the final 5 nominees in each category (some categories have special rules and a list of movies to choose from, but we'll cover that in 2nd Semester Oscar Rules, right now we are talking Oscars 101 - Introduction to Oscars).

The biggest change this year will be in the Nominees for Best Picture.

Whereas the category has had 10 nominees for the past few years, this year, the number of nominees will be determined by the voting. 

We wil have a minimum of 5 nominees no matter what, but, each voter ranks their top movies in order, so any movie among the top ten vote getters will be a nominee if they have at least 5% of the first place votes.  This is supposed to make for a stronger field, but it seems a bit weird to me.  We are going to do the same handicapping whether we get 5 nominees, 7 nominees or 10 nominees, so why not have 10?  It gives fans of 10 movies a reason to watch the Oscars.        

Ballots must be returned by Friday, January 13, before the Golden Globes are broadcast, and the nominees will be announced January 24th at 8:30ish AM EST.

Get ready for the pop culture explosion of the decade!

The most popular singer on the planet will be contributing a song to the most anticipated movie of 2012 as Taylor Swift performs the song Safe & Sound for The Hunger Games movie due out on March 23 and starring Jennifer Lawrence. 

Check it out below, and, if you like it, you can download it from iTunes. 

I have to admit, it's pretty cool, and not what you normally expect from Taylor.

Even in this day and age of the internet, movie posters often still are the first look we movie fans get of the most anticipated films.  If you don't believe me, just check out the buzz when the poster from something like The Dark Knight Rises hits the internet, or the squeals of glee you hear when walking down the hallway of your favorite cineplex, when a new poster is displayed to promote Twilight. 

If you have some time off this week, and love movies, here's your chance to see some of the most iconic posters of the 80's, including the original artwork, drawings, and more.

ArtInsights Animation & Film Art Gallery in Reston Town Center is hosting a show of artist John Alvin's work.  Alvin is the man behind the images for E.T., Blade Runner, Aladdin and more.  Alvin also designed the posters for The Star Wars Concert and was one of the favorite artists of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.     

The show runs until January 2, so don't waste any time!  Get out there today!

A possible Oscar contender when it premiered at the Toronto Film Festival back in September, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen has some good buzz, even though distributor CBS Films did not have enough time to mount the campaign needed for a December release.

So, the movie, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, was pushed to March, but that shouldn't be seen as a sign of weakness. I had the pleasure of seeing a couple clips from the movie, and I found it charming and engaging.  Will the whole movie be like that?  Check out this trailer and tell me if you agree.

Don't be all scared and judgmental because it is a French, silent movie in black and white.  It's about more than the gimmick, and The Artist will be calling to you, entrancing you and making you feel the love. 

Set in 1927, Jean Dujardin stars as George Valentin - the biggest movie star in the whole world.  He's riding high in the time of the silent pictures, but those times are coming to an end.  The head of the studio, Al Zimmer (John Goodman), is ready to embrace the talkies, and he wants to bring in a new stable of stars. 

Of course, George is too proud and stubborn to embrace the future, so he leaves the studio determined to continue his silent stardom.  Along the way, he meets Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) - a young lady looking to become a Hollywood star.  As her fortunes rise and she becomes the biggest star of the talkies, George's fall, but the attraction between them only seems to grow, especially as Peppy tries to help. 

Will George regain his stardom?

Will George and Peppy find true love?

Will George just talk?

Based on the true story, Matt Damon stars as Benjamin Mee -an adventurous newspaper writer whose family has been suffering over the past several months after the death of his wife.  Worst of all, his 14-year old son, Dylan (Colin Ford), has become withdrawn and sullen, which has lead to many problems at school.  

Seeing the need for a new start, Benjamin begins looking for a new home, and finds a very unique possibility on the outskirts of town.  It's a beautiful house nine miles away from civilization, and has a business to help generate income.  It's a zoo.

Is Benjamin up to the task of rehabilitating and saving the zoo?

Will the rest of the staff want to stick around?

Can his kids adjust to their new lives?

Sometimes, the hack writer in me must come forth because it is my most honest reaction.  War Horse should be called Bore Horse.

Jeremy Irvine stars as Albert - the teen boy in a farming family facing all sorts of troubles (because farmers in movies ALWAYS face horrible troubles, including pestilence, drought, too much rain, livestock riddled with disease, destruction of crops in general and more).  His father, Ted (Peter Mullen), has purchased a beautiful horse for the farm, but it doesn't appear to be the kind of workhorse they need to plow the tough field.  Caring very much for the four-legged pal, Albert does everything he can to help train the horse and take care of him. 

As World War I begins, the horse is sold to the cavalry, and Albert vows to find his pal wherever the war horse (bore horse) may end up.

Can this horse survive the war?   

Can Albert ever track him down thousands of miles away from home?

HBO is hyping their next big movie, Game Change, but did they focus in on the right story?

The book Game Change, written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, is an investigative look at the 2008 Presidential election, including stories from the primaries as well as a look at each candidate's history, 

I love Game Change, but I always felt the more compelling stories were the ones about the battles between President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton.  There is so much controversy, fighting, and rivalry between the two, who engaged in a historic primary battle, I am a little shocked the focus of the movie seems to be Sarah Palin, as played by Julianne Moore. 

Sure, she looks like Palin, but why is the focus of the movie here?  Is it because Palin is easily portrayed/mocked/parodied?  Is it because the makers of the film were worried about giving us an unvarnished, raw look at Obama and Clinton?  Why would they be worried, if it is a compelling tale?

Game Change will be on HBO in March, giving us a chance to judge for ourselves.
 

The Lord of the Rings was one of the biggest movie franchises in the history of movies.  And, you have to give these guys credit.  When Peter Jackson started the series, it could have been the biggest bomb in the history of movies because they made all three movies at the same time, forcing New Line Cinema to the release of all three, no matter how badly the first one might have performed.  What would have been a financial debacle of Lehman Brothers proportions turned out to be the best gamble made in Hollywood.  

Now, Peter Jackson and the team are back with the prequel.  Are you ready for a look at the movie we will all be talking about next year at this time?

At a time when many moviegoers, including me, are fighting back against higher prices for 3D movies that don't impress us all that much with the 3D, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol proves to be worth the extra cash for an IMAX showing.  I think the IMAX presentation had more impact on me than any 3D movie all year long, but don't worry.  You'll still enjoy it on regular screens as well.  

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt.  Formerly one of the top agents at the Impossible Mission Force, Hunt is being held in a Moscow jail, but not for long (they are the Impossible Mission Force after all).  After an operation to secure old Soviet Union launch codes being sought out by a terrorist ends in disaster, old pal Benji (Simon Pegg) and agent Jane (Paula Patton), are ordered to break Ethan out, so they can break into the Kremlin in a last ditch effort to stop this terrorist, but that mission ends up with the Kremlin being blown up!  These guys are not at the top of their game.   

Now, the Impossible Mission Force has been blamed for the attack and disavowed, while the President has shut them down (invoking Ghost Protocol, whatever that means), but Benji, Jane, Ethan and another agent picked up along the way, Brandt (Jeremy Renner), have been ordered by the IMF Secretary (Tom Wilkinson) to go rogue and do what is necessary to save the planet from a nuclear attack, which could lead to a world war.

As I was sitting through the never ending opening title sequence of mysterious S & M themed images set to a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, I realized The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo was going to be a long movie (with some cool music), whether you need it to be or not, and these guys behind it want to shock us by any means necessary.

Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, Daniel Craig stars as Mikael - a Swedish journalist embarrassed and defamed after controversially being found guilty of libel (and, a Swedish journalist who speaks English, and all of the Swedish characters speak English, even though all of the signs and writing in the movie are in Swedish, people notice those kind of details and they take us out of the movie and back into reality, but I digress). 

To save the magazine he runs with his lover, Erika (Robin Wright), Mikael resigns and takes the intriguing, profitable job of trying to solve a 40-year old mystery - find the missing granddaughter of a wealthy industrialist family filled with more weirdos and malcontents than a concert by the Insane Clown Posse.  Plus, he'll need an assistant, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara), who is brilliant, disturbed, angry and scared.

What happened to this missing girl and who did it?

Over the years, we have seen many worldwide sensations try to break into the American market.  Menudo was supposed to be the next Jackson 5.  Soccer was supposed to be the next baseball.  And, while the folks behind Tintin might have designs on making him the next Harry Potter, he's likely to be more of a Chronicles of Narnia. That's not so bad!  It's better than being Percy Jackson The Lightning Thief or The Vampire's Assistant or, and may God have mercy on your soul, Jack The Giant Killer.    

In this motion capture animation spectacular, Jamie Bell is Tintin - a young, enterprising investigative journalist who finds himself and his loyal dog Snowy (the second coolest dog in movies in 2011, right after Uggie from The Artist) stumbling into a mystery.  After buying a model ship, The Unicorn, a strange American warns Tintin he could be in danger.  Tintin quickly starts to realize something is amiss when Ivanovich Sakharine (Daniel Craig) does everything in his power to get that model ship, and, finally, succeeds by stealing it, and kidnapping Tintin!

When Tintin has the one last piece Sakharine needs to solve the mystery, will Tintin beat him to it?

What is the mystery of The Unicorn?

I wasn't about to let a day go by without sharing this massive trailer release.  We might not learn more about The Dark Knight Rises, but don't you feel sufficiently tantalized?

I had a chance to sit down with Gary Oldman and director Tomas Alfredson to talk about their new movie, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  We talk about the movie, the challenge of taking on a role made famous by Alec Guinness, being Sid Vicious and a bit of Batman.   

Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell the smell of a summer bomb.

I fear the entire theater heard me gasp in horror when this trailer played the other day.  You can call it whatever you want, but this will be known as that Jack and The Beanstalk movie (because it is the story of Jack and The Beanstalk), so why not call it Jack and The Beanstalk? 

Are we worried kids don't find beans to be cool enough? 

Does it make Jack sound like Chuck Norris to call him The Giant Killer?

Is Hollywood out of ideas?

What's next?  The Humpty Dumpty Movie? 

Jack and Jill, with Adam Sandler playing Jack and Jill, again?

The Cow Jumps Over The Moon: With A Vengeance?

Check out the trailer below.
 

We are cheering because Robert Downey, Jr. is back as Sherlock Holmes - the eccentric, brilliant detective who finds himself investigating a series of suspicious bombings occurring around Europe in 1891.  While many are chalking it up to the work of anarchists, Holmes is on the trail of his former flame, Irene (Rachel McAdams), and her partner in crime, the well respected and unsuspected Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris).

While Holmes's dedicated partner, Dr. Watson (Jude Law), has had enough of the crime solving game, he gets pulled back in when Moriarty and his gang target him and his new wife, Mary (Kelly Reilly).

What is Moriarty up to?  

Can Holmes overcome the one man who seems to have the ability to match intellect with him?

Is anyone going to believe Moriarty is up to no good?

I admire Charlize Theron.  She's undeniably and once-in-a-generation gorgeous, but she doesn't rest on her laurels and make a bunch of Jennifer Aniston or Katherine Heigl-like movies (One could say Katherine Heigl is Charlize Theron without the talent and charm, but I don't want to end up Santa's naughty list).  Theron takes chances, and those chances pay off in Young Adult.

Theron stars as Mavis - the former prom queen who got out of her small town, but decides to head back as life starts to fall apart.   She has gotten divorced, her long running job writing a teen book series has ended, and drinking seems to be the one task she is good at.  Angry, confused and looking for some shred of her former glory, Mavis decides to go back to Mercury, MN and chase down her high school boyfriend, Buddy (Patrick Wilson).   Of course, he's married and just had a baby. 

How disastrous will this be, since it can only end in disaster?

James Bond is the face of British super spies, but Gary Oldman might be the only guy cool enough to challenge him for the crown.  

Set in the 1973, Britain's vaunted MI6 is under attack.  After a mission goes horribly wrong, George Smiley (Gary Oldman) and the leader of MI6, Control (John Hurt), are forced out by a group of ambitious agents.  However, Control suspects a mole within the agency is feeding information to the Soviets, and one of those ambitious agents is right in the middle of it as they brag about an operation supposedly providing valuable Soviet intelligence to the British and Americans. 

(* See my interview with Gary Oldman *)

When a powerful member of the government asks Smiley to investigate claims made by MI6 agent Ricki Tarr (Tom Hardy), it becomes quite apparent something is amiss at the highest echelons of the agency, and only one of their own can figure it out. 

Who is the mole?

While the Oscar nominees won't be announced until late January, the race has been underway for several months, with December being one of the make or break periods during the campaign. 

The Oscar race is like running for President.  Right now, we are in the Iowa/New Hampshire/South Carolina period of the early primaries as movie critics groups announce their winners. 

Then, we move into Super Tuesday as the guilds (Screen Actors Guild, Producers Guild, etc.), The Golden Globes and the Broadcast Film Critics Association announce their winners in January and February.

Today, the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Of which I am a member), announced its nominees, after we voted this weekend, with the winners being revealed in a super duper star-filled ceremony broadcast on VH1 in January.  This will be one of the few times on this blog I will ever promote a program that doesn't air on the CW (until this blog is removed by some corporate suit in the Tribune's Chicago Headquarters), so read it while you can! 

Who was nominated? 

What is the impact on the Oscar race?

Someone tell Will Smith he doesn't need to dye his hair black to star in a Men in Black movie.

Right now, you need to make a decision.  If you continue to read this review, you may hate me by the end.  You have been warned.

Congratulations!  New Year's Eve might hold the record for wasting the talents of more Oscar nominees and winners than any movie before it.  Halle Berry.  Robert DeNiro.  Michelle Pfeiffer.  Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine is all grown up!).  Hilary Swank.   How was Cuba Gooding, Jr. not available to play a supporting role?

Much like director Garry Marshall and writer Katherine Fugate's earlier movie, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve follows the troubles, travails and turbulent twists and turns in the lives of many New Yorkers on New Year's Eve.  Of course, everyone has a plan, but those plans are falling apart.

How long has this movie been on the shelf?  Seriously!  If you see Jonah Hill out and promoting the movie, he looks like a svelte, stylish man after losing a great deal of weight (Kudos!).  In The Sitter, it looks like he ate the svelte, stylish version of himself along with an entire pizza or two. 

The former larger, husky version of Hill stars as Noah - an irresponsible college kid chasing after a girl, Marisa (Ari Graynor), who uses him.  So his mother (Jessica Hecht) can go on a blind date and have a fun night out, Noah agrees to step in and babysit the kids of one of her friends.  Of course, nothing goes right after Marisa calls him and promises, ummm, "a good time", if Noah shows up at a party with some cocaine.   He has been waiting for this moment too long to let it slip through his hands (or pants), so Noah doesn't think it is a problem to bring the kids with him.  

How do you score some coke when you have three kids and a minivan?

Will those three kids be too much for Noah to handle?

Before this week, most of you never heard of movie critic David Denby, but his actions regarding The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo have caused a massive controversy and debate over the way studios, publicists and movie critics interact.

Last week, movie critics around the country (including me) were invited to see the hotly anticipated movie, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.  While the movie comes out December 21, the studio, SONY, wants to get the film in front of movie critics who are compiling their lists of Top Ten movies of 2011 and voting in various critics association awards, which help the Oscar campaigns for such movies (For example, I belong to the Broadcast Film Critics Association, which is voting this weekend for its nominees for Best Movies of 2011, with the winners being announced at the Critic's Choice Awards airing in January on VH1).

In return for seeing the movie early, critics agree to withhold their reviews and opinion until a certain date, usually the day the movie is released.  That's what we call an embargo. 

In the case of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, SONY asked critics to withhold reviews until December 13, which is quite generous considering most embargoes are until the day of release. 

However, Denby and his publication, The New Yorker, published his review on the net and in the December 12 edition of The New Yorker. 

What's the big deal?

This is one of those movies of legend.  For years, Mel Gibson, Jim Carrey, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn and more have been trying to make the movie in some fashion. 

Now, we get Sean Hayes, Will Sasso and some guy you have never heard of (Oh, you never heard of Will Sasso, either?  Uh oh.) 

Here's the part of the movie that worries me.  It is not a bio pic.  They are putting The Three Stooges into modern day.  Is that a good idea?  Aren't they a product of their time? 

And, yes, that is Larry David dressed as a nun.  Is that a good sign?

See the trailer below and tell me what you think.
 

Here's Part 2 of my visit backstage at Jersey Boys here in DC.

Michael Fassbender stars as Brandon - a New Yorker with a sex addiction.  It's starting to interfere with his work, his relationships and his life in general, but Brandon can't give up the thrills.

Now, his sister, Sissy (Carey Mulligan), needs some place to stay for a while, and the lack of privacy (and potential for being exposed) is becoming too much for Brandon to handle.

For an NC-17 movie, not a whole bunch of excitement can be found in Shame.  Co-Writer/Director Steve McQueen and co-writer Abi Morgan are trying to create a meditative, moody film, but they need more dialogue and a clearer storyline to entice us and make us care about this guy. 

Brandon seems to be drifting from encounter to encounter, and the audience gets a feeling about where he comes from and where he is in life, but needs more explanation no matter how hard Fassbender is working to show us this guy's pain and the lack of ability to emotionally connect with others.  He does a wonderful job with a very sparse script, and makes more of the story come alive than might be there on the page.

Shame is a good showcase for Fassbender's ability, but not a great movie.










1 Waffle (Out of 4)

Shame is rated NC-17 for some explicit sexual content (I saw the movie, it's more than SOME explicit content)