Tag: Morgan Freeman (Page 2 of 3)

You want a violent movie trailer? I’ve got two.

June 25, 2010 /

I’m still a bit busy and distracted by various matters including the ongoing Los Angeles Film Fest and last night’s L.A. premiere of “Animal Kingdom,” an ultra-neo-noir Aussie crime drama/suspense film that’s a bit dour for my taste but which boasts some outstanding performances and characterization, and a dynamite third act that my mind is still reeling from. Nevertheless, I’ve got a couple of trailers here that promise some fairly provocative manners of death dealing of the more frivolous and, perhaps, fun variety. We’ll start with the Red Band trailer for “Predators” for the wanton monster bloodshed and destruction you demand and the F-word you expect. H/t Den of Geek.

Via Cinemablend, and on a somewhat higher plane — because how can the sight of Dame Helen Mirren wielding a machine and blowing shit up not be on a very high plane indeed — comes the non-superhero comic book adaptation “RED,” as in “Retired, extremely dangerous.” Yep, it’s the action movie first-wave baby boomers have all been waiting for. It’s also got Morgan Freeman, the beautiful Mary Louise Parker, an excessively MK-Ultra‘d John Malkovich, and some other bald dude from the eighties.

Did you know that a quite young Helen Mirren might have been the first actress to appear nude in a mainstream studio film, 1969’s “Age of Consent,” directed by Michael Powell? I just felt like mentioning that.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Your Premium Hollywood Oscar Live Blog

March 7, 2010 /

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Yes, my friends, the action starts right here, right now, right after the jump.

New comments will go above older remarks, so if you’re reading this later and want to start at the beginning, you’ll scroll down to the end. Got that? Good. Let’s hope for an interesting night and don’t forget to keep refreshing — the page and yourself with the commestibles of your choice.

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Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies, TV

Already seen all of this year’s Oscar-nominated performances? Consider some of the actors’ earlier work.

March 6, 2010 /

Jeff Bridges, “The Last American Hero” (1973): Even though Bridges’ character is named Junior Jackson, this flick does indeed tell the tale of NASCAR driver Junior Johnson. Based on the story of the same name in Tom Wolfe’s essay collection, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, those who go in expecting a straightforward racing story will be impressed by the way the film explores its characters.

Morgan Freeman, “Death of a Prophet” (1981): Everyone remembers Denzel Washington’s titular performance in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” but the man formerly known as Malcolm Little had already been portrayed by several other actors by that point, including James Earl Jones (“The Greatest”), Dick Anthony Williams (“King”), and Al Freeman, Jr. (“Roots: The Next Generations”). For these purposes, however, we’re exploring the TV movie which bore the subtitle “The Last Days of Malcolm X.” In truth, you’ll get a heck of a lot more insight into Malcolm X’s life and times by way of Lee’s film, but you can’t say this isn’t an interesting trip back in time.

Colin Firth, “A Month in the Country” (1987): Based on the novel by J. L. Carr, Firth – who plays Tom Birkin, an artist who has been employed to carry out restoration work on a Medieval mural discovered in a church in Yorkshire – offers the kind of performance that no doubt left those who saw the film wondering for many years why the man hadn’t yet become a household name. Here’s hoping that the film will finally get a proper DVD release one of these days.

George Clooney, “Red Surf” (1990): It’s kind of hard not to make a “Point Break” comparison when you look at this verrrrrrry early Clooney film, wherein he and Doug Savant (Tom Scavo on “Desperate Housewives”) play a couple of surfers with a penchant for crime, but the big difference between the two motion pictures is that most people tend consider “Point Break” to be a cult classic of sorts, whereas “Red Surf” often ranks even below “The Facts of Life” amongst Clooney aficionados. It does have at least one thing going for it, though, and that’s Gene Simmons. If you loved him in “Runaway” and “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” you’ll love his work here, too.

Jeremy Renner, “Dahmer” (2002): There are a lot of better films in Renner’s back catalog, and there are certainly a lot worse (four words: “National Lampoon’s Senior Trip”), but this is one which, while certainly not for all tastes, is better than you might expect. Renner plays Dahmer, and it’s the kind of performance that, had this been a ’70s TV movie, could’ve done for him what “Helter Skelter” did for Steve Railsback. Actually, come to think of it, maybe it’s better than it wasn’t made in the ’70s. (When was the last time you saw Railsback in anything?)

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies

“The Princess and the Frog” to top Clint, Mandela, and that rugby guy

December 10, 2009 /

We technically have only major new release this week.  Clint Eastwood‘s “Invictus” is already scoring with critics and will no doubt do well enough initially based largely on the fact that Eastwood is one of the few directorial names that actually means something to the mass audience some of whom may believe he’s actually in it. The appeal of stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon and the now nearly saintly status of Nelson Mandela won’t hurt either, though the name might throw some off the scent. In any case, not even Mandela, movie stars, or the mighty Clint can compete against a Disney princess.

The Princess and the Frog

“The Princess and the Frog” has been doing dynamite business playing extremely small and special engagements and will be going out to some 3,434 theaters this weekend as opposed to a relatively modest 2,125 for “Invictus.” It’s probably the final rub that “Princess” actually edges out “Invictus” slightly on the Tomatometer, though both films are well short of the Pixar-plus 90% stratosphere in any case.

Anyhow, it’s an interesting pairing and very much in the zeitgeist of Obama’s America. As Roger Ebert points out, this is the first Disney animated film to feature African-American characters since the Disney-banned “Song of the South.” It even features a once unthinkable more or less interracial romance.

Morgan Freeman in “Invictus” is also interesting racially and politically because it deals with the dismantling of apartheid, a system of injustice that many of Clint Eastwood’s fellow Republicans downplayed or minimized during the Reagan and Bush years, while characterizing Nelson Mandela as  a dangerous terrorist, or at least someone who palled around with Yassir Arafat and assorted communists. (That second part was true; what was also true was that those particular communists were mostly anti-apartheid heroes like Joe Slovo.) To his credit, Eastwood has always marched to his own drummer and few avowedly liberal filmmakers have been as thoughtful or sensitive on ethnic matters, so  he may just be the perfect director to bring the topic to the mainstream.

Reviewers seem to agree that “Invictus” is perhaps as much a political drama along the lines of, say, “The Queen,” as it is an inspirational sports film. On the other hand, it is the very model of the kind of film that gets nominated for, and wins, Academy Awards. Seeing as once promising potential awards-contenders — like ex-critical darling Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones,” which got a somewhat conflicted nod from our own David Medsker but  is getting overall mediocre-to-bad reviews as it stumbles into a very limited release this week — are falling by the wayside, Oscar is once again likely to be Clint Eastwood’s best friend at the box office.

As discussed by jolly Carl DiOrio, who dispensed with his video segment this week, “The Princess and the Frog” is thought likely to make roughly $25 million, it’s first weekend as its grosses will be somewhat moderated by the fact that winter vacation hasn’t started yet for most elementary students, while “Invictus” will likely earn in the $12-14 million range. A surprise is possible, but I see not reason to argue with the gods of tracking this weekend.

Actors, External Entertainment, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Late Friday night news dump

November 14, 2009 /

A few more items than usual may be slipping through the cracks this week as my iMac has let me know in no uncertain terms that it’s hard drive is ready to be sent off to the digital happy hunting grounds and has been temporarily mothballed.  In the meantime, I am writing to you now, dear reader, via my trusty, if Vista-laden lap top and minus a few links I’ve been saving up over the last couple of days.

But enough about me and my choice of blogging weapon, what’s going on as Hollywood’s denizens ready for the weekend by hit the bars and/or gyms?

* MGM is officially on the auction block, and the secret word to protect against bankruptcy, writes Sharon Waxman, is “forebearance.”

* I’ve never watched “Nip/Tuck” and I couldn’t get past the first twenty minutes or so of “Fantastic Four,” so Julian McMahon is a new name/face to me. Nevertheless, Heat Vision blog wants us to know that he’s in negotiations alongside Richard Dreyfuss and 92 year-old Ernest Borgnine to join an already very impressive cast on the action-espionage comic book adaptation, “Red,” which includes Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, John C. Reilly, and Mary Louise Parker. Considering whose on board, director Robert Schwentke of “The Time Traveler’s Wife” really needs to step up his game. (H/t CHUD.)

* “Paranormal Activity” has past $100 million in grosses. I think Anne Thompson is correct that there are lessons here for other films. It’s true the movie is a one-off creatively speaking, but the slow roll-out and “by popular demand” tactics can definitely be transferred to all kinds of movies. It’s also silly to argue that the success of the movie was all the result of some kind of wide belief that it was “real.” In general, I’m a proponent of slow releases, except that there’s a problem — it works better with movies that are actually entertaining.

On a different note entirely, be sure to check out Ms. Thompson’s three part video interview with Michael Stuhlberg, the heretofore unknown star of  “A Serious Man.”

*Word has it that Nicolas Cage’s crappy streak appears to be ending in a big way with Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutanent: Port of Call New Orleans” which I’m really starting to looking forward to despite, or perhaps because, I was not a fan of the original film, much as I love Harvey Keitel. Via The Auteurs Daily, Manohla Dargis considers Cage’s career ups and downs. Good stuff, but, well, since Ms. Dargis mentions it, I can’t resist indulging in, well, you know….

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News, Sci-Fi Movies

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