Category: External Movies (Page 321 of 336)

Oscar Round Up: The Winners

February 26, 2007 /

The 79th Annual Academy Awards have come and gone, and while many believed that the show would be a pretty lackluster affair, it was filled with its share of welcome surprises and disappointing upsets just like any year. Award hogs Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker completed their sweeps with gold statues for their performances in “The Queen” and “The Last King of Scotland,” respectively, while Jennifer Hudson beat out the most deserving Rinko Kikuchi for her Best Supporting Actress performance in “Dreamgirls.” The more I think about that race, the more unfair it seems that Hudson won simply for singing, but I digress. The last of the four acting races, Best Supporting Actor, chalked up the first surprise of the night when Alan Arkin stole the award away from frontrunner Eddie Murphy. Again, this is one that Murphy should have had in the bag, but most likely lost in the end because he has no friends in Hollywood.

The rest of the night was pretty lame. “Children’s of Men” was shut out of every category it was nominated in, “Pan’s Labyrinth” managed to win three awards against much bigger films but failed in taking home the one that mattered (Best Foreign Language Film), and “The Departed” kicked the competition’s ass by winning in four of the five categories it was nominated in (sorry, Marky Mark).

Still, it was nice to see Marty finally get his Oscar, as well as a film like “The Departed” win for Best Picture. And while we’re on the topic: what the hell is going on with Jack Nicholson’s bald head? He looks horrendous.

The list of nominees are below, with the winners in bold.

Best Picture
“Babel”
“The Departed”
“Letters from Iwo Jima”
“Little Miss Sunshine”
“The Queen”

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”
Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”
Peter O’Toole, “Venus”
Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”

Best Actress
Penelope Cruz, “Volver”
Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”
Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”
Kate Winslet, “Little Children”

Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jackie Earle Haley, “Little Children”
Djimon Hounsou, “Blood Diamond”
Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”
Mark Walhberg, “The Departed”

Best Supporting Actress
Abigail Breslin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”
Adriana Barraza, “Babel”
Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”

Best Director
“Babel” (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
“The Departed” (Martin Scorsese)
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Clint Eastwood)
“The Queen” (Stephen Frears)
“United 93” (Paul Greengrass)

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External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies

Box Office Roundup: Movie goers’ taste in mouth, mouth only

February 26, 2007 /

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

1) Ghost Rider: $19.7 million, $78.6 million to date (owner: Will Harris, What’s All This, Then?)
Suddenly, the idea of James Cameron making an “Aquaman” movie doesn’t seem so strange after all. Scary, yes, but not strange.
2) The Number 23: $15.1 million (Deb Medsker, Punch and Pie Pictures)
Let’s see, $15.1 million, which means 1+5+1 equals 23 New Line employees getting their asses handed to them Monday morning.
3) Bridge to Terabithia: $13.5 million, $46.2 million to date (Bill Clark, Norbit Will Tank)
In an unrelated story, Dakota Fanning was seen walking into a movie theater with a bazooka.
4) Reno 911: Miami: $10.4 million (Jason Zingale, Seven Strangers Pictures)
Heh heh, they made a joke about a blowhole. Who doesn’t love blowholes?
5) Norbit: $9.7 million, $74.6 million to date (owner: David Medsker, Republicans for Voldemort)
All right, now I’ll admit it: I’m ashamed that this movie is making my studio so much money.
9) The Astronaut Farmer: $4.5 million (owner: Kristin Dreyer Kramer, Nights and Weekends)
It’s only a matter of time before the PG rating system just disappears altogether in a haze of who-the-hell-cares. Sad.

This week: David Fincher’s shockingly low-key “Zodiac” finally makes it debut, while William H. Macy foregoes 15 years of street cred to make a movie with Tim Allen, John Travolta and Martin Lawrence (“Wild Hogs”).

External Movies, Movies, News

A belated discussion about “An American Haunting” on DVD

February 23, 2007 /

My wife’s a bigger horror film fan than I am, so when I get in a flick from that particular genre in to review, she’s been known to go watch the DVD before I get around to it. In the case of “An American Haunting,” she started watching it…but she said that it started to get so scary that she decided she wanted to stop watching it until I could watch it with her.

Fair enough…except that I kept setting it aside, we both got busy, and, basically, we forgot about it…until this week.

So we finally watched it, and, yes, the film does have some scary moments. It doesn’t necessary scale the heights of horror greatness throughout its 90 minutes – when your film’s about a relatively young girl who’s haunted by a mysterious spirit, it’s hard to get past the inevitable similarities to “The Exorcist” – but it’s an enjoyable enough, good-looking horror flick, made more interesting by the fact that it’s a period piece (it takes place during the 1800s) and aided immeasurably by a solid cast that’s top-lined by Donald Sutherland and Sissy Spacek. Unfortunately, what’s painted as a ghost story throughout the majority of its run time suddenly changes gears dramatically at the end…and while I’m not looking to give it away, I’m guessing the conclusion will have you reacting in the same way my wife and I did: by asking, “Are you kidding me…?”

But, then, as a critic, my opinion doesn’t count for much, apparently (even though, mind you, it’s precisely the same as my wife, who isn’t a critic), based on a rant by the film’s writer / director, Courtney Solomon, on the DVD.

Solomon opts out of doing a proper commentary; he starts off doing an in-screen video commentary, but he quickly gets bored and, instead, decides to hop in his car and drive around to the various places involved in the film’s creation. After talking about all the online promotion done for the film and how it helped its box office peformance immeasurably, he starts talking about critics; he understands why they have to exist but that he doesn’t have to read what they have to say, that a director needs to know when he himself is happy with his work and not change it based on the opinions of others. Fair enough…but, then, he starts into an attack on the entire profession of film criticism that’s like a snowball rolling down a hill, growing in vicious intensity with each passing moment.

Dare you read the transcription?

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External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movies, Reviews

Box Office Roundup: Nicolas Cage’s soul fetches $11 more than Eddie Murphy’s

February 18, 2007 /

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

1) Ghost Rider: $44.5 million (owner: Will Harris, What’s All This, Then?)
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the steal of the first round. Taken with the ninth pick of the draft (two spots after this week’s fifth place finisher), Nicolas Cage shows that his ham still has some legs. Wow, was that a bad joke. Oh well, the movie didn’t deserve a better one.
2) Bridge to Terabithia: $22.1 million (Bill Clark, Norbit Will Tank)
Disney didn’t even screen this one for critics (well, they screened it for Cincinnati, but Columbus was skipped), and they still took home a very handsome sum of money. The news surely bodes well for Nights and Weekends, who took “Meet the Robinsons” with the first pick overall.
3) Norbit: $16.8 million, $58.8 million to date (owner: David Medsker, Republicans for Voldemort)
A 51% drop-off from last week, meaning that every other person who saw this movie on opening weekend told someone they should see it. Hey, check out the oceans! Are they turning red?
4) Music & Lyrics: $14 million, $19.5 million to date (Mark Pfeiffer, Reel Times)
Gosh, are the ‘80s over…again?
5) Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls: $12.1 million, $17.8 million to date (Kevin Carr, But I Liked Lady in the Water)
No fat suit, no cash cow.
6) Breach: $10.3 million (Deb Medsker, Punch and Pie Pictures)
Hey, Chris Cooper’s back! What do you mean, who?
7) Hannibal Rising: $5.4 million, $22.1 million to date (owner: Kristin Dreyer Kramer, Nights and Weekends)
To give you some perspective on just how spectacular a fall this is for the “Hannibal” franchise, the 2001 sequel “Hannibal” made $58 million its opening weekend. This “Hannibal” won’t come within sniffing distance of that in its entire run. In other news, sales of Chianti have plummeted.

This week: Another super-crowded weekend, led by Jim Carrey’s the-numbers-are-evil thriller “The Number 23,” Billy Bob Thornton’s “The Astronaut Farmer,” “Reno 911!: Miami” and “Amazing Grace, which we couldn’t tell you a thing about.

Action Movies, External Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Hyperbole ahoy!

February 14, 2007 /

Not that we didn’t expect anyone and everyone to try and make a quick buck from Anna Nicole Smith’s death, but we really figured that most people would keep things in perspective when hyping their product…but MTI Video, who will be releasing Smith’s last film – “Illegal Aliens” – on DVD in May, apparently have no such intentions.

John James, the film’s executive producer, has declared it the Abbey Road of films for Anna Nicole fans,” adding that while, “at first look, ‘Illegal Aliens’ appears to be just another low budget sci-fi comedy poking fun at Hollywood’s big-budget flicks, now, with the passing of its star, you’ll find it replete with metaphors of her life.”

Oh, I bet. You can totally see them in the trailer…particularly when Anna Nicole offers the poignant query, “Why’s my poopy hole sore?”

Actresses, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie DVDs, Movies, News

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