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Showing posts from June, 2013

Review: White House Down

White House Down has the misfortune of coming out three months after the other presidential hijacking movie starring Gerard Butler locked down its opening weekend. Striking the iron the second time usually doesn’t end well, but with Channing Tatum starring and the hit-maker Roland Emmerich behind the camera, it bodes well for the picture. Whereas Olympus Has Fallen took itself way too seriously, White House Down is well aware of the camp inherent in a mass conspiracy of this scale against the most powerful leader in the free world. Placing Die Hard inside of the Oval Office doesn’t do well when the tone is so dour. You need to have some fun with the premise and that is exactly what White House Down does.

Twelve Years a Slave Moves Up

Fox Searchlight has moved up the release date of director Steve McQueen’s ( Hunger ,  Shame ) next drama  Twelve Years a Slave  from December 27th to October 18th.  The move was prompted by very positive feedback from test screenings, and the film, starring  Chiwetel Ejiofor ,  Michael Fassbender ,  Benedict Cumberbatch  and  Brad Pitt  will receive a limited release in October, a launching pad for Oscar season. Twelve Years a Slave  hits theatres October 18th

2013 Thus Far

We're past the sixth month mark at the movies and the pictures that have lingered in my mind longest aren't the summer blockbusters (though I quite liked Man of Steel ), but the releases from March, which isn't known for quality. Trance , The Place Beyond the Pines and Mud currently reside at the top of my list, although there are several pictures unseen still that should figure prominently in that list ( Only God Forgives, Before Midnight ) that will be available to me soon. As it stands here are my favorites of 2013 thus far (in no particular order): Mud The Place Beyond the Pines Trance Man of Steel Star Trek Into Darkness The Great Gatsby Missed the Cut: Oblivion, Mama, Side Effects, Iron Man 3 . Notable films not seen: Much Ado About Nothing , Stoker, Before Midnight, To the Wonder .

The Best of Heath Ledger

Before the star's untimely death in 2008, Heath Ledger was well on his way to two Oscar nominations. One for his quietly haunting turn in Brokeback Mountain and the other for his unseen portrayal of The Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight . His star was burning bright and like so many before him, his time came too early. Now we look back at some of his best performance . Brokeback Mountain The scene above says it all really. Like the ending of Brokeback Mountain which is revealed only through a single object, Ennis is only revealed through a series of gestures. Ennis is a man strangled by how he thinks he should be. He should be the provider of a family, he should be happily married to a nice girl, he should be happy with what he has. But he isn’t and the tragedy of Ennis Del Mar is the only happiness he had is rejected by the world. A Knight's Tale Pop history was never this much fun. An underdog from the get-go, William Thatcher is a serf who was dut

They're Gonna Need A Bigger Bot

Designer Matt Ferguson delivered this fan-made beauty for the Blurppy Poster Posse Project and, luckily, they do have the giant bots to take out the very hungry looking monster underneath the boat. “Jaws is seen by many to be the original summer blockbuster movie. To me Pacific Rim looks like it could be the ultimate summer blockbuster. The fact that the Kaiju in Pacific Rim come from under the ocean to attack made it a no-brainer for me to pay homage to one of my favorite all time movie posters!” Pacific Rim hits theatres July 12th

Jack the Giant Slayer Giveaway

Warner Bros. and PartnersHub are teaming up to give one lucky reader will receive a blu-ray prize pack to celebrate the release of Jack the Giant Slayer .   Want to win? Post your results from the How Brave Are You? quiz into the Comments section and leave your email address so I can contact the winner. All entries must be in before June 29th and the winner will be noti fied June 30th.

First Trailer for Wolf of Wall Street

  The first trailer for Martin Scorsese 's The Wolf of Wall Street debuted this morning and it looks like Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have another hit on their hands. Along with Mr. Dicaprio, the film stars Jonah Hill , Matthew McConaughey and Jean Dujardin . The Wolf of Wall Street opens on November 13th

Review: Man of Steel

On a planet nearing its end, plagued by military coups and an oncoming apocalypse, a father (Russell Crowe) makes a choice to give his race a second chance and sends Earth his only son. Despite the pleas from most to ignore the origins of a man whose tale is known by all, a lot of the character is lost in only having him walk out of the phone booth in red, yellow and blue. Clark Kent could literally go anywhere and do anything, why would he devote his life to helping others? Especially when he is expected to protect those who treat him as an outcast. The previous exploits of Superman have been covered many times by many people, more successfully by Richard Donner and Christopher Reeves than by Bryan Singer and Brandon Routh. With Superman Returns lukewarm reception in 2005, the kabosh was put on the character only to watch Batman's meteoric rise under the steady gaze of Christopher Nolan. It seems no small coincidence that Warner Bros. tasked Nolan with producing their

Hit Me With Your Best Shot #33

The game where I throw out one of cinema's more obscure quotes and you try to guess it. Readers are currently 23 for 31. This week is a little different though, this quote is used in TWO films, let's see if you can name both of them. “We’re coming to get you Barbara.”

First Poster for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

  Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin's last adventure was a little bloated, so hopefully Jackson's next effort will be tighter. Still the promise of a very large, very gold dragon voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch should be enough to convince moviegoers to buy a ticket. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug opens December 13.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot #32

The game where I throw out one of cinema's more obscure quotes and you try to guess it. Readers are currently 23 for 31. Let's see if you can name the film this quote is from: "Harriet. Harry-ette. Hard-hearted harbinger of haggis. Beautiful, bemuse-ed, bellicose butcher. Un-trust... ing. Un-know... ing. Un-love... ed? "He wants you back," he screamed into the night air like a fireman going to a window that has no fire... except the passion of his heart. I am lonely. It's really hard. This poem... sucks.

A Peek at Heath Ledger's Joker Diary

Special features about Heath Ledger's creation of his interpretation of the Joker have been lacking. Beyond a few interviews, such as the sitdown Christopher Nolan attended at the Film Society of Lincoln Center last year, there just isn't a depth of material. All that could be gathered from Ledger's process was when Nolan opened up about Ledger and his performance moreso than he did during the promtional rounds for The Dark Knight : "...we would film hair and makeup tests and try different looks, and in that, he'd start to move, and we'd have these rubber knives and he'd choose what weapon and explore the movement of the character. We weren't recording sound, so he felt quite able to start talking and showing some of what he was going to do. And in that way he sort of sneaked up on the character." Courtesy of Reddit and The Film Stage , there is now new footage of a diary Ledger kept during production of The Dark Knight . Inside

Joaquin Phoenix Rocks the Mutton Chops

Shooting has already started on Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice and The Daily Mail has photos of Mr. Phoenix in character. The pictures from the Los Angeles set offer a first look at Phoenix, as pot-smoking P.I. Doc Sportello, rocking mutton chops, cowboy boots and a Panama hat. Part of me wonders if this is what Freddie Quells would like look during the Sixties. Hmm...

Giveaway for 'Copperhead'

COPPERHEAD, the new Civil War-era movie from Ron Maxwell, director of the epics Gettysburg and Gods and Generals . Inspired by actual events, it's the story of Abner Beech (Billy Campbell) , a dairy farmer in the North who faces the wrath of his neighbors for opposing the war. A peace-loving but stubborn dairy farmer in upstate New York, Beech detests slavery, but opposes the war for the sake of the “union.” Abner is neither a Yankee nor a Rebel. He is a Copperhead. Included in the giveaway is a Copperhead poster signed by director Ron Maxwell and a copy of Harold Frederic's book The Copperhead , which inspired the movie. To win, all you have to do is post the highest score trivia score in your comment below (also a way of contacting you). The contest ends June 14th and the winner will be notified on the 15th. I have received related merchandise in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.