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Archive for the ‘Movie Reviews’ Category
Friday, May 18th, 2007
 By Tom Fitzpatrick
Transamerica was released in 2005 to general critical acclaim. Felicity Huffman is outstanding as Bree, a transgender woman who discovers she has a son from a one night stand nearly twenty years earlier, implied as her only real sexual experience as a male youth. Bree bails her son out of jail and finds an insecure youth, desperate to be re-united with his father and whose mother commited suicide years earlier. Toby has been abused by his stepfather, earned money through prostitution, has a drug problem and is wary of anyone who seeks to help him, as Bree does by coming to his rescue in New York.
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Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
 This Turkish film describes life in a small mountain village, as seen through the eyes of three teenagers. Ömer, the imam’s son, his best friend Yakup and their female friend Yildiz all encounter different hurdles on the way to adulthood. Bes Vakit is a coming of age story with universal appeal: being a teen is an awkward experience, regardless of where you live. The alienation, the loneliness, the miserableness are apparently the same everywhere. (more…)
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Tuesday, May 15th, 2007
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Cinematical Indie  Should a movie review include references to gossip or buzz surrounding the celebrities or filmmakers involved with that movie? That's the issue that the Alliance of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ) is pondering this week on the AWFJ blog. For example, a number of Georgia Rule reviews have included sly mentions of co-star Lindsay Lohan's personal life, or reminders about the rumors about her behavior on the set of that film. AWFJ isn't only considering salacious gossip, though, but also discussing whether references to the late actress/director Adrienne Shelly's life (and death) are appropriate when reviewing Waitress. The film critics and journalists responding on the AWFJ site have a variety of opinions that are well worth reading. Some reviewers note that Waitress may be receiving "softball" reviews because critics have been influenced by their feelings about Shelly's tragic death. The AWFJ members are more divided on whether it's appropriate to mention gossip about Lohan -- some feel that comparisons can be drawn between the actress and the character she plays. I'd argue that even though we are surely affected by rumors or news about a cast or crew member, and that it is impossible to be unbiased, we should at least try to be as fair as we can. Rehashing celebrity gossip seems to decrease the perception of fairness in the eyes of readers -- sometimes it even seems like a cheap shot. So what do you think? Does it bother you to read celebrity gossip, news or buzz in a movie review, or does that add welcome spice and entertainment to the piece? AWFJ doesn't have space for comments on their blog, but Cinematical does ... so feel free to share your thoughts about this issue here. Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Sunday, May 13th, 2007
 Zombie movies are a funny thing. Since their inception at the hands of George A (Zombie God) Romero, the large majority of modern living dead flicks have been predictable takes on a tried and tested formula. The dead rise/a virus is released/a spell is cast, then the plague spreads and soon there’s a mass of slow-moving rotting corpses that the B-list cast must deal with.
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Sunday, May 13th, 2007
 In the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, director of Swedish descent Lasse Hallström, proved he was capable of more than just directing a bunch of ABBA music videos, when he delivered some successful Swedish dramas and the intense What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. His 1999 film, The Cider House Rules, based on a John Irving novel was a decent drama with similar acting performances. However, the film starring Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron and Michael Caine, also set in motion Hallström’s newly found tendency to direct tame and prudent dramas, usually based on novels akin. His An Unfinished Life was kept on the shelves for over two years (usually the best thing to do with a film starring J-Lo anyway) and Hallströms previous endeavour, Casanova, was just not enticing and funny enough to really enthral an audience. (more…)
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Sunday, May 13th, 2007
 Spider-Man 3, which shattered box office records last weekend with over $150 million in weekend sales over three days, almost broke another, far-less-honorable box office record this weekend: the biggest drop-off of any blockbuster. The other two Spider-Man films have been especially good with weekend holdover, but both those films had excellent word-of-mouth and repeat viewing capabilities. Spider-Man 3, which a sluggish pace and a mess of a screenplay, does not have the luxury of the same glowing reviews and the potential for fan boys to run back to the theater to watch it a second or third time.
Spider-Man 3 made $60 million over the weekend, a great take for most films. Just not the Spider-Man franchise. From $150 to $60 million is a 60% drop, a nasty number by anyone's imagination. It beat out previous weekend box office record holder Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (54%) and luckily for it avoided the crushing defeat another Marvel master franchise took at the hands of X-Men United, which fell 67% in its second weekend after an amazing opening.
So we are starting to see a trend here... Studios have long ignored critical demands for good films during the summer months, but with openings getting bigger and bigger, blockbusters are getting more and more front loaded. If a studio can make $150 million in a weekend based on marketing efforts alone, then there's no need to make a good movie, right? WRONG! Had Spider-Man 3 been as good as Spider-Man 2, we'd probably be looking at $20 million more in the bank right now for the film, on the weekend alone - not to mention the day-by-day numbers during the week. The fumbling of Spider-Man 3 will cost its studio and Marvel tens of millions of dollars, which is a lot of zeros that add up quickly.
And looking at the previously mentioned films in this article, neither X-Men United nor Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were especially good (though sadly I must say X-Men United was the most entertaining of the three). Had X-Men United been as good of a film as X-Men 2, it wouldn't have suffered bad word-of-mouth and bad reviews. Dead Man's Chest was just the same.
Bottom line: In the summer, movie reviews may not matter much on opening weekend, but all of those people who didn't want to see the movie enough to see the film on opening weekend are listening, both to movie reviews and, more importantly, word-of-mouth. Studios, get a clue!
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Friday, May 11th, 2007
 The sequel to the widely successful indie horror film 28 Days Later… could have been written off as a sequel in name only. Anyone expecting anybody to return from the first film might be slightly disappointed. Given what happens in the follow up, maybe it’s a good thing the characters from the previous film didn’t show up. It’s not that Weeks is a bad film, it isn’t. But rest assured, the onscreen body count is upped, the blood spits out more, neighborhoods get gassed, streets are set on fire and many characters come to bad ends. (more…)
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Thursday, May 10th, 2007
 Breaking box-office and hype records everywhere, the third outing of Peter Parker and his gang of flawed super-villains has finally arrived. But it hasn’t so much arrived with a bang as it has a small, controlled explosion.
We find Peter (Tobey Maguire) and Mary-Jane (Kirsten Dunst) where the last film left off; happy and annoying. But soon MJ hits career-trouble and she becomes even more of a whiney, irritating twat. Peeved that her hero boyfriend is too busy saving people’s lives to be extra nice to her, the two drift apart. With the help of an alien symbiote, Peter finds his darkside and goes all… dark. Meanwhile, he has to contend with his vengeful best friend (James Franco), his uncle’s sandy murderer (Thomas Haden Church) and a rival photographer (Topher Grace).
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Monday, May 7th, 2007
Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, James Franco, Theresa Russell
Directed by: Sam Raimi
Produced by: Stan Lee, Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr, Joseph M. Caracciolo Jr
Written By: Alvin Sargent
Distributor: Sony Pictures Releasing
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sequences of intense action violence.
Release Date: May 4th, 2007
This movie may not have been as good as the other two Spiderman movies, but it is still a great movie. It is worthy of the title.
The continuing humanization of the Peter Parker/Spiderman character is what makes this movie great. You can relate to this character! Any man who has been in a long-term relationship and who has made the mistake of talking about himself when his wife or girlfriend just needs to be listened to can understand Tobey Maguire’s character. Parker does a good job at ticking off Mary Jane and Maguire does a good job of portraying an arrogant jerk.
The acting wasn’t flawless, of course. When Parker is going through the attitude adjustments caused by the parasite, the viewer is subjected to some “hamming-up” done by Maguire. The whole remake of the Travolta “Saturday Night Fever” strut was pretty damn funny.
But for the few problems, this film does not disappoint. As usual the effects were awesome and they alone make the movie worth seeing.
My think that they just tied to squeeze too much into this movie. You simply can’t do it all.
Those people who get upset because the movie doesn’t follow the comic book’s mythology point by point should just get over it. It follows it close enough, and they need to realize that squeezing several decades of comic book and newspaper story lines into two hours is not an easy task.
Detach yourself from your preconceptions and just enjoy the movie!!!
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Monday, May 7th, 2007
Spider-Man caught just about everyone in his web. The superhero’s latest adventure, “Spider-Man 3,” smashed box-office records with $148 million in its first three days, according to studio estimates Sunday.
That put it ahead of the previous record debut of $135.6 million set last summer by “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”
With $59.3 million on opening day Friday, Sony’s “Spider-Man 3” broke the single-day box-office record, also held by “Dead Man’s Chest” with $55.8 million in its first day.
Since it began rolling out overseas on Tuesday, “Spider-Man 3” has taken in $227 million in foreign markets, bringing the film’s worldwide total to $375 million. In just days, the movie has grossed $117 million more than its whopping $258 million production budget.
In just two days, it also nearly matched the $114.8 million opening weekend of 2002’s “Spider-Man,” which had held the debut record until “Dead Man’s Chest” opened.
“Spider-Man 3” reunites director Sam Raimi, who also made the previous two installments, and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
“Sam Raimi is a genius,” said Amy Pascal, Sony Pictures co-chairman. “I could have never envisioned this. What I was hoping was we would just break the `Spider-Man 1′ record. This is beyond my wildest dream.”
The overall box office soared from “Spider-Man 3,” with the top-12 movies taking in $176.6 million, up 77 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when “Mission: Impossible III” opened with $47.7 million.
“Spider-Man 3” outdid that movie by $100 million and grossed more in each of its first two days than “Mission: Impossible III” did over the full weekend.
Also among the records smashed by “Spider-Man 3” was a $4.8 million domestic gross at huge-screen IMAX theaters, topping the previous best of $3.6 million set by “300” in March.
Playing in a record 4,252 locations domestically, “Spider-Man 3” averaged a whopping $34,807 a theater.
Domestically, “Spider-Man 3” could enter its second weekend Friday with $200 million already in the bank. The film has the market largely to itself for the next week and a half, with no major competition arriving until DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek the Third” arrives May 18.
With “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” and an onslaught of other potential blockbusters following, studio executives predict this could be a record summer for modern Hollywood.
“Spider-Man 3” packed in enormous crowds that were captive audiences viewing trailers for those upcoming flicks.
“If you could imagine the best kickoff to what could be the biggest summer of all time, this is the scenario,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “This will have a ripple effect on audiences exposed to the marketing for all the other summer films.”
The gap between “Spider-Man 3” and the No. 2 movie DreamWorks and Paramount’s “Disturbia” at $5.7 million was larger than any other movie’s debut.
“Lucky You” from Warner Bros., bombed with $2.5 million to come in at No. 6.
Directed by Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”), “Lucky You” stars Drew Barrymore as a budding Las Vegas singer, Eric Bana as skilled gambler and Robert Duvall as his estranged father in a tale set against the World Series of Poker.
Two critically acclaimed films opened well in limited release.
Fox Searchlight’s “Waitress,” starring Keri Russell as a small-town woman whose flavorful pies are named after the hard knocks in her messy personal life, debuted with $91,470 in four theaters. “Waitress” was written and directed by co-star Adrienne Shelly, who was slain in her Manhattan apartment last fall.
Lionsgate’s “Away From Her,” the directing debut of actress Sarah Polley, premiered with $56,000 in four theaters. “Away From Her” stars Julie Christie as a woman losing her memory from Alzheimer’s and Gordon Pinsent as the devoted husband agonizing over her loss.
Both films expand to more theaters throughout May.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
- “Spider-Man 3,” $148 million.
- “Disturbia,” $5.7 million.
- “Fracture,” $3.4 million.
- “The Invisible,” $3.1 million.
- “Next,” $2.8 million.
- “Lucky You,” $2.5 million.
- “Meet the Robinsons,” $2.46 million.
- “Blades of Glory,” $2.3 million.
- “Hot Fuzz,” $2.1 million.
- “Are We Done Yet?“, $1.7 million.
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