Sunday, May 31, 2009
PIRANHA 3D
Dimension Films is pleased to confirm that Jessica Szohr – best know for her role on “Gossip Girl” – has joined (previously announced) cast members Elisabeth Shue, Richard Dreyfuss, Ving Rhames, Adam Scott and Dina Meyer in the upcoming film PIRANHA 3D and
EW.com breaks the news that Jerry O’Connell has joined the cast.
EW.com breaks the news that Jerry O’Connell has joined the cast.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
STAR TREK STAFF REVIEW
WARNING: THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS!
Do you ever wonder what the MOVEMENT crew does in our offices all day? We e-mail each other our scathing or rapturous opinions and debate about the latest and greatest dorkiest things. So to solidify our righteous place in the hall of greekdom I decided to publish, with his permission, the e-mail back and forth between MOVEMENT senior staff writer Craig Harvey and my self, publisher Max Michaels about the new STAR TREK film.
CRAIG: "The really sad thing was I wanted soooo much to like this film. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The script was WEAK. I am really tired of time travel in movies. It messes up the continuity with stuff like this. The villain was LAME. Ok, here I am some guy named Nero with tribal tattoo's and an eerie starship that looks like something out of Babylon 5 (the Shadows) and when he came through the BH and did battle with the Kelvin, apparently had to wait 20 years for Spock to come through due to some strange relativistic time effect. So what did they do for 20 years ?!? Play chess and get to know each other better? You can't tell me that no one else tried looking for this immense giant ship lurking around the galaxy, unless they went into hibernation or some crap. I mean the Kelvin reported it and nobody came and looked for it? There was also some really dumb science fiction like Spock creates a black hole that pulls Nero's ship and his through into the past... Hello! Black holes destroy things. (See what it did to Vulcan) How would they survive it? Because at the end of the film, Nero's ship gets destroyed being pulled in. WTF? Dumb. If it had been a wormhole that would have been more logical. Also, if the Enterprise couldn't escape the black hole's gravity at the end, then exploding the warp core would have done nothing either, the energy released would have been sucked into the black hole with the Enterprise in tow. Oh, and transporting someone across light-years of space into a Star Ship at warp speed?? Come on. That pushes even my sense of disbelief. However, I did like Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Those characters were really dead on. The effects were great. Some of the back story was very cool."
MAX: "The plot def leaves a lot to be desired. A LOT ... ok .... it leaves everything to be desired ... like a another plot all together. Its really nothing new for STAR TREK. It reminded me of NEMESIS and FIRST CONTACT combined. Really predictable and typical for the franchise. But the characters were SO well done. Simon Pegg stole the show as Scotty. And Bones was the best! Spocks back history ... that was the real point of the movie and I think JJ did a great job where it most need to be done. And compared side by side to every Star Trek before, its the best of the bunch behind WRATH."
CRAIG: "Yes, Bones was definitely great. However, stuff like dropping Kirk off on an ice planet, where Spock just happens to be marooned and Scotty just happens to be there on a starbase. Give me a break! Yes, I know they needed Kirk running from the giant CGI monsters and be saved by future Spock, which is really dumb as the likelihood of him being there was a gazillion to one, but young Spock would have confined Kirk to the brig, not dropped out of warp and eject him off the ship in an escape pod. I did like the first half of the film, but the second really was disappointing. I wish they had tried to re-create the old look of the Enterprise (the bridge looked like the inside of an Apple store, all white, bright and shiny. Ugh!) and just done a classic film with the new actors and a better story."
MAX: "OK, more likely Scotty would have been on that planet then Spock, but since there is time travel involved, perhaps future Spock knew the planet that Kirk would have fallen on because his past self had already done it ... and .... yeah ... um ... of course its totally preposterous! Everything about STAR TREK is impossible or improbable, but its still damn cool. Ever since Flash Gordon rocketed through space, propelled by what appears to be a 4th of July Sparkler, space adventures have depended on us to suspend our cynicism and get lost in the enjoyment of a band of dashing heroes, cool space battles, and sexy aliens. I need to go to the movies sometimes just for the mindless escape and with this film I think we can agree it delivers just that."
And Craig gets the last word...
CRAIG: "True, the Scotty thing is very logical. But, Spock couldn't have known, because it never really happened in the original timeline. By going back, things changed. I hate time travel crap. Just give me a good hard sci-fi film, with ships, battles, a good plot and cool characters then it would have been great. Time travel screws everything up. Star Trek originally came up with plausible and theoretical science ideas that have inspired real scientists to work on the idea of future possibilities. Ie: Warp Drive, etc.... But now some idiot throws out stupid ideas cause they sound neat. They even had Nasa advisors on planetary science and imagery, but they missed all this other stuff??? Oh, and that ship Spock came in sounded and looked like something out of the latest Star Wars trilogy. Like some sort of flying bug. WTF? So yes, I know this is science fiction (but it's not Star Wars where anything goes) and most people will overlook these issues for a fun, escapist ride but I expected more from JJ Abrams."
STAR TREK in Theaters May 8th 2009
Do you ever wonder what the MOVEMENT crew does in our offices all day? We e-mail each other our scathing or rapturous opinions and debate about the latest and greatest dorkiest things. So to solidify our righteous place in the hall of greekdom I decided to publish, with his permission, the e-mail back and forth between MOVEMENT senior staff writer Craig Harvey and my self, publisher Max Michaels about the new STAR TREK film.
CRAIG: "The really sad thing was I wanted soooo much to like this film. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The script was WEAK. I am really tired of time travel in movies. It messes up the continuity with stuff like this. The villain was LAME. Ok, here I am some guy named Nero with tribal tattoo's and an eerie starship that looks like something out of Babylon 5 (the Shadows) and when he came through the BH and did battle with the Kelvin, apparently had to wait 20 years for Spock to come through due to some strange relativistic time effect. So what did they do for 20 years ?!? Play chess and get to know each other better? You can't tell me that no one else tried looking for this immense giant ship lurking around the galaxy, unless they went into hibernation or some crap. I mean the Kelvin reported it and nobody came and looked for it? There was also some really dumb science fiction like Spock creates a black hole that pulls Nero's ship and his through into the past... Hello! Black holes destroy things. (See what it did to Vulcan) How would they survive it? Because at the end of the film, Nero's ship gets destroyed being pulled in. WTF? Dumb. If it had been a wormhole that would have been more logical. Also, if the Enterprise couldn't escape the black hole's gravity at the end, then exploding the warp core would have done nothing either, the energy released would have been sucked into the black hole with the Enterprise in tow. Oh, and transporting someone across light-years of space into a Star Ship at warp speed?? Come on. That pushes even my sense of disbelief. However, I did like Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Those characters were really dead on. The effects were great. Some of the back story was very cool."
MAX: "The plot def leaves a lot to be desired. A LOT ... ok .... it leaves everything to be desired ... like a another plot all together. Its really nothing new for STAR TREK. It reminded me of NEMESIS and FIRST CONTACT combined. Really predictable and typical for the franchise. But the characters were SO well done. Simon Pegg stole the show as Scotty. And Bones was the best! Spocks back history ... that was the real point of the movie and I think JJ did a great job where it most need to be done. And compared side by side to every Star Trek before, its the best of the bunch behind WRATH."
CRAIG: "Yes, Bones was definitely great. However, stuff like dropping Kirk off on an ice planet, where Spock just happens to be marooned and Scotty just happens to be there on a starbase. Give me a break! Yes, I know they needed Kirk running from the giant CGI monsters and be saved by future Spock, which is really dumb as the likelihood of him being there was a gazillion to one, but young Spock would have confined Kirk to the brig, not dropped out of warp and eject him off the ship in an escape pod. I did like the first half of the film, but the second really was disappointing. I wish they had tried to re-create the old look of the Enterprise (the bridge looked like the inside of an Apple store, all white, bright and shiny. Ugh!) and just done a classic film with the new actors and a better story."
MAX: "OK, more likely Scotty would have been on that planet then Spock, but since there is time travel involved, perhaps future Spock knew the planet that Kirk would have fallen on because his past self had already done it ... and .... yeah ... um ... of course its totally preposterous! Everything about STAR TREK is impossible or improbable, but its still damn cool. Ever since Flash Gordon rocketed through space, propelled by what appears to be a 4th of July Sparkler, space adventures have depended on us to suspend our cynicism and get lost in the enjoyment of a band of dashing heroes, cool space battles, and sexy aliens. I need to go to the movies sometimes just for the mindless escape and with this film I think we can agree it delivers just that."
And Craig gets the last word...
CRAIG: "True, the Scotty thing is very logical. But, Spock couldn't have known, because it never really happened in the original timeline. By going back, things changed. I hate time travel crap. Just give me a good hard sci-fi film, with ships, battles, a good plot and cool characters then it would have been great. Time travel screws everything up. Star Trek originally came up with plausible and theoretical science ideas that have inspired real scientists to work on the idea of future possibilities. Ie: Warp Drive, etc.... But now some idiot throws out stupid ideas cause they sound neat. They even had Nasa advisors on planetary science and imagery, but they missed all this other stuff??? Oh, and that ship Spock came in sounded and looked like something out of the latest Star Wars trilogy. Like some sort of flying bug. WTF? So yes, I know this is science fiction (but it's not Star Wars where anything goes) and most people will overlook these issues for a fun, escapist ride but I expected more from JJ Abrams."
STAR TREK in Theaters May 8th 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
DISNEY JOINS FORCES WITH THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
TO PLANT 2.7 MILLION TREES IN CONJUNCTION
WITH FIRST WEEK TICKET SALES FOR
DISNEYNATURE’S DEBUT FEATURE, “EARTH”
Burbank, Calif. – April 29, 2009 -- Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has arranged with The Nature Conservancy to plant 2.7 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered rainforests, it was announced by Dick Cook, chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. In keeping with the Disneynature EARTH’s themes of protecting the planet and its wildlife, Walt Disney Studios volunteered to plant a tree in honor of every moviegoer who saw the film during its first week of release. The motion picture grossed an impressive $16.1 million at the box office during week one and broke an opening day record as well as an opening weekend record for a nature documentary. The film also garnered the highest praise from critics and moviegoers alike.
Through its campaign to Plant a Billion Trees (www.plantabillion.org), The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading international conservation organizations and its local partners are working to reforest 2.5 million acres of land and re-connect more than 12 million acres in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered and ecologically significant rainforests. This restoration effort will allow hundreds of plants and animals to re-colonize their former habitats and will protect vital watersheds.
Commenting on the announcement, Cook said, “We’re proud to be working with The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s most effective conservation organizations, in planting trees in the endangered Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Through the Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, we have an opportunity to honor those who supported ‘EARTH’ by making a tangible and lasting contribution to conserving globally-significant wildlife habitat. Our goal with Disneynature is to entertain and inform moviegoers about the wonders of our planet, and encourage them to learn more about what they can do to conserve nature.”
“Disney has created a spectacular portrait of our planet with Disneynature’s ‘EARTH’ and demonstrated their commitment to the planet by supporting our ambitious, large-scale reforestation effort to restore and preserve the magnificent Atlantic Forest,” said Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “We applaud Disney for their contribution to our effort to plant and restore one billion trees by 2015 in the Atlantic Forest, a global conservation priority area of rich biodiversity.”
Beth Stevens, senior vice president, Environmental Affairs, The Walt Disney Company, added, “We are thrilled that through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund that we were able to expand a long relationship between Disney and The Nature Conservancy. The fund was established to support the study and protection of the world’s wildlife and ecosystems, and ‘EARTH’ presented the perfect opportunity to give back to our planet in this tremendous way.”
Where the Atlantic Forest survives, it presents some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. The region is home to more than 200 bird species and 60 percent of all Brazil’s endangered species. And, on fewer than two and a half acres, scientists have identified more than 450 tree species – more species than are found on the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. The forest also is important because it is the source of clean drinking water for 120 million people. Today, however, only 7 percent of the original Atlantic Forest remains in well-preserved but isolated fragments. The Nature Conservancy’s initiative in the Atlantic Forest contributes to the global effort by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant at least one billion trees worldwide each year, with a cumulative goal for 2009 of planting 7 billion trees worldwide.
Narrated by James Earl Jones, “EARTH” tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journeys across the planet we call home. “EARTH” combines rare action, unimaginable scale and impossible locations by capturing the most intimate moments of our planet’s wildest and most elusive creatures. Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award®-winning “Planet Earth,” combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen.
About Disneynature
Disneynature, the first new Disney-branded film label from The Walt Disney Studios in over 60 years, was launched in April 2008 to bring the world’s top nature filmmakers together to share a wide variety of wildlife subjects and stories with theatrical audiences. Earth, the first film to premiere domestically under the new label on Earth Day 2009, garnered a record-breaking opening weekend for a nature documentary. Walt Disney was a pioneer in wildlife documentary filmmaking, producing 13 True-Life Adventure motion pictures between 1949 and 1960, winning 8 Academy Awards (R). For more information about Disneynature, go to: www.disney.com/nature
About The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy at: www.nature.org
WITH FIRST WEEK TICKET SALES FOR
DISNEYNATURE’S DEBUT FEATURE, “EARTH”
Burbank, Calif. – April 29, 2009 -- Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures has arranged with The Nature Conservancy to plant 2.7 million trees in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered rainforests, it was announced by Dick Cook, chairman, The Walt Disney Studios. In keeping with the Disneynature EARTH’s themes of protecting the planet and its wildlife, Walt Disney Studios volunteered to plant a tree in honor of every moviegoer who saw the film during its first week of release. The motion picture grossed an impressive $16.1 million at the box office during week one and broke an opening day record as well as an opening weekend record for a nature documentary. The film also garnered the highest praise from critics and moviegoers alike.
Through its campaign to Plant a Billion Trees (www.plantabillion.org), The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s leading international conservation organizations and its local partners are working to reforest 2.5 million acres of land and re-connect more than 12 million acres in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the planet’s most endangered and ecologically significant rainforests. This restoration effort will allow hundreds of plants and animals to re-colonize their former habitats and will protect vital watersheds.
Commenting on the announcement, Cook said, “We’re proud to be working with The Nature Conservancy, one of the world’s most effective conservation organizations, in planting trees in the endangered Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Through the Conservancy’s Plant a Billion Trees campaign, we have an opportunity to honor those who supported ‘EARTH’ by making a tangible and lasting contribution to conserving globally-significant wildlife habitat. Our goal with Disneynature is to entertain and inform moviegoers about the wonders of our planet, and encourage them to learn more about what they can do to conserve nature.”
“Disney has created a spectacular portrait of our planet with Disneynature’s ‘EARTH’ and demonstrated their commitment to the planet by supporting our ambitious, large-scale reforestation effort to restore and preserve the magnificent Atlantic Forest,” said Mark Tercek, President and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “We applaud Disney for their contribution to our effort to plant and restore one billion trees by 2015 in the Atlantic Forest, a global conservation priority area of rich biodiversity.”
Beth Stevens, senior vice president, Environmental Affairs, The Walt Disney Company, added, “We are thrilled that through the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund that we were able to expand a long relationship between Disney and The Nature Conservancy. The fund was established to support the study and protection of the world’s wildlife and ecosystems, and ‘EARTH’ presented the perfect opportunity to give back to our planet in this tremendous way.”
Where the Atlantic Forest survives, it presents some of the most spectacular landscapes on Earth. The region is home to more than 200 bird species and 60 percent of all Brazil’s endangered species. And, on fewer than two and a half acres, scientists have identified more than 450 tree species – more species than are found on the entire eastern seaboard of the United States. The forest also is important because it is the source of clean drinking water for 120 million people. Today, however, only 7 percent of the original Atlantic Forest remains in well-preserved but isolated fragments. The Nature Conservancy’s initiative in the Atlantic Forest contributes to the global effort by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to plant at least one billion trees worldwide each year, with a cumulative goal for 2009 of planting 7 billion trees worldwide.
Narrated by James Earl Jones, “EARTH” tells the remarkable story of three animal families and their amazing journeys across the planet we call home. “EARTH” combines rare action, unimaginable scale and impossible locations by capturing the most intimate moments of our planet’s wildest and most elusive creatures. Directors Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the acclaimed creative team behind the Emmy Award®-winning “Planet Earth,” combine forces again to bring this epic adventure to the big screen.
About Disneynature
Disneynature, the first new Disney-branded film label from The Walt Disney Studios in over 60 years, was launched in April 2008 to bring the world’s top nature filmmakers together to share a wide variety of wildlife subjects and stories with theatrical audiences. Earth, the first film to premiere domestically under the new label on Earth Day 2009, garnered a record-breaking opening weekend for a nature documentary. Walt Disney was a pioneer in wildlife documentary filmmaking, producing 13 True-Life Adventure motion pictures between 1949 and 1960, winning 8 Academy Awards (R). For more information about Disneynature, go to: www.disney.com/nature
About The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Conservancy and its more than 1 million members have protected nearly 120 million acres worldwide. Visit The Nature Conservancy at: www.nature.org
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Rob Zombie's H2 trailer!
H2 trailer has premiered exclusively on Yahoo! Movies.
Yahoo! Movies - http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810061258/video/13140292
Yahoo! Movies - http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810061258/video/13140292
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Watchmen
Directed by Zack Snyder
Screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse
Review by Dave Conkey
The graphic novel they said could never be properly adapted for film has finally made its way to the big screen. After years in limbo, bouncing back and forth between different writers and directors, including Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 12 Monkeys, Brothers Grimm) and Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain), the Watchmen finally landed in the lap of everyone's favorite fanboy adaptation movie maker, Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300.)
Where other creative teams endeavored to tweak and adjust and overhaul the story of a paranoid, dystopian 1985 America -- where Nixon is in his fifth term, dealing with a Cold War on the brink of nuclear eruption, and superheroes, or Masks, as they tend to call themselves, are outlawed -- to fit today's sensibilities and try to make it feel more relevant, Snyder looked at the job as a tribute. This is where Watchmen reaches its greatest heights, which I assure you are quite spectacularly high, and its biggest snares, which are wicked violent bear traps you wish you had noticed instead of stumbling into while marveling over the scene that came five seconds before it.
The same can be said of Snyder's overall directing style and David Hayter and Alex Tse's screenplay. The action is Snyder right out of 300, whose beautiful slow-mo fight scenes can feel strangely out of place and even in a little stuffy in the gritty New York City a fair chunk of Watchmen takes place in. Don't get me wrong, some of the scenes are positively exhilarating, leaving you begging for more, more, more! And then you actually get it and it just falls flat, picking up again two scenes later with another piece of fantastic violence or some beautifully detailed set piece that feels like it was torn straight from one of Dave Gibbon's panels. The screenplay comes off pretty much the same way, with most of the best bits pulled verbatim from Alan Moore's pages, as well as some of the most awkward. (Rorschach's journal, anyone?)
As far as the actual characters go, if you don't actually know anything about them or their stories going in, you may have something of a hard time growing to care. And it's not as if they didn't have enough time to let the viewer develop a rapport with the characters, they just didn't really take the time to, in the majority. Dr. Manhattan's (Billy Crudup) origin story/time-trip is one of the most appealing, beautiful, and well-written sequences in the entire film, while at the other end of the spectrum, the Comedian's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) menagerie of back-story flashbacks bogged down the first hour of the film without really making you care that much about him. One of the strongest performances comes in the form of Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), but we still never really get any feel for where he came from, leaving the uninitiated to assume he was just an uneducated kid who grew up to brutalize baddies in a funny mask, which, ironically, he's not even wearing for his best sequence. Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) and Night Owl II (Patrick Wilson) take up a ton of screen time, but the viewer never really learns enough about them to be truly invested in their outcomes. Although you can't help but to root for the slightly dumpy Night Owl when it looks like something may happen between him and the Silk Spectre. And Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) almost feels like he was in there as an afterthought, barely contributing anything to the movie, while being one of the most important figures in the overall story.
The story itself, with its uneven pacing and shuffled time frames which don't translate as well as one would hope from page to screen, sometimes comes across as convoluted and bloated. The time is never really taken to explore what was originally a deep, twisted, well-orchestrated journey into paranoid madness, ends up feeling a little like an excuse for unknown superheroes to run around and get into some wonderfully violent, sometimes baffling shenanigans. Which is not to say it is this wholly impenetrable mess or anything like that. By the end of the movie, you mostly get what it was all about and how everything linked together and why this and that mattered, it was just a long and winding road that could have spent a little more time at some points, and less at others.
Overall, Watchmen was an imperfect undertaking, maybe biting off more than it could realistically chew, but immensely enjoyable. It needed to be made and could have been much, much worse, and probably wouldn't have been nearly as good if someone else handled it. Could anyone have done it better than Zack Snyder? Maybe Zack Snyder in ten years with a little more experience under his belt, but no one else comes to mind. I think it would have benefited from being a well funded 4 - 6 hour miniseries on HBO. Outside of that, I don't think it could have been done much better, considering how unwieldy a beast the original graphic epic was.
Watchmen fanatics, go see it, just expect to be irritated at points and completely thrilled by others. If you've never read Watchmen before, take a friend who has or do yourself a favor and go pick up the graphic novel, devour it in an evening and go see the movie the next day.
B-
Screenplay by David Hayter and Alex Tse
Review by Dave Conkey
The graphic novel they said could never be properly adapted for film has finally made its way to the big screen. After years in limbo, bouncing back and forth between different writers and directors, including Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 12 Monkeys, Brothers Grimm) and Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain), the Watchmen finally landed in the lap of everyone's favorite fanboy adaptation movie maker, Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300.)
Where other creative teams endeavored to tweak and adjust and overhaul the story of a paranoid, dystopian 1985 America -- where Nixon is in his fifth term, dealing with a Cold War on the brink of nuclear eruption, and superheroes, or Masks, as they tend to call themselves, are outlawed -- to fit today's sensibilities and try to make it feel more relevant, Snyder looked at the job as a tribute. This is where Watchmen reaches its greatest heights, which I assure you are quite spectacularly high, and its biggest snares, which are wicked violent bear traps you wish you had noticed instead of stumbling into while marveling over the scene that came five seconds before it.
The same can be said of Snyder's overall directing style and David Hayter and Alex Tse's screenplay. The action is Snyder right out of 300, whose beautiful slow-mo fight scenes can feel strangely out of place and even in a little stuffy in the gritty New York City a fair chunk of Watchmen takes place in. Don't get me wrong, some of the scenes are positively exhilarating, leaving you begging for more, more, more! And then you actually get it and it just falls flat, picking up again two scenes later with another piece of fantastic violence or some beautifully detailed set piece that feels like it was torn straight from one of Dave Gibbon's panels. The screenplay comes off pretty much the same way, with most of the best bits pulled verbatim from Alan Moore's pages, as well as some of the most awkward. (Rorschach's journal, anyone?)
As far as the actual characters go, if you don't actually know anything about them or their stories going in, you may have something of a hard time growing to care. And it's not as if they didn't have enough time to let the viewer develop a rapport with the characters, they just didn't really take the time to, in the majority. Dr. Manhattan's (Billy Crudup) origin story/time-trip is one of the most appealing, beautiful, and well-written sequences in the entire film, while at the other end of the spectrum, the Comedian's (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) menagerie of back-story flashbacks bogged down the first hour of the film without really making you care that much about him. One of the strongest performances comes in the form of Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), but we still never really get any feel for where he came from, leaving the uninitiated to assume he was just an uneducated kid who grew up to brutalize baddies in a funny mask, which, ironically, he's not even wearing for his best sequence. Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) and Night Owl II (Patrick Wilson) take up a ton of screen time, but the viewer never really learns enough about them to be truly invested in their outcomes. Although you can't help but to root for the slightly dumpy Night Owl when it looks like something may happen between him and the Silk Spectre. And Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) almost feels like he was in there as an afterthought, barely contributing anything to the movie, while being one of the most important figures in the overall story.
The story itself, with its uneven pacing and shuffled time frames which don't translate as well as one would hope from page to screen, sometimes comes across as convoluted and bloated. The time is never really taken to explore what was originally a deep, twisted, well-orchestrated journey into paranoid madness, ends up feeling a little like an excuse for unknown superheroes to run around and get into some wonderfully violent, sometimes baffling shenanigans. Which is not to say it is this wholly impenetrable mess or anything like that. By the end of the movie, you mostly get what it was all about and how everything linked together and why this and that mattered, it was just a long and winding road that could have spent a little more time at some points, and less at others.
Overall, Watchmen was an imperfect undertaking, maybe biting off more than it could realistically chew, but immensely enjoyable. It needed to be made and could have been much, much worse, and probably wouldn't have been nearly as good if someone else handled it. Could anyone have done it better than Zack Snyder? Maybe Zack Snyder in ten years with a little more experience under his belt, but no one else comes to mind. I think it would have benefited from being a well funded 4 - 6 hour miniseries on HBO. Outside of that, I don't think it could have been done much better, considering how unwieldy a beast the original graphic epic was.
Watchmen fanatics, go see it, just expect to be irritated at points and completely thrilled by others. If you've never read Watchmen before, take a friend who has or do yourself a favor and go pick up the graphic novel, devour it in an evening and go see the movie the next day.
B-
Thursday, February 19, 2009
HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU
By Mia Carlin
“He’s Just Not That Into You” is the romantic-comedy film adaptation of the same titled self-help book by Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo; contributing writers of the HBO hit series, “Sex in the City”. The story chronicles the romantic/dating mishaps of nine individuals in the midst & prime of their off kilter relationships.
In all honesty, the humoristic wit of this movie was better displayed in the movie trailer itself rather than the actual film – however, with that being said, I still think it’s a picture worth the $8 student discount.
The characters in this movie were really just a product of type casting:
First we have the trailer teaser of Drew Barrymore which was really more of an outbreak character in the movie rather than one of the main ones (compare it to her over-exposed media in the “Scream” movie circa 1996).
Then we have Jennifer Anniston – poor girl, hasn’t she had enough exposure in the tabloids of being pegged as a victim of circumstance, do we have to rub it in her face with yet another character similar to real life events?
Following that, Ben Affleck plays a man who sustains relationships but can’t quite commit – go figure….
Then there is Jennifer Connelly, who while I feel – along with Jennifer Anniston – is an extraordinary actress, yet always somehow gets typecast as the succumbed, self sacrificing uptight wife that eventually gets cheated on or taken advantage of
(References to “Little Children” and “A Beautiful Mind”)
Then there is …. Scarlett Johansson … again, in some deluded world, people still view her as the innocent Lolita type. Personally, I don’t buy it, however I will have to say that her body is rockin’ in this movie.
But the one thing the previews for this movie don’t want you to realize is that the main character in this film is really the up & coming actress Ginnifer Goodwin. Yes, she too is typecast. Playing the over enthusiastic, sweet stalker Gigi, (which bears a striking resemblance to her current role as the youthful & crazed third wife, Margene, in the new dramatic HBO series “Big Love” about fundamentalist Mormon’s in Utah) she really sheds a sadly dim light on what’s it’s truly like to have relationship anxiety.
Watching Gigi awkwardly fumble her way into one doomed date after another with the blind optimism of a fourteen year old, at first you want to slap this poor girl in the face and scream “Wake UP!!!!” But eventually, you see that this poor little sap is just spiraling out of control in hopes that her childhood/ teenage fantasies of true romance will eventually surface into reality. Don’t lie – we’ve all been there… at least most of us have.
Myself being a single gal in the dating circuit for 10+ years can embarrassingly identify with at least two of the characters in the film, no matter how exaggerated & exploited they may be.
Predominately a chick flick, there’s something for the fellas too, although I definitely do not recommend this to be a 1st date or even a 10th date movie. I think it’s safer to watch this film on DVD, cuddled in pajamas on a couch, when you are more established in a relationship rather than ruining your chances with a newfound “friend” in the theatres for the first time.
Save this movie date for your pals, as you don’t want your potential mate to get any funny ideas.
But ladies & gents - definitely take that relationship challenged friend of yours to see this for a refresher course in the subliminal obvious… just so he or she can get a clue.
Final Rating: B+
“He’s Just Not That Into You” is the romantic-comedy film adaptation of the same titled self-help book by Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo; contributing writers of the HBO hit series, “Sex in the City”. The story chronicles the romantic/dating mishaps of nine individuals in the midst & prime of their off kilter relationships.
In all honesty, the humoristic wit of this movie was better displayed in the movie trailer itself rather than the actual film – however, with that being said, I still think it’s a picture worth the $8 student discount.
The characters in this movie were really just a product of type casting:
First we have the trailer teaser of Drew Barrymore which was really more of an outbreak character in the movie rather than one of the main ones (compare it to her over-exposed media in the “Scream” movie circa 1996).
Then we have Jennifer Anniston – poor girl, hasn’t she had enough exposure in the tabloids of being pegged as a victim of circumstance, do we have to rub it in her face with yet another character similar to real life events?
Following that, Ben Affleck plays a man who sustains relationships but can’t quite commit – go figure….
Then there is Jennifer Connelly, who while I feel – along with Jennifer Anniston – is an extraordinary actress, yet always somehow gets typecast as the succumbed, self sacrificing uptight wife that eventually gets cheated on or taken advantage of
(References to “Little Children” and “A Beautiful Mind”)
Then there is …. Scarlett Johansson … again, in some deluded world, people still view her as the innocent Lolita type. Personally, I don’t buy it, however I will have to say that her body is rockin’ in this movie.
But the one thing the previews for this movie don’t want you to realize is that the main character in this film is really the up & coming actress Ginnifer Goodwin. Yes, she too is typecast. Playing the over enthusiastic, sweet stalker Gigi, (which bears a striking resemblance to her current role as the youthful & crazed third wife, Margene, in the new dramatic HBO series “Big Love” about fundamentalist Mormon’s in Utah) she really sheds a sadly dim light on what’s it’s truly like to have relationship anxiety.
Watching Gigi awkwardly fumble her way into one doomed date after another with the blind optimism of a fourteen year old, at first you want to slap this poor girl in the face and scream “Wake UP!!!!” But eventually, you see that this poor little sap is just spiraling out of control in hopes that her childhood/ teenage fantasies of true romance will eventually surface into reality. Don’t lie – we’ve all been there… at least most of us have.
Myself being a single gal in the dating circuit for 10+ years can embarrassingly identify with at least two of the characters in the film, no matter how exaggerated & exploited they may be.
Predominately a chick flick, there’s something for the fellas too, although I definitely do not recommend this to be a 1st date or even a 10th date movie. I think it’s safer to watch this film on DVD, cuddled in pajamas on a couch, when you are more established in a relationship rather than ruining your chances with a newfound “friend” in the theatres for the first time.
Save this movie date for your pals, as you don’t want your potential mate to get any funny ideas.
But ladies & gents - definitely take that relationship challenged friend of yours to see this for a refresher course in the subliminal obvious… just so he or she can get a clue.
Final Rating: B+
Monday, February 16, 2009
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