The Early Days of Taylor Lautner

The pug-faced wonder boy known by teen girls all around the world, and their moms (of course) as Jacob. A Native American Werewolf in Washington. But, before he went to the Matthew McConaughey's Shirt Rehab, he was a music video enthusiast. And not too long ago, either -

That's him. If you read the description of the video, he made this with his high school ex-sweetheart for a class project. Not only does this speak volumes about Lautner, but also for our public education system. 

Why I Love Film - #5

There seems to be a pattern with this series in that every other one is n(ot) s(afe) f(or) w(ork). So in keeping with that coincidental pattern, this one is pretty family friendly. Enjoy with the kids.

It would make sense to assume that a film's advertising has a lot to do with the anticipation of said film. That's just logic. So, it would make sense to also assume that there are certain advertising ventures that have stayed with filmgoer's over the years. Some are tacky, sure - like United 93's senselessly tacky For Your Consideration ad -

sure.

Great film, but not exactly something I, or anyone I know, would consider relevant past 2006. One of two September 11th movies that came out that year (the other being Oliver Stone's surprisingly calm World Trade Center) but this film got all the attention. It's more focused than Stone's, but both are about specific events from that terrible day. Not just that day. Yes, a film can matter. But, a film that matters doesn't presume its importance and just unfolds over time. This came, missed a Best Picture nomination, and went. 

More after the cut --

In Theaters This Weekend

You'll have to forgive the semi-late posting of this, but I'm dealing with a ripped open fingertip while typing this. Note that the wound is covered and I'm not bleeding all over my precious laptop. But, since all is held together by glue (quite literally), we can bask in the glory of the films opening this weekend - Rango - the Johnny Depp animated flick from Gore Verbinski, The Adjustment Bureau - a Matt Damon thriller, Beastly - Alex Pettyfer and Vanessa Hudgens' take on Beauty and the Beast... with Mary-Kate Olsen, and Take Me Home Tonight - Topher Grace's trip back to '88.

This makes me laugh. So hard. 

More after the cut --

God Save the King, Book IV

In conclusion of this series, taking a look back at the contributions that Stephen King has made to the world of cinema, in four parts, from Carrie on down, in anticipation of The Stand being adapted for a feature film... we're at the end. We've covered the good, the bad, and the wtf, and that's just the feature films. We're on to his mini-series, in part four.

"Be gentle."

More after the cut --

The President's Speech - Starring Mike Tyson

And George W. Bush.

I guess that after re-editing The King's Speech for a PG-13 rating... this was the next logical step.

All thanks be to Jimmy Kimmel for that. 

127 Hours, Love and Other Drugs, and Others on DVD This Week

Let the Oscar films begin to roll out! They might have lacked serious chemistry hosting the Oscars together, but James Franco and Anne Hathaway each offer one of their best performances separately onto DVD shelves today. Also, Christina Aguilera and Cher in Burlesque and Dwayne Johnson in Faster. I've seen the first two, but haven't gotten around to the last two yet. But, honestly, my hopes aren't high.


127 Hours wasn't an Oscar winner, but it should have been. Franco gives the performance of his career, and one of the best I've seen in years, as Aron Ralston - the modern adventurer who gets his arm caught underneath a boulder during a canyon exploration. His performance puts us right underneath that boulder with him, but Danny Boyle's loving direction lets us feel as the raven that passes overhead of Ralston every morning. It's a touching, inspirational, and divinely made film. For the full review, click here.

Danny Boyle brings his Slumdog Millionaire team back to the table, with a beautiful musical score by A R Rahman, a delicate and tense screenplay by Simon Beaufoy, and meticulous editing from Jon Harris.

The balance and urgency of that balance between living and dying have rarely felt more tangible in any film that I've seen - and I'm still amazed by how fluid and affable Boyle got the film to feel. It's about a man stuck under a rock, and it's one of the most free movie-going experiences of last year.

More after the cut --

Rest In Peace, Jane Russell and Gary Winick

Very sad news today as screen siren Jane Russell and indie-god Gary Winick have passed away. 

Let's look back at their illustrious careers. 

More after the cut -- 

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards

Anne Hathaway: 1. James Franco: 0.

Or, as it will come to be called, The Kirk Douglas Variety Special. 

For full nominees and winners, click here.


And special thanks to Amanda from America's Next Top Model Addiction for all her help in creating this post!

More after the cut --

The Indie Spirits clash with The Razzies

Probably the most useless award

For those who didn't catch the subtle difference, that, above, is a golden raspberry. That award, commonly known as a "Razzie" is designated for the worst of the worst in film releases and is meant to be the antithesis of the Oscars (which air tonight). Traditionally, or it has been so for the last handful of years, both the Film Independent Spirit Awards and the Razzies are held the day prior to the Academy awards. The Razzies honor what everyone hated, and the Indie Spirits honor - as John Waters once prophetically stated - "the movies that come in sixth at the Oscars". Since the expansion of the Academy's Best Picture category to ten nominees, he was apparently exactly right. Not long before they're relegated to honoring what comes in eleventh.

More after the cut --

Megamind

One of the best posters ever.

The anti-superhero film of last year blasted onto DVD yesterday, so I sat down and took another look at what made me enjoy it so much. And while it winds up being Dreamworks' answer to Pixar's The Incredibles, the film stands on its own as a sharp-witted and fully realized, not to mention wildly funny, piece of escapism. 

More after the cut --

In Theaters This Weekend

I can't say anything but "hell. yes."

I don't know what to make of this week. Five releases as we move toward the end of this month. Drive Angry (which offers Nicolas Cage in 3D), Hall Pass (a sure to be irreverent film by the Farrelly Brothers), two French dramas  (Of Gods and Men and Heartbeats), and The Grace Card (the lastest in a long line of church-produced films).

What makes movies like Drive Angry so much damn fun are that, usually, they are original works. It's like someone answers the challenge that Hollywood can't tell an original story anymore. So, a director or group of directors, decide to shake things up by taking four or five genres, three or four ridiculous stories, two or three of their favorite actors, and make one hell of a movie. Drive Angry is the result of that. For an example - the film is about a man who escapes from Hell to seek vengeance on the satanic cult that murdered his daughter, all while picking up a hitchhiker and being hunted by a man known only as "The Accountant". What makes things cooler? Cage's name in the movie is Milton.

Sadly, this isn't the only movie I can focus this post on. So, we're back to the format, with a trailer for each release -


starting with Drive Angry.


More after the cut --

Due Date, Get Low, and Others on DVD This Week

This week, we seem to be at each end of the spectrum with our major DVD releases - first, the decidedly, and surprisingly, unfunny Due Date comes to shelves, and secondly, so does the tender and heartwarming Get Low. Other releases include Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Leaving (Partir)

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about a week like this on DVD is that it follows a week of spectacular releases, and also contains a separate singular release for a title on the 25th. Megamind comes out that day, and I'll be posting a full review for its release. I saw it quite a while ago, thoroughly enjoyed it, but didn't have the opportunity to review it. This week gives me that opportunity. So, look for that.

The saddest thing about a film like Due Date is that it ignores an eerily similar film that came out before it, much like The Roommate (I swear, I should get a dime for every time I mention that film this year) after Single White Female. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles did it first, and it remains uncredited as inspiration for this slacker comedy. Note - this isn't a comedy about slackers, mind you; it's a comedy about very hard workers caught in a dire situation, but... the people involved are slacking on the comedy part. Thus, it's a slacker comedy.

More after the cut --

Revisiting Single White Female

She's aiming for Leighton Meester

In the wake of The Roommate, I found it all but necessary to take two hours and revisit the mother of all psycho roommate thrillers. The incomparable Single White Female.

Of course, without being an official remake, The Roommate shares more than a few key plot lines with its predecessor. Elements of fashion design, the psycho stalker girl doing something to resemble the obsession, the "high heel" scene is represented in The Roommate, in a head-shakingly similar fashion. I wish they would just come out and say that it's a remake. It wouldn't have been critically bashed as badly. Make no mistake, it still would have flopped. But, at least half of the reviews would have been shorter and a wee bit less scathing.

More after the cut --

In Defense of M. Night Shyamalan

Recently in the Chicago Sun Times website, a letter was published by Roger Ebert - the letter was open and to M. Night Shyamalan from one of the Times' foreign correspondents Omer Mozaffar. In the open letter, Mozaffar explains himself as a student of theology, and a film lover, as well as "a fellow Desi" from the same generation as M. Night. He refers, and defers (in a way) to their shared ethnicity as some sort of common ground and an excuse to open this dialog. 

Thanks for the tip, Jack.

I'm sure M. Night will write him back. Just as I'm sure Omer will read this post and follow my blog.

It is critical to understand something about criticism - it's all subjective. If there is any ounce of objectivity to a film review, it's that we can all agree on the name of the film, the basic plot, and the people responsible for it. 

The open letter is here. 

More after the cut --

The Roommate

She has 99 problems. Being a bitch is one of them.

Rebecca is a misunderstood soul. A torturous, psychotic, closet lesbian soul with detachment issues from hell, but misunderstood nonetheless. And, before I tear this movie apart, I will say this - Leighton Meester is better than she has any right to be in this movie. Past her watchable performance, however, the film is one gigantic (gigandet?) failure. And by 'one gigantic failure', you should read that as 'one gigantic failure after another'. 

More after the cut --

No Strings Attached

Carrots: because she hates flowers.

This is a film that assumes the idiocy of its characters. Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman play two friends, complete with benefits, that - over the course of familiar plot devices, and a whopping deus ex machina - fall in love. Of course, that ruins the friendship, and the entire premise of the film. We're posed the question as follows: can two friends have regular and meaningless sex and not develop feelings for each other? 

Of course they can. But, that doesn't leave us with much of a movie. 

More after the cut --

In Theaters This Weekend

Buckle in. This is going to be a long one - three days, eight releases, one of which has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (you read that right. Zero.). In order, we have:

... is that an Android Market tag?

I Am Number Four, Unknown, Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son, Vanishing on 7th Street, I Am, Immigration Tango, Even the Rain, Brotherhood. Interestingly enough, I Am and Brotherhood are only opening in two random cities - Portland, Oregon and Dallas, Texas, respectively. But, both are opening to noteworthy reviews full of praise. Could there be awards potential? Most likely, I'm thinking.

Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this weekend's releases is not that there are so many, not that I Am Number Four has been advertised since December last year, it's that up until a couple of weeks ago when the film's promotion really took off, I thought that the guy in the poster was Jim Caviezal. It's not. And I feel stupid.



More after the cut --

The Sunset Limited

Primacy.

It is always a trick to adapt theater to a feature film. Easier to do so for television, though that's probably a gross overstatement. HBO might be the best place to do it; they harbor independent film. Even trickier, maintaining a swift and watchable pace with only two actors and heavy religious dialog. Thankfully, Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson, and Cormac McCarthy have no problem with this. The Sunset Limited is engaging, thought-provoking, and sincere. 

Of course, being a McCarthy work, there is a sense of boundless eternity that is tinkered with throughout, and the ending is more of a truce than anything else, but this is usually so of his writing. Things happen, we talk about why, and then we go home. It doesn't matter which side wins, just so long as each side is heard. 

More after the cut --

God Save the King, Book III

For those of you just joining the series, I'm taking a look back on Stephen King's contribution to the world of film. The good, the bad, and the 'wtf'. From the top. In four parts.

Books I and II focused on the good (Carrie, Shawshank, The Shining, etc.) and the bad (Pet Semetary, Dreamcatcher, *cough*thegreenmile*cough*). We're at Book III now, and it's time to ask Hollywood a very serious question on behalf of the King -

Seriously, guys? Guys. Seriously.

More after the cut -- 

Unstoppable and Others on DVD Tomorrow

A small Tuesday, for sure, with only three releases of note. Tony Scott's Unstoppable, the break-out documentary/indictment of America's public education system Waiting for Superman, and Woody Allen's latest You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

I like it when the week brings me new things to watch - I haven't had the chance (maybe that's a good thing) to see Unstoppable, and I'm chomping at the bit to finally see Waiting for Superman. I watched You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger with my girlfriend, and we both loved the hell out of it. But, also, we're both obnoxiously big Woody Allen fans. So, that was probably to be expected.

But, I want to take a look at each DVD release, and see which might be worth my, and what's infinitely more important, your money.







More after the cut --