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400 Screens, 400 Blows - Doc Flock
3 hours ago
Lately I have been looking at some of my year-end awards screeners, mainly the documentaries. My critics' group votes for the year's best documentary; we each vote for our top five and then vote again from the top five finalists. It's not easy to figure out this year's front-runner as of yet, and most of the contenders have been huge yawners. For several years in a row, the big award-winners have always been about war in some form, either WWII or the more recent wars in the Middle East. But this year I have detected grumblings of ennui from the other critics, an ennui that i started developing years ago. This year the favorites appear to be a bit more lighthearted in tone, as well as more local in theme. Rowdy movies like Anvil: The Story of Anvil, Capitalism: A Love Story (52 screens) and Food, Inc. (5 screens) for example have »
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
Cinematical Seven: Movies with Nameless Main Characters
15 hours ago
Making a movie about a character whose name you never reveal sounds backwards and bizarre. How are we supposed to identify with the protagonist if we don't even know what to call him? But many films go that route, including this week's movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which doesn't name the man or the boy who occupy almost every frame of it. That's in keeping with McCarthy's novel, which is spare and bleak and doesn't use much punctuation, either. (The apocalypse wiped out most of the world's apostrophes.) Here are seven other movies whose central characters' names are kept hidden from us.
Fight Club. Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, this modern classic follows novelist Chuck Palahniuk's lead by not naming the narrator, played by Edward Norton and identified simply as "The Narrator" in the credits. (Some viewers have thought the character is named Jack due to »
- Eric D. Snider
Interview: 'Ninja Assassin' Director James McTeigue (Part 2)
17 hours ago
Read part one of our interview over here.
By his own admission, James McTeigue seems to be fast-becoming Hollywood's go-to guy for revenge stories. After beginning his career as an assistant director for the Wachowski brothers, he made his directorial debut with the graphic novel adaptation V for Vendetta, and is now set to release Ninja Assassin, about a martial arts master squaring off against his master and his former clan. Ironically, McTeigue is himself a generous, thoughtful and positively mellow guy, which makes his aptitude for bloody showdowns even more surprising.
Cinematical recently sat down with McTeigue at the Los Angeles press day for Ninja Assassin, where he talked about tackling his latest revenge tome. In addition to discussing the physical and philosophical origins of ninjas (and the movies that love them), he talked about protecting the cultural and ethnic integrity of his characters and story, and ruminated on »
- Todd Gilchrist
Trailer Park: Greenberg, Toys and Tolstoy
21 hours ago
Ben Stiller stars in this indie comedy about a man who deals with his mid-life crisis by doing nothing. Stiller actually seems appealing when he's not trying to be zany. Watch for this one on March 12.
This new international trailer shows a little more of the trauma inflicted upon our toy heroes after Andy goes off to college and they are donated to a daycare center. Looks like this one has all the charm of the first two installments. That June 18th release date can't come soon enough.
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Trailer Trash, Trailers and Clips
Continue reading Trailer Park: Greenberg, Toys and Tolstoy
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- Matt Bradshaw
Scenes We Love: L.A. Confidential (Again!)
23 hours ago
It's the most wonderful time of the year! The time of year when I watch L.A. Confidential a dozen times because "It's Christmassy!", complain that it didn't win Best Picture, and fall in love with Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce all over again. It's not as if I don't watch this at any other time of the year, but this film is like my holiday heroin. It's the perfect antidote to the holly and the ivy. Yeah, I posted a scene from it earlier this year, but as its been taken down by YouTube, I figured I'd post another in honor of the upcoming holidays. There's not a lot of scenes available (my favorite Rollo Tomasi moment still eludes me), but luckily one of the reader favorites was up for grabs. So, today's Scene We Love is indeed a scene we all love: "She is Lana Turner."
It's also good timing, »
- Elisabeth Rappe
Right Now on TV Squad
28 November 2009 8:02 AM, PST
Our brothers and sisters over at TV Squad have busted through the boob tube and brought with them the following juicy bits of must-see eye candy.
There are a lot of changes coming to Scrubs this season, and here's a video of cast veteran Donald (Turk) Faison introducing the new cast memebers. TV's first "modern" Dr. Who Christopher Eccleston will be playing the late Beatle John Lennon in a four-part BBC production focusing on the musician's life from 1967-1971. In response to the Pox News controversy on a recent episode of Sesame Street, Sherrie Westin, executive vice president of the Sesame Workshop recently appeared with Bill O'Reilly to introduce Spill O'Reilly the latest addition to the Grouch News Network. Fox has announced its mid-season lineup, and you can check it out right here. Turkey day may have already passed, but that doesn't make this classic Thanksgiving episode of Wkrp in Cincinnati any less hilarious. »
- Matt Bradshaw
Pass the Hanky: The Fall
28 November 2009 6:02 AM, PST
When I first saw The Fall, I was trying to slink out of the theater afterward without anyone noticing my red eyes and nose. Too bad someone caught me and asked me if I was okay. "Uh, sure," I stammered, and ran for the subway. Today when I revisited the movie on an airplane, I warned my seatmate that I would be sniffly and not to worry. About midway through, he took pity on me and handed me some napkins.
The Fall, directed by Tarsem Singh (he prefers to go simply by his first name), takes place in a hospitals in California in the '20s. Lee Pace plays Roy, a stuntman who had an accident that left his paralyzed from the waist down; his girlfriend left him for the smarmy star so he's broken-hearted as well. His costar is Catinca Untaru, who plays a mischievous, smart, adorable little girl named Alexandria, »
- Jenni Miller
Discuss: What Were Your Best Black Friday Deals?
27 November 2009 5:15 PM, PST
As my Twitter feed fills with constantly re-Tweeted online bargains (be still, my weeping wallet), and as our own site did its best to prepare you readers for today's Thunderdome of savings, it's likely that a great many of you ventured out to capitalize on Black Friday in all its mania.
There were certainly deals to be had on movies and home entertainment equipment alike, and that's really what we want to hear about (not that a thirty-dollar camping tent isn't impressive or anything).
Where'd you go? How long did you wait in line? How cold was it? How busy was it? What did you get? What was already gone? Did you upgrade to Blu-ray this year? And did any of our readership outside the States take advantage of the online deals without leaving the comfort of your own home?
So go ahead, brag and boast about your claimed trophies. »
- William Goss
Interview: James McTeigue, 'Ninja Assassin' (Part 1)
27 November 2009 4:15 PM, PST
Director James McTeigue has been working on films since the late 1980s, back in his native Australia. He was second assistant director on Dark City and first assistant director on Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. He started working with Andy and Larry Wachowski as an assistant director on The Matrix, and they've been collaborating on projects together ever since. The Wachowskis wrote the first feature film helmed by McTeigue, V for Vendetta, and he provided second-unit direction on their most recent film, Speed Racer.
Ninja Assassin, which opened this week, is the latest movie McTeigue has directed, with the Wachowskis on board as producers. You can read William Goss's review for more details about the action/fantasy film. Cinematical sat down with the director in late September during Fantastic Fest, just after the movie played the festival. He was very pleased with the fest screening and happy to talk about the film. »
- Jette Kernion
Free Flick of The Day: Blame It On Rio
27 November 2009 3:12 PM, PST
A film about an affair with your best friend's daughter is probably the last place you would expect to find a lesson on morality. But oddly enough, that's exactly what you get in Larry Gelbart's sex comedy, Blame It On Rio. Like many of the films I saw during my childhood, I was well out of the prescribed age group for the story of a May-December affair, but I always remembered this movie for two reasons: it was where I learned about the world of mid-life crisis, and I even learned a little something about the consequences of your actions ... but we'll get to that later. So if you've never seen this movie, you're in luck because SlashControl offers the flick as part of their free film selection.
Released in 1984, Rio was written by Gelbart, who is best known for his work in TV (as one of the creators of M. »
- Jessica Barnes
Jeremy Renner Wants To Be An Avenger
27 November 2009 2:20 PM, PST
Now that Iron Man 2 is in the finish stages, and Thor will kick off filming in January, the casting rumor mill must now find some new grist in The Avengers. (Not Captain America, oddly enough. We'll just skip right over that one!) Empire sat down with Jeremy Renner, who revealed that he'd been in talks with Marvel Studios and Avengers' writer Zak Penn about tackling the part of a superhero.
While he's reportedly been linked with Captain America on some dim corners of the Internet, Renner is thinking he might like to play another Avenger : Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye. "I don't know if I'd be right for Captain America. I met with the Marvel guys, actually, but we didn't talk about Captain America. But one of the writers, Zak Penn, we've become friends over time and he was thinking maybe Hawkeye could be interesting. He sounds like an interesting character. »
- Elisabeth Rappe
A Trailer for Jean-Claude Van Damme's 'The Eagle Path'
27 November 2009 1:20 PM, PST
It's time for the second feature written, directed, and starring the Muscles from Brussels Jean-Claude Van Damme. First we had The Quest, a story he whipped up with the help of Frank Dux (the man Bloodsport was based on). Now there's The Eagle Path. Once called Full Love, this sucker is all-out classic Van Damme with faux serious acting, violence, and of course, the potential love of a sexy woman -- and you can check out a trailer for the film after the jump, courtesy of THR's Heat Vision Blog.
Van Damme plays "Frenchy," a military vet and former mercenary who hides from his past by working as a taxi driver in East Asia. When he picks up a sexy woman one day, he becomes obsessed with the idea of improving her life and decides to do so without her approval. With help from his special ops friends, he sets out to "save" her, »
- Monika Bartyzel
Scenes (Songs) We Love: Ain't Nobody From 'Breakin'
27 November 2009 12:15 PM, PST
My love of dance movies, especially crappy dance movies, could probably all be traced back to Breakin'. In 1984 I wasn't exactly the hippest girl on the block (after all it isn't easy to be hip when you're nine years old), but when my dad took me to see Breakin' I thought this was the beginning of a long and industrious career as a B-girl. So, as you can probably guess, it didn't quite work out that way, but thanks to Breakin' I still listen to Rufus' Ain't Nobody featuring R&B legend Chaka Khan (which first appeared on Rufus' album Stompin' at The Savoy) .
Breakin' was directed by Joel Silberg and centered on the dancing duo of Turbo (Michael Chambers) and Ozone (Adolfo Quinones), who team up with Kelly, a pampered jazz dancer (played by Lucinda Dickey) in a battle with a rival dance crew by the name »
- Jessica Barnes
Review: New York, I Love You
27 November 2009 11:02 AM, PST
Armed with a collection of the world's notable directors, Paris je t'aime hit screens with a good deal of impact and buzz. It was to be the first piece in producer Emmanuel Benbihy's "Cities of Love," a collection of films detailing romance and metropolitan life across the globe, a series planning to travel to the likes of New York, Rio, Shanghai, Jerusalem, and Mumbai.
Three years later, the second installment is finally upon us with New York, I Love You. With only minor changes, the film continues the tradition of joining many internationally diverse filmmakers for the journey through a popular city, but the buzz has diminished. The film is slowly making its way across screens in the U.S., and will break into Canada come November 27. But how could one of Hollywood's most beloved cities find its ode so woefully under the radar? It's not an easy question »
- Monika Bartyzel
Directors We Love: Jim Jarmusch
27 November 2009 9:25 AM, PST
Last week Jim Jarmusch's The Limits of Control came out on DVD. I loved it, and was completely baffled by the weird, negative response to it. Baffled, and a little depressed. Has Jarmusch really changed so much that his existential road trips don't work anymore? Or is it that we have grown far too lazy to enjoy them? Twenty-five years ago, Jarmusch's Stranger than Paradise -- another existential road trip -- opened, and it caused quite a stir in the fledgling "indie" world. It gained a small and passionate following, and its funky, deadpan humor tapped into something. Hardly anything happens in the film. A girl from Hungary comes to visit her cousin in New York. They spend a few aimless days together and she leaves. Later, the cousin and his friend travel to Cleveland to see her again, and the three of them decide to drive to Florida. »
- Jeffrey M. Anderson
'Teardrop Diamond' Finally Finds a Trailer
27 November 2009 8:32 AM, PST
I was convinced this day would never come... I first wrote about The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond over three years ago when the forgotten Tennessee Williams screenplay got tapped for a feature film. Lindsay Lohan was set to star in it, before her heaps of turmoil turned her career sour. In 2007, Bryce Dallas Howard stepped in to replace Lohan, and in 2008, we finally got a still from the film. Now the movie has quietly swam through the festival circuit and is slated for release at the end of the year, which means we finally get a trailer, which you can see after the jump, courtesy of Coming Soon.
The trailer can certainly send you back in time, but maybe not to the right time. The whole thing reeks of 1980s Hallmark melodrama, from the scenes to the text and somber voiceover. Bryce Dallas Howard stars as Fisher Willow, a »
- Monika Bartyzel
This is the Ape that Climbed the Empire State Building?
27 November 2009 7:45 AM, PST
Back in 1933 there was this little movie called King Kong. While not an epic award-winner, the film instantly became a legend for stunning special effects and arguably the most iconic Hollywood monster of them all. Whether you've seen the film or not, you've no doubt witnessed the scene, where the large ape grabbed Fay Wray's Anne Darrow and carried her to the top of the Empire State Building, where he fought off planes and machine gun fire to be with the unwilling object of his affection.
MSNBC reports that the specific metal skeleton used in that iconic scene has sold for approximately $200,000 at a Christie's auction in London. Talk about a killer find! The 22-inch figurine was originally "covered in cotton, rubber, liquid latex, and rabbit's fur," but being over 70 years old, that covering has rotted away to reveal what you see above -- a collection of metal, rivets, »
- Monika Bartyzel
New Site Makes It Easy to Buy and Sell DVDs
27 November 2009 6:45 AM, PST
When it comes to my home entertainment collection, I have a problem saying no. If it's cheap enough and I can come up with a rationale for owning it, I'll shell out my hard earned dollars. Of course, this results in my shelves sagging under the weight of unloved and unwatched DVDs that seemed like a good idea at the time -- frankly, I couldn't tell you why I had to buy my very own copy of Step Up 2. But, selling those unwanted discs can be a bit of a hassle, and this is where Glyde comes in. This new service was created by the founder of eBay Motors and promises a new (and easier) way of buying and selling your used DVDs, video games, books, or CDs online.
So here's how it works: you simply sign up for an account, enter your credit card info, shipping address and you're ready to go. »
- Jessica Barnes
Black Friday Movie Deals: Amazon.com
26 November 2009 9:03 PM, PST
At first I thought this would be too difficult. Target, Best Buy, Walmart ... all those stores offer a very manageable number of Black Friday movie deals. Surely Amazon.com would prove way too massive of an undertaking ... but nope! Of course Amazon.com is offering a lot more movie deals than the non-virtual stores are, but they've made things quite easy by categorizing everything, and with handy links and everything!
First off, here's the Amazon Black Friday sales page, movies-only division. But that page offers way too many options, so let's pick out some of the best standard (non-blu-ray) dvd deals: Blazing Saddles ($5.99)! The Marx Brothers Collection ($17.99)!! The Goonies ($6.99)! The Nightmare on Elm Street box set ($24.99)! Spaceballs ($8.49)! And on and on it goes. New, old, classic, crappy, there's a good deal in here whatever you're after.
And what I'm after is blu-rays! 2001: A Space Odyssey ($9.49)! The Silence of the Lambs »
- Scott Weinberg
The Best Non-Dysfunctional Movie Families ... in Honor of Thanksgiving
26 November 2009 6:03 PM, PST
In honor of Thanksgiving, we're recalling one of our favorite turkey day-themed posts from last year.
By: Jette Kernion
A few years ago, I wrote a Cinematical Seven on my favorite dysfunctional families in films. Everyone has a crazy messed-up movie family they love, whether it's the Hoovers in Little Miss Sunshine or the Bullocks in My Man Godfrey or the Corleones in the Godfather saga. I thought that this year, it would be fun to make a list of families that got along, worked together, and supported one another. You know, happy families ... but not dull, one-dimensional bundles of endless cheer.
It's a lot more difficult to find seven movies with happy-but-not-sappy families than it is to find the screwed-up kind, especially if you are looking for something more interesting than the Cleavers. Since I'm visiting my relatives for the Thanksgiving holidays, I asked them for suggestions. They were all very helpful, »
- Cinematical staff
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