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Ice Age 3 Dawn of the Dinosaurs: movie review

2009-07-02T03:20:00.000-07:00

Starring:Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Jane Krakowski, Jack Black
Directed by: Chris Wedge
Screenplay by: Michael Wilson
MPAA Rating: PG Mild Peril 20th Century Fox (USA)
Genre(s): animation, animal, children's, comedy
Release date: 15 March 2002
MPAA Rating: PG Mild Peril

Twentieth Century Fox started animated movie named as Ice Age for children which is based on period of Earth history.The computer animation is the highlight for this movie,chracters in this story are entertaining for most part of the movie.comparing to the recent animated movies like Monsters Inc. or Shrek,this film is most suitable for the child audience than adults.This movie runs with cute jokes which gives full entertainment.

Crank 2 High Voltage Movie Review

2009-04-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

Directed by: Mark Neveldine,Brian Taylor
Produced by : Michael Paseornek,Tom Rosenberg,Gary Lucchesi,Skip Williamson,Richard Wright,David Rubin
Written by: Mark Neveldine,Brian Taylor
Starring Jason Statham,Amy Smart
Music by: Mike Patton
Cinematography: Brandon Trost
Distributed by: International:Lakeshore Entertainment,
North America:Lionsgate Films
Release date(s): April 17, 2009
Running time: 96 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $12,500,000 USD

For those of you who've seen "Crank", the so called "action packed thriller" and enjoyed it, good for you and I'm sorry. I'm glad that you enjoyed it, but sorry that you didn't watch a better one because in my opinion, "Crank" made much sense in terms of having a storyline then a babies Pampers having the sense of staying dry 24 hours after being used on a newborn. "Crank" is an action packed movie all right and it does have the thrills and chills of an action movie, but I couldn't find the storyline/plot anywhere because nothing made sense (in fact I'm still looking for it even after having read the 20 or so words on the back of the DVD box).

Apparently "Crank" is about a man who is dying and is trying to find the culprits who were trying to do him in. He buys some crack from the black market and sniffs it until he feels better (sure, when you gotta go, you might as well live it up I guess). He even goes into the drug store and swipes several boxes of nose spray because a customer tells him it has some kind of chemical that'll make him feel better (I didn't and I had to go run to the toilet to make myself feel better after sitting hrough another piece of "cinematic brilliance--NOT!").

The acting suffice as to say was pretty good despite what the cast of "Crank" had to deal with it. The direction was pathetic because all the twists and turns were hard to swallow and follow and they were harder to swallow then a pretzel with a Molson Canadian (ouch, now that's pretty hard). The cinematography was okay and the pace was pretty consistent (faster then Speedy Gonzales and "Angulay! Angulay!).

If you like action packed movies that doesn't have much of a plot (Those Die Hard movies at least had somewhat of a plot to it) then by all means see this movie, but let me try and save you some time when I say, hey, the weather's getting warmer; so why don't you go outside and enjoy it rather then watch this disappointment. "Crank" left me feeling "cranky" after viewing it and rightly so (pun intended). Also don't get the soundtrack because the consistency with the music was apalling (like mixing opera with heavy metal--PEW!!).

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I Love You, Man movie review

2009-03-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

Directed by: John Hamburg
Produced by :John Hamburg,John Hamburg
Ivan Reitman,Donald De Line,Tom Pollock,Jeff Clifford,Bill Johnson
Written by : John Hamburg
Starring Paul Rudd,Jason Segel,Rashida Jones,J. K. Simmons,Jaime Pressly,Andy Samberg
Music by: Theodore Shapiro
Cinematography: Lawrence Sher
Editing by: William Kerr
Distributed by: DreamWorks
Release date(s): March 20, 2009 (US), April 17, 2009 (UK)
Country: United States
Language: English

In I Love You, Man, which is by far the best Judd Apatow comedy that Judd Apatow had nothing at all to do with, Paul Rudd gives a startlingly funny and original performance as a nice guy with serious dweebish tendencies, and the delight of what Rudd does here comes down to how exquisitely embarrassing he is to watch. He makes you wince in hilarity. Rudd, in films like Role Models and Wet Hot American Summer, has been a wiseass par excellence, and maybe it took a wiseass to play a dork with this much merciless understanding. His Peter Klaven is an L.A. real estate agent (he's selling Lou Ferrigno's mansion) who has just gotten engaged, an event that forces him to confront the fact that he has no male friends. Who will be his groomsmen? His best man?

That sounds like a fairly mild predicament to hang a movie on, but the resonant joke of I Love You, Man is that the reason Peter has no pals is that he's too sweetly sincere, too in touch with his sensitive side, to indulge in  the gloriously insensitive modes of male bonding: the reckless sex chatter and sports talk, the need to be a guy, a dude. Peter meets Sydney (Jason Segel), who seems like natural buddy material, and the two begin to hang out. But the more Peter tries to get down with his masculine self, the more our jaws drop at how bad he is at it. He does agonizingly out-of-date SNL routines as if they signified he was ''in the know,'' he says things like ''me slappa da bass'' in a ''reggae'' accent, and when his new friend nicknames him Pistol, he names him back — and sounds like a complete idiot jackass.

Rudd shows us the awful eagerness to please that drives Peter's strenuous attempt to fit in. He's as mesmerizingly pathetic as Austin Powers, only Peter is a dork you can believe in. The more your face turns red for him, the more you root for him. That's what makes Paul Rudd a star. I Love You, Man is a guy-meets-guy ''romantic'' comedy, and it's part of the film's merry topical wink at how men have been changed by girl-power culture that Peter has no trouble relating to women, but to relate to men he must first figure out how to be one. And he does: by jamming with Sydney to songs by Rush (who they think is the best band in history—talk about masculine delusions!). I Love You, Man is on the side of all things rude, raunchy, and guyish, but only because it recognizes that the freedom to be a lout is a pillar of our civilization. And that more than ever, it's a freedom you have to earn

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Crossing Over movie review

2009-02-26T02:37:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Wayne Kramer
Produced by : Kathleen Kennedy,Frank Marshall
Written by: Wayne Kramer
Starring Harrison Ford,Jim Sturgess,Ray Liotta,Tammin Sursok,Ashley Judd,Alice Eve,Summer Bishil,Cliff Curtis,Merik Tadros
Music by: Brian Ross
Cinematography: James Whitaker
Distributed by: The Weinstein Company
Release date(s): February 13, 2009
Running time: February 27, 2009 (limited)
Country: United States
Language: English

The best we can say is that writer-director Wayne Kramer means well with "Crossing Over" — he means to put a human face on the unwieldy and divisive topic of illegal immigration.

Trouble is, he puts a lot of faces on it. Too many, actually; we rarely get a feeling for who Kramer's many characters really are. And the way he weaves their stories together is so heavy-handed, absurdly contrived and, sometimes, unintentionally hilarious that he repeatedly undermines his intentions.

His tone shifts uncomfortably from earnest to didactic to incendiary and back again as he tells the tales of various immigrants trying to forge new lives in Los Angeles, as well as the federal employees who may determine their fates. Comparisons to "Crash" are inevitable, especially given Kramer's fondness for overhead shots of the city's sprawling freeways. (Ooh, we're all so different and disconnected, yet we share the same space!) There's also a literal car crash that sets off one of the movie's subplots. But while some critics may have viewed that best-picture winner as overrated, "Crossing Over" plays like a watered-down copycat.

Among the ensemble cast, Harrison Ford stars as veteran Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Max Brogan. The main thing we know about him is that he's burned out, which Ford conveys with his typical curmudgeonly understatement. He also has a 27-year-old daughter from whom he's estranged, which is mentioned once and then dropped.

Max and his Iranian-born partner, Hamid (Cliff Curtis), are raiding a sweat shop at the film's start, where they arrest Mexican worker Mireya (Alice Braga), who's here illegally with her young son. Hamid's father, a wealthy businessman who fled Iran in the 1979 revolution, is about to become a naturalized citizen himself.

There's also British musician Gavin (Jim Sturgess), who pretends to observe his long-neglected Jewish faith for admission to the country, which leads to an amusing scene in which he stumbles his way through a Hebrew prayer in front of a rabbi. Gavin's Australian girlfriend, Claire (Alice Eve), has her own dreams of stardom: She wants to be the next Nicole Kidman or Naomi Watts and will do whatever it takes to get there. This brings us the freakiest story line, in which Claire agrees to have sex in seedy motels with paunchy bureaucrat Cole (Ray Liotta), who will arrange a green card for her in return. Oddly compelling, but it feels like it belongs in a different movie.

A subplot involving Bangladeshi teenager Taslima (Summer Bishil), who writes an essay about trying to understand the mind-set of the 9/11 attackers, probably aimed to offer thoughtful discourse on an emotional subject but instead comes out as noise. Bishil, the poised young star of "Towelhead," has some strong moments here, too, though.

But then Ashley Judd barely gets anything to do as the immigration attorney who defends Taslima (she also happens to be Cole's wife), and a subplot about a Korean teenager (Justin Chon) who's forced into crime as a gang initiation feels like an inferior version of "Gran Torino."

Oh, and his dad happens to be Max's dry cleaner. What are the odds?

"Crossing Over," a Weinstein Co. release, is rated R for pervasive language, some strong violence and sexuality/nudity. Running time: 113 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

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Fired Up Movie Review

2009-02-18T21:21:00.000-08:00

Directed by:Will Gluck
Produced by :Will Gluck,
Matthew Gross,
Paddy Cullen
Written by : Freedom Jones
Starring Sarah Roemer,
Nicholas D'Agosto,
Eric Christian Olsen,
David Walton
Cinematography: Thomas E. Ackerman
Editing by: Tracey Wadmore-Smith
Distributed by: Screen Gems
Release date(s): February 20, 2009
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $23 million

Fired Up is an upcoming 2009 comedy film. The main plot follows two high school football players who decide to become cheerleaders in order to be around female cheerleaders.

Shawn (Nicholas D'Agosto) and Nick (Eric Christian Olsen) are the star players on their high school's football team. They decide to go to cheerleading camp instead of football camp so they can be surrounded by women. Their school's cheer team happens to be the worst team at camp so they let the boys join in hopes of improving, despite the head cheerleader, Carly's (Sarah Roemer), protest. The guys are having a great time at camp until Shawn falls for Carly, who already has a boyfriend, Rick (David Walton). To win her over, the boys must prove their intentions before the end of camp.

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Friday the 13th movie stills

2009-02-13T22:31:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Marcus Nispel
Produced by : Michael Bay,Andrew Form,Brad Fuller
Written by
Story: Damian Shannon
Mark Swift
Mark Wheaton
Starring Jared Padalecki,Danielle Panabaker,Aaron Yoo,Amanda Righetti,Travis Van Winkle,Derek Mears
Music by: Steve Jablonsky
Cinematography: Daniel Pearl
Editing by: Ken Blackwell
Distributed by: North America:
New Line Cinema
Foreign: Paramount Pictures
Release date(s): February 13, 2009
Running time: 93 min.
Country: United States
Language: English

I realize it's not easy to get anyone to feel sorry for movie critics. We work from home in our pajamas, see all the movies early and for free, and spend most of our free time bitching to you about what terrible taste you have in cinema. But keep in mind we often get stuck seeing movies we would never, ever see on our own-- and I don't just mean bad stuff like Confessions of a Shopaholic, or tawdry genre stuff like Underworld.

I mean stuff like Friday the 13th, a movie I hated, moment for moment, more than any I've seen this year. I scare easily, and have no fond childhood memories of Freddy or Jason or any supernatural killer targeting teens. I have no idea what appeal anyone can find in this tired formula, especially when it's used so poorly here, 13 years after Scream parodied it so brilliantly.

But the people in the theater with me screamed at all the right moments, and even got in a few unintended laughs, so Friday the 13th seems to have a few things going for it. Even so, there are enough needless musical cues, fake scares, and suspense-free moments for even gigantic horror wimps like me to see through it for the trash it is. Whether or not it's good, entertaining trash probably depends on how much you grew up fearing Jason's hockey mask, but fans looking for that same horror jolt they got from the first film 19 years ago will probably find themselves too old for this shit.

It's not much that the movie traffics gleefully in the genre cliches-- hot dumb teenagers trapped by a killer in the woods-- but that it doles it all out so haphazardly. The movie opens powerfully by recreating the end of the first movie, the final surviving camp counselor (attractive female, of course) chopping off Mrs. Vorhees' head. Then there's a second prologue that theoretically distills everything you're looking for into 10 minutes, but drags on even longer than you'd think possible for something so content-free. There's sex and drugs, but when it comes time for the gore, director Marcus Nispel has no idea how to pace things to create any kind of suspense. By the time they bite it you're ready, not so much for entertainment but just to finally move on to the real story.

When we do, we're "rewarded" with the most obnoxious group of teens this side of The Hills, a handful of bleached blond dudes complemented by some girls in tight T-shirts and the token minorities, an Asian guy (Aaron Yoo) and a black guy (Arlen Escarpeta) who obviously aren't allowed their own love interests. The gang has piled into the summer home belonging to Trent (Travis Van Winkle) and his parents, and we learn that we're supposed to hate Trent both because he's a jerk to his girlfriend and to kindly strangers, and because he's obsessed with keeping the house clean. Meanwhile his pretty, virginal girlfriend Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) is sympathetic when they run into Clay (Jared Padalecki), a soulful guy looking for his missing sister Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who just happens to be one of the victims we saw Jason slice and dice at the beginning of the film.

Or did we? As soon as we meet Clay it's pretty obvious that Whitney is alive somewhere, just as it's obvious in which order the stupid teens will die, and how. Jason shows up to dispatch them all in various creative ways, including a truly surprising arrow to the head in one scene and later, a disappointingly generic tire-gauge-to-the-throat. Since this is a franchise reboot, rather than a sequel, Jason doesn't feel the pressure to top his previous antics, and the screenplay follows suit by failing, at every turn, to add anything new to the formula. The flawless production values and rock and roll songs are great, sure, but a reason to care about the characters or even a hint of wit could have gone a long way toward validating this movie's reason to exist.

But as I said at the beginning, I'm an automatic hater-- it takes a lot for me to enjoy any slasher movie, which I admit makes me a less-than-objective critic. Whatever you loved about the original movies, be it the blood and guts or the blatantly obvious sound cues that SOMETHING SCARY IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN!, you'll find it here in full force. But mostly Friday the 13th is proof that horror movies haven't progressed at all since Jason first emerged from Crystal Lake, and bothering with the new stuff is mostly going to be exercise in gruesome disappointment.

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Taken movie review

2009-01-26T20:50:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Pierre Morel
Produced by : Luc Besson
Written by :Luc Besson,Robert Mark Kamen
Starring :Liam Neeson,Famke Janssen,Maggie Grace,
Xander Berkeley,Holly Valance,Katie Cassidy
Music by: Nathaniel Mechaly
Cinematography: Michel Abramowicz
Editing by: Frédéric Thoraval
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Europa Corp.
Release date(s): France:February 27, 2008,Australia:August 14, 2008,United Kingdom:September 26, 2008,
United States:January 30, 2009
Running time: 93 min.
Country: France
Language:English,French,Albanian
Budget: $45,000,000
Gross revenue: $61,144,470

The film follows an ex-CIA agent faced with recovering his daughter after she is kidnapped by sex-traffickers in Paris, France.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a divorced, former paramilitary officer from the CIA's famed Special Activities Division. His 17-year-old daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) lives with his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and her new wealthy husband Stuart (Xander Berkeley). The nature and dispositions of the major characters are established early in the film: Kim is a happy, affectionate girl who loves horses and has aspirations of being a singer, while her mother maintains a frosty, somewhat antagonistic demeanour towards her ex-husband. Bryan’s skill and quick-thinking are demonstrated when he agrees to escort pop diva Sheerah (Holly Valance); the diva is attacked, but Bryan efficiently disables a knife-wielding assailant and gets her safely out of danger. Thankful, Sheerah expresses some interest in Bryan’s daughter and furnishes him with some contacts to get Kim’s career started.

The next day we discover that Kim wants to take a vacation in Europe with her friend Amanda (Katie Cassidy) to follow U2’s European tour. Kim’s mother has no objections, but Kim also needs permission from her father. Fearing that the over-protective Bryan will not consent, Kim pretends (with her mother’s implicit agreement) that they will only stay in Paris to visit museums. Reluctantly, Bryan agrees, and only discovers their real itinerary at the airport.

Arriving in Paris, a seemingly friendly young man named Peter (Nicolas Giraud) proposes to share a taxi with Kim and Amanda to the house where they are staying; the girls agree gladly. However, the man works for an Albanian criminal organization to which he reports the address out of earshot.

In the house, Kim receives a phone call from her father, which she answers in the bathroom. From the bathroom window she sees men entering the main room and abducting Amanda. Bryan is able to gain critical information about the kidnappers in the final moments after Kim is kidnapped by telling her to shout out everything about them that she notices. Briefly, Bryan talks to one of the kidnappers, warning him that unless Kim is released, he will pursue him and kill him; the kidnapper wishes him "good luck" before smashing the daughter’s phone.

Exploiting his contacts in the CIA and the business connections of his ex-wife’s husband, Bryan travels to Paris to find her, informed that the kidnappers are sex-slavers and that he has only 96 hours to recover his daughter before she will disappear forever. The particular kidnapper he talked to is revealed to be an Albanian named Marco.

Under the eye of Jean-Claude, himself a former operative and now deputy director of the French intelligence agency, Bryan pursues the kidnappers. He uses digital photos from the smashed remains of Kim’s phone to locate Peter, who is hit by a truck while trying to escape. By hassling prostitutes, Bryan gets himself threatened by an Albanian mobster, and is able to plant a covert listening device on him. With the help of a translator he discovers that the kidnappers have a brothel in a nearby construction site; before leaving, Bryan obtains an Albanian–English dictionary from the translator.

On arrival, Bryan acts like a customer; once inside he begins to search for Kim. Unfortunately, he finds only her jacket next to another woman. He is then discovered, and escapes under fire with the semi-conscious woman.

Nursing the girl back to health from an involuntary drug addiction, Bryan finds out where the kidnappers took her after she was abducted. Bryan heads to the address and poses as an official negotiating a new "rate" (i.e. a bribe) to overlook the illegal activities going on within. Before leaving he asks the apparent leader to translate from Albanian the words "good luck," which confirms his identity as Marco; he quickly subdues Marco and kills most of the kidnappers. He searches for Kim, but instead finds Amanda, handcuffed to a bed and dead of a drug overdose. Later, through torturing Marco, Bryan ascertains that Kim was sold to a man named Patrice Saint-Clair.

Bryan visits Jean-Claude’s home and chats amicably with his wife while she prepares dinner. Jean-Claude, however, failing to have Bryan arrested for the mess he has caused at Paris, brings his gun to the dinner table. Jean-Claude angrily points the gun at Bryan when accused of complicity in Kim’s abduction, but to no avail: Bryan unloaded it earlier. To demonstrate that he is serious, Bryan shoots Jean-Claude’s wife, who apparently did not know of Jean-Claude's involvement in the abduction of Kim, in her arm and, by holding Jean-Claude’s family hostage, extracts Saint-Clair’s location from Jean-Claude.

By impersonating a police officer, Bryan gains entry to the building where new girls are being sold, and secures entry to one of the buyers’ viewing booths. When he sees his daughter being sold, he forces the client to bid for her, but is captured and knocked unconscious moments later. Saint-Clair then questions Bryan, who is hanging from the ceiling, about his identity before leaving his security guards to execute him. Bryan escapes and kills the guards before finding Saint-Clair, whom he kills after learning that his daughter is being taken by Arab clients. Bryan manages to follow the car his daughter is being taken in to see her being taken away on a large motorboat. He jumps on to the ship from a bridge and eliminates all the people inside, finally killing the client and freeing his daughter.

Back in the US, Kim is reunited with her mother. Bryan introduces Kim to the diva he saved at the beginning of the film, having arranged an audition with her vocal coach.

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The Unborn movie review

2009-01-05T04:06:00.000-08:00

Directed by: David S. Goyer
Produced by: Michael Bay,Andrew Form,Brad Fuller
Written by: David S. Goyer
Starring: Odette Yustman,Gary Oldman,Cam Gigandet,Meagan Good,Jane Alexander,Idris Elba,Rhys Coiro,Carla Gugino
Music by: Ramin Djawadi
Cinematography: James Hawkinson
Distributed by: Rogue Pictures
Release date(s): January 9, 2009
Language: English

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Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body to inhabit.

And sometimes it actually succeeds.

Writer/director David Goyer (Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, Batman Begins) gives a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in The Unborn, a supernatural thriller that follows a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves.

Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spiritual advisor, Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can make it stop.

With Sendak’s help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany—a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born.

Good movie review

2008-12-30T21:38:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Vicente Amorim
Produced by: Sarah Boote
Written by: C.P. Taylor,John Wrathall
Starring: Viggo Mortensen,Jason Isaacs,Jodie Whittaker
Music by: Simon Lacey
Cinematography: Andrew Dunn
Editing by: John Wilson
Distributed by: THINKFilm
Release date(s): December 31, 2008
Country: United Kingdom,Germany
Language: English

Movie Review

There are all kinds of different World War II movies to choose from this December. The kind where people speak in authentic German accents and talk about their feelings (The Reader), the kind where people speak in authentic Belorussian accents and kick ass (Defiance), the kind where Tom Cruise tries to kill Hitler (Valkyrie), and then Good, the most old-fashioned kind, in which everyone in Germany speaks with British accents and Nazis are evil, evil evil-- except one. more...

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Defiance(2008) movie review

2008-12-25T21:35:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Edward Zwick
Produced by: Edward Zwick,Pieter Jan Brugge
Written by: Clayton Frohman,Edward Zwick
Starring: Daniel Craig,Liev Schreiber,Jamie Bell
Music by: James Newton Howard
Cinematography: Eduardo Serra
Editing by: Steven Rosenblum
Distributed by: Paramount Vantage
Release date(s): December 31, 2008
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $50 million

Movie Review

There's a heavy earnestness to Defiance that is bound to be dividing line between its detractors and its fans. Director Ed Zwick, who never met a historical drama he didn't like, brings his straightforward intensity to the story of the remarkable Bielski brothers, creating a linear, efficient narrative that will appeal to the History Channel fans who want the unadorned facts. But Defiance doesn't go beyond the usual tales of valor and virtue, managing to make an amazing true story feel like yet another dry history lesson. more...

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Valkyrie movie review

2008-12-21T22:57:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Bryan Singer
Produced by: Christopher McQuarrie,Bryan Singer,Gilbert Adler,Chris Lee
Written by: Christopher McQuarrie,Nathan Alexander
Starring: Tom Cruise,Christian Berkel,Kenneth Branagh,Kevin McNally,Carice van Houten,Bill Nighy,David Schofield,Terence Stamp
Music by: John Ottman
Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel
Editing by: John Ottman
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,United Artists
Release date(s): December 25, 2008
Country: United States
Language: English

Movie Review

Tom Cruise is back! But did he ever really go away? He's spent the last few years as more of a tabloid figure than a box office draw, but the magnetism and and intensity that made him a gigantic movie star have never left him. In Valkyrie he takes a role that could have turned ludicrous-- an American in an eyepatch playing a German hero-- and makes it riveting. That goes double for the movie itself, which once again proves Bryan Singer's unassailable skill as a director, crafting a suspenseful and exciting story out of an ignored bit of history. more....

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Revolutionary Road movie review

2008-12-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Sam Mendes
Produced by:Bobby Cohen,Sam Mendes,Scott Rudin
Written by:Justin Haythe,Based on the novel by : Richard Yates
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio,Kate Winslet,Kathy Bates
Music by: Thomas Newman
Cinematography: Roger Deakins
Editing by: Tariq Anwar
Distributed by: Paramount Vantage,DreamWorks Pictures
Release date(s): December 26, 2008
Country: United States
Language: English

Movie Review

We tend to forget this about them, given the stellar careers they've built for themselves as adults, but most of us first met Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio aboard the most popular doomed ship of all time, Titanic. This is not an irrelevant bit of trivia in the background of their new movie, Revolutionary Road. Even if you've wiped away all memories of Titanic, sworn it off as trash, you and the rest of the world have seen this couple's courtship. And as Frank and April Wheeler, a couple as realistic and miserable as Jack and Rose were carefree fantasies, Winslet and DiCaprio, bearing crow's feet and fuller faces, have twice the capacity of any to break your heart. more...

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Yes Man movie review

2008-12-18T03:44:00.000-08:00

Directed by: Peyton Reed
Produced by: Jim Carrey,David Heyman,Richard D. Zanuck
Screenplay:Nicholas Stoller,Jarrad Paul,Andrew Mogel
Starring: Jim Carrey, Terrence Stamp, Zooey Deschanel, Bradley Cooper,
Rhys Darby,Danny Masterson
Cinematography: Robert D. Yeoman
Editing by: Craig Alpert
Distributed by: Warner Bros.
Release date(s): United States, December 19, 2008,
United Kingdom, December 26, 2008
Country: United States
Language: English

Movie Review

In the spectrum of Jim Carrey vehicles, “Yes Man” hews closest structurally to “Liar Liar,” offering the rubber-faced comic actor plenty of opportunities to riff — but with far too few moments that approach the explosive hilarity of that earlier movie. Genial but slim, pic is certainly a light-hearted alternative to weighty year-end awards bait, but the conceit isn’t realized fully enough to ensure the affirmative response Warner Bros. would doubtless like to hear. As is, it’s more in the realm of a definite “maybe.”

Carrey is introduced as Carl Allen, a sad-sack bank-loan officer who still hasn’t recovered emotionally from his divorce three years before. Although his pals Peter (Bradley Cooper) and Rooney (Danny Masterson) try to nudge him out of his shell, Carl’s answer to virtually every overture that involves anything but staying home and renting DVDs is an evasive “no.”

A chance encounter with an old acquaintance inspires him to attend a self-help seminar, where a steely-eyed guru (Terence Stamp) preaches the power of saying “yes” to every opportunity — forging a covenant with the shell-shocked Carl to adhere to this simple code. more....

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Wrestler movie review

2008-12-16T23:17:00.000-08:00

Directed by:Darren Aronofsky
Written by: Robert D. Siegel
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Ernest Miller, Evan Rachel Wood
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight
Release date(s): United States:December 17, 2008,January 16, 2009 (wide),
Canada: December 26, 2008,
Australia: January 15, 2009,
United Kingdom: January 16, 2009
Country: United States
Language: English

Movie Review

The Wrestler is an upcoming film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Mickey Rourke, Ernest Miller, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood. Production began in January 2008. The film premiered at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, winning the Golden Lion Award. Fox Searchlight acquired rights to distribute the film in the U.S., and it will be released in a limited capacity on December 17, 2008. more.........

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The Day Earth Stood Still movie review

2008-12-16T01:35:00.000-08:00

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Directed by: Scott Derrickson
Produced by: Erwin Stoff, Paul Harris Boardman
Written by: David Scarpa
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith
Music by: Tyler Bates
Cinematography: David Tattersall
Editing by: Wayne Wahrmann
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release date: December 12, 2008
Running time: 104 min
Country: United States
Language: English

Movie Review

The Day the Earth Stood Still is a 2008 science fiction film, a remake of the 1951 film of the same name. Directed by Scott Derrickson and starring Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, the film updates Cold War themes like nuclear warfare to the more contemporary issue of global warming. It was released on a rollout schedule beginning December 10, 2008, screening in both conventional theaters and IMAX screens by December 19.

Plot

Set at a Catholic school in the Bronx, it centers on a nun who grows suspicious when a priest begins taking too much interest in the life of a young black student. Is she being overly protective or not protective enough? And can she work within the system to discover the truth? Written by Sherman (courtesy of Broadway.com)

It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A charismatic priest, Father Flynn, is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier, the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James, a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence. Written by Miramax Films

Cast

* Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, an alien messenger in human form. Reeves dislikes remakes, but was impressed by the script, which he deemed a reimagining. He enjoyed the original film as a child and became fonder of it as an adult when he understood how relevant it was, but liked this interpretation because it lacked the contradictory message of Klaatu "laying down the law almost as though the alien had the bigger stick".Reeves acknowledged his Klaatu is "inverted" from the original, starting "sinister and tough" but becomes "more human", whereas the original was "more human than human" before revealing his "big stick" in his ending speech.He compared the remake's Klaatu to the wrathful God who floods the world in the Old Testament, but is gentle and forgiving by the time of the New Testament.He spent many weeks advising the script, trying to make Klaatu's transition from alien in human form to one who appreciates their emotions and beliefs subtle and nuanced.Derrickson said although Reeves would not use actions "that are highly unusual or highly quirky", he nevertheless "keeps you aware of the fact that this being you're walking through this movie with is not a human being".At Reeves' insistence, the classic line "Klaatu barada nikto" was added to the script after initially being omitted.The line was recorded many times, and it was decided to combine two versions; one where Reeves just said it, and a reversed version of a recording where he said the line backwards, creating an alien effect.

* Jennifer Connelly as Helen Benson, a famed astrobiologist at Princeton University who is recruited by the government to study Klaatu. Connelly was Derrickson's first choice for the part.She is a fan of the original film and felt Patricia Neal's original portrayal of Helen was "fabulous", but trusted the filmmakers with their reinterpretation of the story and Helen, who was a secretary in the original.Connelly emphasized Helen is amazed when she meets Klaatu, as she never believed she would encounter a sentient alien like him after speculating on extraterrestrial life for so long.Connelly was dedicated to understanding her scientific jargon, with Seth Shostak stating she did "everything short of writing a NASA grant application".

* Jaden Smith as Jacob, Helen's rebellious eight-year old stepson. His conflict with his stepmother was worsened by the death of his father, and initially dislikes Klaatu, believing he is a potential stepfather. Jacob replaces the character of Bobby (Billy Gray) from the original, and his relationship with Helen was written as a microcosm of how Klaatu comes to see humanity – the alien sees their cold and distant relationship as proof positive of normal human behavior, and their reconciliation forces him to change his mind. Smith said he found Jacob difficult to play because he felt the character an "opposite" of his personality. Smith had met Reeves before on the set of The Matrix sequels with his mother Jada Pinkett-Smith.

* John Cleese cameos as Professor Barnhardt, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who specializes in the evolutionary basis of altruism. Helen takes Klaatu to him to further change his mind. The role was the most difficult to cast, and eventually the filmmakers decided to approach Cleese, noting "Who would you rather make the argument [to Klaatu] for mankind than John Cleese?" Stoff had met Cleese a few times beforehand and had noted his intellect.The actor was surprised the filmmakers were interested in him, and decided playing a dramatic role would be easier than to play a manic, comedic one at his age. He was often reminded to speed up his dialogue so Reeves would not appear in sync with normal human speech patterns.Cleese said he is not interested in extraterrestrial life because he often philosophizes about the purpose of life and why humans are distracted by trivial matters.Cleese had experience writing equations he did not understand, as he had spoken Russian in A Fish Called Wanda without knowing its meaning.The crew enjoyed working with Cleese and were sad when he finished his part.

* Jon Hamm as Dr. Michael Granier, a NASA official who recruits Helen into his scientific team investigating Klaatu. Granier is fascinated by Klaatu, but is torn between his official obligation to detain the alien and protect his country. Hamm acknowledged science fiction was a niche genre when the original film was made, and that it used science fiction to make topical issues more approachable. Hamm had the same feelings for this remake.Originally, Hamm's character was French and named Michel.Although he is interested in math and science, Hamm found his technical dialogue difficult and had to film his lines repeatedly.

* Kathy Bates as Regina Jackson, the United States Secretary of Defense. Bates had only two weeks to film her scenes, so she often requested Derrickson act out her lines so she would directly understand his aims for her dialogue, rather than interpret vague directions.

Production

Development:

In 1994, 20th Century Fox and Erwin Stoff had produced the successful Keanu Reeves film Speed. Stoff was at an office at the studio when he saw a poster for The Day the Earth Stood Still, which made him ponder a remake with Reeves as Klaatu.By the time David Scarpa started writing his draft in 2005,Thomas Rothman was in charge of Fox and felt a responsibility to remake the film.Scarpa felt everything about the original film was still relevant, but changed the allegory from nuclear war to environmental damage because "the specifics of [how] we now have the capability to destroy ourselves have changed".Scarpa noted the recent events of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 informed his mindset when writing the screenplay.He noted "People don't want to be preached to about the environment. We tried to avoid having our alien looking out over the garbage in the lake and crying a silent tear," à la the 1970s Keep America Beautiful adverts. He scrapped Klaatu's speech at the conclusion of the story because "audiences today are [un]willing to tolerate that".

Director Scott Derrickson admired the original film's director Robert Wise, whom he met as a film student. He generally dislikes remakes, but he enjoyed the script – which he decided was a retelling of the story and not a true remake. He also explained The Day the Earth Stood Still is a not a widely seen classic film, unlike The Wizard of Oz, which he would not bother remaking.Derrickson's benchmark was Philip Kaufman's 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Klaatu was made more menacing than in the original, because the director felt he had to symbolize the more complex era of the 2000s.There was debate over whether to have Klaatu land in Washington, D.C. as with the original, but Derrickson chose New York City because he liked the geometry of Klaatu's sphere landing in Central Park.Derrickson did not also write in Gort's back-story, which was absent from the script he read, noting the accusations of fascism at the original film regarding Klaatu's warning that if Earth was not civil, Gort's powerful robotic race would destroy them all.

Astronomer Seth Shostak served as scientific consultant on the film, reviewing the script several times for errors, and gave suggestions for making the scientists less dry. "Real scientists don't describe an object entering the solar system as 'notable for the fact that it was not moving in an asteroidal ellipse, but moving at nearly three times ten to the seventh meters per second'. More likely, they would say that there was 'a goddamned rock headed our way!'" He also noted the scientists should refer to one another by a first name basis.

Filming

Filming took place from December 12, 2007 to March 19, 2008 at Vancouver Film Studios. The film was originally scheduled for release on May 9, 2008, but it was delayed to December 12, 2008 because filming commenced later than scheduled.The shoot was unaffected by the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike;by then Scarpa had written forty drafts of the script.The film was mostly shot on sets because it was winter in Vancouver.

As Fox had a mandate to become a carbon neutral company by 2011, The Day the Earth Stood Still's production had an environmentally friendly regimen. "Whether it was because of this movie thematically or it was an accident of time, there were certain things production-wise we've been doing and been asked to do and so on," said Erwin Stoff.To prevent the wasting of paper, concept art, location stills and costume tests were posted on a website created by the production for crew members to look up. Costumes were kept for future Fox productions or given to homeless shelters, rather than thrown away. Hybrid vehicles were used and crew members had to turn off their car engines if they sat in their vehicles for more than three minutes.

Derrickson was fascinated by color schemes. He chose blue-green and orange as the primary colors for The Day the Earth Stood Still. The missile silo the military convert for experiments on Gort emphasized gray and orange, which was inspired by an image of lava flowing through a gray field. Derrickson opted to shoot on traditional film, and rendered the colors in post-production to make them more subtle, for realism.

To film Barnhardt and Klaatu writing equations on a blackboard, general relativity sums were drawn by Marco Peloso from the University of Minnesota, and William Hiscock of Montana State University in light pencil. Keanu Reeves and John Cleese drew over these in chalk.