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| Watching Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert 3-D, and looking into the faces of thousands of screaming pre-teens, I feel a strange kinship with the citizenry of sacked civilizations throughout time and the world. Seeing something at once so foreign to your being and day-to-day existence, and so full of force, vigor and furious noise — oh, the noise! — is partly how I imagine the Romans felt in 410, when the Visigoths came a-knockin'... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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After a winding, checkered career, the pseudonymous novels of Jack Ketchum have provided the blueprint for a couple solid screen adaptations in recent years, including The Lost and The Girl Next Door. The latest, and best, is Red, a layered, well acted tale of escalating revenge, a Walking Tall-type scenario filtered through the rubric of quiet atonement and reparation... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Based on the novel by Sarah Waters, Affinity is a tale of power and possession set in the late 19th century — part gothic-tinged doomed romance, part supernatural mystery. For forgiving fans of sapphic-flavored period pieces (perhaps that most niche of niche sub-genres), this film will undeniably delight, but others most have trouble with its disjointed pacing.
The film unfolds in Great Britain in the 1870s, where a London socialite, Margaret Prior (Anna Madeley, an ethereal beauty), finds escape and
purpose in a world in which she is not able to be with her lover, Helen (Ferelith Young), by becoming a mentor who brings hope and comfort to the female inmates
at Millbank Prison. It's there that Margaret, thwarting the advances of Theophilus (Vincent Leclerc), becomes infatuated with Selina Dawes
(Zoe Tapper), a medium who was incarcerated after a séance gone horribly awry. As the story unfolds, Margaret, who is at first
skeptical of Selina’s gifts, soon discovers a world of secrets and
shadows, heightened passions, and the allure of the supernatural.
The melodramatic plottings here are fairly familiar, but, as with a lot of modestly budgeted, flip-side Victorian tales, there's a certain indulgence one must embrace — namely a concession for all the dialogue that tells us how things are, rather than showing us. That, and the purely utilitarian nature of many of its supporting characters, mark Affinity as fairly predictable, mood-dipped entertainment. On the other hand, its solid acting and production value help elevate the material, so one certainly doesn't grow too weary of watching.
Though the movie just recently premiered on the Logo cable channel, this DVD bills itself as featuring an extended version
of the Victorian-era suspense thriller. Housed in a regular Amray case, the DVD is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, with a Dolby digital 2.0 stereo track. Bonus features consist of a brief making-of featurette, a single deleted scene and candid one-on-one interviews with
award-winning novelist Waters (Tipping the Velvet, Fingersmith) as well as Madeley, Tapper and the movie's screenwriter, Andrew Bate. To purchase the DVD via Amazon, click here. C (Movie) B (Disc)     |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| Victoria Jackson, the ditz who in the 1980s made a career on Saturday Night Live out of playing a ditz, is the latest celebrity to drop a poorly written broadside against Barack Obama, writing that he "bears traits that resemble the anti-Christ..." |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| Anna Faris is a rarity in young Hollywood — a fairly known commodity and proven performer to boot, but still an undervalued stock. Collectively, the four Scary Movie films in which she has starred have taken in over $430 million domestically, and Faris' supporting turns in movies like The Hot Chick, Waiting, Just Friends, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and, of course, Sophia Coppola's Lost in Translation have shown her to be an inspired comic performer, equally adept at blank-faced satire, unhinged farce and physical slapstick.
Thus far true breakout stardom has eluded Faris, but the new movie The House Bunny, along with costarring roles with Topher Grace and Seth Rogen in forthcoming films, may help finally do the trick... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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With The Daily Show, including correspondent Aasif Mandvi, heading to the respective Democratic and Republican national conventions over the next two weeks, I thought I'd delve back into the archives for a little extra material from a not-too-long-ago chat with the aforementioned actor... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Despite the fact that it's still, you know, illegal, there's an entire cottage industry devoted to celebrating and promoting marijuana and its attendant "lifestyle," and that's where a DVD like The 20th Anniversary Cannabis Cup comes into play — filling that void between the time spent lighting up, missing community college classes, munching on Cool Ranch Doritos, wondering where your copy of Dazed and Confused went, and waiting for your roommate to figure out how to download that pirated copy of Pineapple Express.
Presented by High Times (naturally), this disc brings the world's biggest annual pot party to your very own living room. Running about an hour, it's made up of just the sort of short-attention-span bits that one would expect on a compilation title like this — a musical performance from noted marijuana advocate Redman here, chuckle-laden interview tidbits there. There's also footage of both 100-gram joints and the world's biggest bong, a peek inside the Sacred Temple with celebrity judges as they choose the world's greatest pot, and, as the cover promises, high-resolution photos of the winning buds. Wow. If something other than weed could be a "must-have" for habitual stoners, then I suppose it would be this DVD.
The 20th Anniversary Cannabis Cup comes housed in a regular Amray case, along with a 36-page color booklet that includes plenty of, umm, educational photographs, as well as an Amsterdam coffeeshop map (yes, seriously). It's presented on a region-free disc with a stereo audio track, but you have to provide your own blacklight, sorry. Free hippie lettuce samples not included, either. A (Movie, if I were a stoner) B- (Disc) |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| It's a happy birthday to Hayden Panettiere, who turns 19 today. I think it was 106.7 KROQ out here in Los Angeles that had a creepy promotional giveaway of some item of clothing from Heroes for her 18th birthday last year, which reminds me of correspondence I once received about Shiri Appleby, and also makes me wonder how much the bikini in the post-jump picture will eventually fetch at auction...
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| "Dog movies" will always have a place on family video shelves, a matter proven by the fact that we're already four films deep in the Beethoven franchise, and reconfirmed by the existence of Frank, a genial family flick about reconnection as facilitated by a big, slobbering pooch...
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| A solid earner that premiered to $20.8 million on April 11, en route to a $43.8 million domestic haul, Prom Night is a moderately well done slice of stalking teen horror, courtesy of some invested work by first-time feature director Nelson McCormick. Starring Brittany Snow in the Neve Campbell role, as a teenager who's also the object of obsession for the murderer of her mother, the movie doesn't offer much that's new in the way of story or twists, or even revelatory performances, but the glossy finish and snap-fit of its component parts at least make it palatable for those for whom it was chiefly designed. More after the jump... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| Starring Kiefer Sutherland as an ex-police officer locked in a battle of wills with an evil spirit that does its lashing out through reflective surfaces, Mirrors tries to blend conventional horror with dark, allegorically-tinged investigation, and ends up pulling off neither to much effect. French-born filmmaker Alexandre Aja, quickly becoming the go-to director for down-and-dirty horror remakes, hits all the keys hard, but there's not the tune of a smooth, unified vision here, just the jangly, discordant tones of set-piece mayhem, as occasionally run through an amplifier... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Ben Stiller's R-rated ensemble comedy Tropic Thunder ended The Dark Knight's reign atop the domestic box office, pulling in $26 million over the weekend and $37 million overall since its Wednesday debut. Director Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins sequel banked another $16.8 million, bringing its total Stateside haul to $471.5 million, good for second place all time. Amongst other new entries, the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars grossed $15.5 million, good for third place, while Mirrors, starring Kiefer Sutherland, scared up $11.1 million, good for fourth place. Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona slotted 10th, with $3.7 million, while 3-D animated flick Fly Me to the Moon got swatted, placed 12th for the weekend, with $2 million.
Rounding out the top 10, Pineapple Express placed fifth, with $10 million ($62.9 million overall); Brendan Fraser's third Mummy flick slotted sixth, with $8.6 million ($86.7 million overall); the ABBA-inflected stage musical adaptation Mamma Mia!
placed seventh, with $6.5 million ($116.4 million overall); The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 finished eighth, earning $5.9 million ($32.1 million overall); and Will Ferrell and John
C. Reilly's Step Brothers
slotted ninth, with another $5 million ($90.9 million overall).
In limited release, Henry Poole is Here opened at over 525 venues and grossed $800,000; solid arthouse hit Brideshead Revisted added 150 theaters and pulled in $746,000, adding to its cumulative gross of $4.7 million; Randall Miller's ensemble wine dramedy Bottle Shock added 69 theaters, and pulled in another $406,000; and Ben Kingsley and Penelope Cruz's Elegy added $54,000 to its two-week total, holding steady at a half dozen screens. |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| I first caught Tropic Thunder a couple months ago, at a long-lead screening where multi-hyphenate Ben Stiller was showing it to costar Jack Black, as well as ancillary income-boosting business-types who were being asked to view it for potential ring-tones. (Yes, seriously.) I was bowled over by the very funny performances and all-around great execution, and a second viewing hasn't dimmed my enthusiasm. It's the funniest laffer of the year so far, and the best, most fully realized comedy since Wedding Crashers...
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Don't know if others have the same feeling, but there's an Edge shaving cream commercial out there in heavy rotation that I find monumentally irksome, wherein the invigorating effects of said product's scent are portrayed by a group of miniature women with jet-packs who fly up the nose of a guy slathering on shaving cream for his morning face-scrape. There, inside his nasal cavity, they dance about, underneath a disco ball (?!), seemingly having the time of their lives.
I've seen this commercial a dozen times, maybe more, and it's made me realize just how strongly I don't find anything appealing or funny, regardless of the set-up, about scenes in which shrunken humans and/or insects enter the body through a nostril — something the recent animated flick Fly Me to the Moon reconfirmed, with its bizarre, stupid joke about Grandpa Fly having once saved Amelia Earhart's life by buzzing up her nose while she was dozing off during her transatlantic flight. Not content to merely feed audiences a cringe-inducing joke ("That was one serious booger!"), the 3-D movie gives us a flashback too, in which the intrepid, duster-clad fly does his thing and is sneezed out. Gross. It's a low point in a movie with plenty of valleys, and was greeted with derision by most of the many youngsters with whom I saw the G-rated film.
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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If it's behind-the-scenes stuff to which you spark, in all aspects of life, and you've already watched all the bonus features on all of your DVDs, check out the campaign trail blog of Meghan McCain, the 23-year-old daughter of John McCain. Sure, a few Facebook/sorority-type pictures slip the groove, but there are some good photos included, particularly the very cinematic first shot from this recent stop in Pennsylvania. Actually, I just noticed that the bulk of the pictures are credited to professional photographer Heather Brand, which explains the acute eye for composition. Interestingly, too, the younger McCain seems to have interned at Newsweek and Saturday Night Live, the latter of which might explain Lorne Michaels' contributions.
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Plumber by day and student by night, Jack Brooks (Trevor Matthews, below right) is an angry, wound-up guy. He has a girlfriend he doesn't really seem to like, a therapist whose advise he can't fully embrace, and a scarred past that leaves him prone to irrational outbursts. When his community college professor (Robert Englund) becomes overtaken by an awakened ancient evil and is reanimated in belching, vomiting, meat-craving form, Jack finally realizes he can't run from his Batman-esque back story (the brutal murder of his parents, though here via a nasty beast), so he grabs his socket wrench and decides to kick a little monster ass.
Lean, thinly sketched and, as the title aptly indicates, unapologetically populist in tone, Jack Brooks channels Slither and particularly early Sam Raimi, all by way of Tales From the Crypt. There isn't much in the way of frills or production design (the movie is seemingly budgeted only for its bookends and final act), but director Jon Knautz makes up for it by keeping things moving fairly briskly. If there's a problem, it's that the script withholds its protagonist's transformation for too long, and could additionally use a bit of an upgrade in swaggering archness. Otherwise, though, grading on a curve, it's easy to glimpse the potential franchise cult appeal here; all that awaits is the hearty blurb of endorsement from Bruce Campbell. For more, from the movie's official web site, click here. (Brookstreet, R, 85 minutes)
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Super-hot power couple Téa Leoni and David Duchovny are ready to rock. CBS has acquired the comedy spec Born to Rock from writers Jess
Walter and Mark Steilen, according to The Hollywood Reporter, with the aforementioned married couple and Dan Cortese
attached to produce. The story centers on a group of marginal, aging rock
session players who, because of a mix-up in their demo tape, end up
catching a record executive's attention for a children's song written on a lark, and finding unlikely success as a
Wiggles-type children's band. Nice. I don't even need Will Ferrell and more cowbell — without knowing anything else, give me Leoni, Duchovny, Jason Bateman and William H. Macy, and I'm there.
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| With dozens of people already posting horrified YouTube video reactions to its trailer, George Lopez seems to realize that Beverly Hills Chihuahua represents a certain cultural flashpoint. I asked him about forthcoming animated movie at the Los Angeles press day for Henry Poole Is Here over the weekend, and he seemed to walk the line between good-natured, company-man endorsement and conceding, albeit in coded fashion, that the movie is a flaming trainwreck-in-waiting... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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| Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami takes what at first blush might seem a rather tenuous hypothesis — that the city helped make the man — and makes diverting enough, micro-biographic hay out of it that one doesn't hold the lasting credibility of the thesis (only half run up the flagpole to begin with) too much against it. It is what it so obviously is — merely a lens through which this hour-long PBS title can cast backwards glances, and examine one of the more inherently intriguing cultural figures of the 50 years... |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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Producer Gary Lucchesi, who together with Tom Rosenberg runs Lakeshore Entertainment, had a sour experience with his first foray into the horror genre, in the form of Midnight Meat Train. Distributor Lionsgate dumped the movie on 102 screens, including many discount and dollar theaters, merely to to fulfill the letter of its contractual obligation. At the recent press day for Henry Poole Is Here, I asked him about what happened, from his perspective.
"A disaster — we were completely screwed. It was a nightmare," says Lucchesi. Lionsgate explained their rationale, "but it went from being the highest-testing trailer they ever had, with a different regime, to it being, 'We couldn't figure out television spots.' And then they said it was like this movie Bug that they had made, but at that point it was a different executive team at Lionsgate, and that's the reality. Sometimes... in this business you need advocacy on the marketing and distribution side just as much as you need an advocate when you start making the movie. We have an example here with Overture, who I presume is treating you nicely; they've treated us great. You believe that they're sincere about their affection for the movie, they've worked very hard on the television spots and the trailer. There was thought that went into the poster, there was attention and care given to everything that's going on, they're spending money to try to market it. There's a game plan, and if it works it will be a credit to their tenacity and their steadfastness. That's usually the normal thing, but then there are times when the studio says, 'Hey, we don't get it. We wish we hadn't made the movie.' I mean, they had money in the film, just like we did, and they said, 'We don't want to do horror anymore,' basically. And we hadn't done any horror prior to that. We liked Clive (Barker), he's a great guy. Ryuhei (Kitamura, the director) came in, we hired him, he worked really hard."
Here Lucchesi pauses, and cocks his head slightly to the side for just a moment. "I like staying alive, I enjoy what I do, I enjoy the challenges," he continues. "To make losers makes it harder to make anything, and we make a variety of product. I will tell you that had Midnight Meat Train worked, it would've been easier to make another Henry Poole. That's the reality. Right now, in terms of the future, we're looking at probably doing slightly bigger titles (at Lakeshore). We have Underworld 3, Crank 2, we have The Ugly Truth, which is a comedy with Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler; we're doing Fame, The Lincoln Lawyer — they're bigger titles, they're not as susceptible to the (marketing) challenges of smaller movies. But we did a number of them. That's Hollywood." |
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| Posted by Brent Simon at | | | |
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