Movie City News

10 ANIMATED SHORTS MOVE AHEAD IN 2009 OSCAR® RACE

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:07:06 -0800

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 animated short films will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Thirty-seven pictures had originally qualified in the category.

Wilmington on Movies: The Twilight Saga: New Moon Bad Lieutenant: New Orleans Port of Call,2012, The Blind Side, Planet 51 and more ...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:06:47 -0800

Mopy, gloomy, drenched with romantic longing and erotic terror (from vampire chic to werewolf beefcake), The Twilight Saga: New Moon continues the teen vampire series based on Stephenie Meyer’s books, this time with more polish, more visual lyricism, and less slam-bang action. Like its heroine, Kristen Stewart -- once again playing the central character of tormented, horror-smitten high school outsider Bella Swan -- it’s moody and pretty, and constantly in the throes of a wild supernatural crush. But I didn’t like it much. And the fact that audiences are coming in droves didn‘t reassure me.

The Wolfman

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:14:45 -0800

The French Trailer.

17 Weeks to Oscar

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:14:08 -0800

The main variation in the 2009/10 Oscar season that keeps getting discussed is the change to 10 nominees. And it's not insignificant. But as the Chinese curse goes, "May you live in interesting times."

DP/30: An Interview with John Hillcoat, director of The Road

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:13:47 -0800

DP/30: An Interview with The Road's Viggo Mortensen

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:13:20 -0800

15 Documentary Features Continue in 2009 Oscar® Race

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:13:29 -0800

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films in the Documentary Feature category will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®. Eighty-nine pictures had originally qualified in the category.

The Gurus of Gold

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:13:05 -0800

Still not a lot of movement in the Gurus Best Picture picks, just a few shuffles in the middle of the pack. Meanwhile, the Best Director picks reflect, but don't quite mirror, the Picture list. And in Animation, Up leads the way... so far.

DP/30: John Woo on Red Cliff

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:12:39 -0800

Trailer: Crazy Heart

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:46:16 -0800

Jeff Bridges as the richly comic, semi-tragic romantic anti-hero Bad Blake - a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean, a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician. As he struggles down the road of redemption, Bad learns the hard way just how tough life can be on one man’s crazy heart.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:45:07 -0800

The latest Star Trek movie, called simply Star Trek, is a genuine audience-pleaser, a film that can connect to the movie going masses, to the hard-core fans (Trekkies, Trekkers, Trekkums or whatever) -- and even to a few moviegoers who couldn’t care less or think Trek is dreck and that Spock is a baby manual.

DVD Review: Drag Me To Hell

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:44:40 -0800

Sam Raimi's 2009 horror thriller, Drag Me to Hell, feels like a remake of an old Universal horror film that never existed. The movie seems familiar while at the same time being refreshingly original in comparison to the majority of new horror films that invade the market each month.

Memory Lane

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:43:52 -0800

My daughter Neve and I were driving through Bellevue and Redmond the other day, near our old neighborhood where my three younger kids were born. And I got to feeling nostalgic, perhaps because I've been going through this separation/divorce and medical nonsense lately and I'm feeling my mortality and wondering if I'm still at the "midpoint" of my allotted years, or if this illness could move the line in the sand for me. Some days lately, I find I'm feeling more sentimental than cynical. And maybe that's not such a bad thing. This was one of those journeys.

Podcast: Lukas Moodysson

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:42:50 -0800

This week Noah talks to one of his favorite filmmakers, Lukas Moodysson, about his new film Mammoth, working with Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams, globalization, and Margot at the Wedding.

MCN DVD Wrap

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:42:12 -0800

BRUNO ... Also ... Exiles, My Sister's Keeper, Fight Club 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, Kevin Smith Box Set.. and more...

Emmy Rossum

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:25:54 -0800

It isn’t often that an entertainment reporter gets to extend a relationship with the subject of an interview beyond the confines of a publicity junket. Precious little time is allotted for idle chatter and there simply aren’t any good reasons for an actor or filmmaker to memorize the face of someone sitting across from them. The reporters who do tend to get remembered are those who stray from script by asking a personal question or attempting to pass along a screenplay. Some junketeers solicit autographs and photo ops, but, generally speaking, the interviews are “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.”

Let's Blow Up the Planet!

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:25:33 -0800

How is it possible that some critics have given 2012 a pass? I’m not an elitist. I understand that sometimes you just want to put down your twelve bucks and see a spectacle. I don’t always need my films to be contemplative or poignant, sometimes I enjoy seeing a purely visual feast that shows me some really cool things I haven’t seen before.

Not with a Whimper ... but a Bang!

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:16:31 -0800

Critics were derisive of 2012 but the new age apocalyptic disaster saga was warmly embraced by the public to an estimated debut of $63.7 million. The competition largely steered clear of the cinematic tsunami though the oft-delayed rock valentine Pirate Radio went limited wide to OK returns of $2.9 million.

Precious Things

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:15:45 -0800

Back at Sundance last year, when Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire was first unveiled for critics with little fanfare but high hopes, quite a few folks thought it would never see the light of day off the fest circuit.

DP/30: Bad Lieutenant

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:09:31 -0800

Wilmington on Movies

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:08:51 -0800

Precious (Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire), Pirate Radio and For the Love of Movies

Gurus o' Gold

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:27:56 -0800

The Gurus are locked into their Best Picture picks for the moment, apparently waiting to see the movies that are still waiting to screen the first time. But the Supporting Actor and Actress races have brought out a lot of concensus and a lot of excitement about unexpected candidates as well. One thing to consider: these candidates may flip to Lead and some of the Lead candidates may flip to Supporting before you can say "Golden Globes."

Up and Monsters on DVD

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:27:20 -0800

There's an interesting symmetry between the coincidental releases of Theodore Thomas' documentary, Walt & El Grupo and the DVD launch of Up. The former describes a mission undertaken in 1941, during which Disney animators were asked to serve as good-will ambassadors to South American countries contemplating aligning with Axis powers. Walt Disney and his team had other pressing concerns on their mind, but justified the journey as a way to collect material for future movie projects, including Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.

Wilmington on DVDs

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:55:06 -0800

Up, Wings of Desire, The General, Heat, The Ugly Truth, Mamma Mia!, Monsters, Inc. and more...

The Best Film of the Decade

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 14:20:27 -0800

As the aughts near a close, we’ll be seeing more and more lists dedicated to the best films of the decade. It’s only natural; as film fans and writers, we love to put things in lists. I like making lists, looking at other lists, having discussions about how stupid or smart a certain film writer might be because of a film that is -- or isn’t -- on their list.

Hmmm Bug

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 14:20:01 -0800

A Christmas Carol gave cheer as the weekend box office leader with an estimated $30.7 million. However, it was the cumbersomely titled Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire that had industry heads spinning. The well-received, unblinking urban drama grossed $1.88 million from a mere 18 screens for a jaw-dropping theater average of $104,810.

Gurus of Gold

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 14:19:43 -0800

The Gurus are back in business, delivering the weekly take on the horses in Hollywood's ultimate race. There are not a lot of surprises in this week's Top Ten, but there are new faces in Best Actor and Best Actress, plus a surprising choice in the #3 slot for Animation

DP/30 Paula Patton

Wed, 4 Nov 2009 14:19:27 -0800

Wilmington on Movies

Fri, 6 Nov 2009 14:19:08 -0800

Disney's A Christmas Carol The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Fourth Kind, Paranormal Activity and 35 Shots of Rum

Trailer: The Prince of Persia

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:20:13 -0800

Paul Blart: Mall Cop Observe and Report

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:17:22 -0800

2009 turned out to be the year of the 'shopping mall security person' comedy, and it shows you how fast trends turn over these days that there were only three months between the theatrical release dates separating the point where the genre was established, with Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a Sony Pictures Home Entertainment release, and was then undercut in cynicism, with Observe and Report, a Warner Home Video release.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:16:35 -0800

Food, Inc., North By Northwest, Forrest Gump, It's a Wonderful Life, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 and more...

DVD Review: The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:11:19 -0800

Watch Tony Scott’s highly stylized thriller, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, alongside Joseph Sargent’s low-tech The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and it quickly will become obvious how much has changed in the course of 35 years of genre filmmaking.

ROGER CORMAN Producer/Writer/ Director/Actor Recipient Of An Honorary Oscar 2009

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 21:16:03 -0800

The Vampire as Moral Compass

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 21:15:15 -0800

These days, it seems vampires are the new black -- but they aren't quite as black as they used to be. Today's vampires have more than just gloomy good looks and great fashion sense; they come completel with a moral compass.

Why Do They Keep Making Them Like They Used To?

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 21:14:50 -0800

There’s rarely anything new under the sun. Every movie we see today is similar to something else we’ve already seen: the look of the film, or the theme of it, or the plot or the characters. It’s all been done before. We accept that when we walk into a theater, we’re probably going to see a story we’ve seen before; all that we ask is that it is done in a way that makes us forget that we’ve seen it already.

Confessions of a Festival Junkie ...

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 21:14:20 -0800

Despite avid research I've been stumped. The wag who observed that when one receives something for free, the value is commensurate with the cost (or words to that effect) appears to have been lost to time. I've certainly employed that theorem over the years and it's something I've believed/experienced without exception.

Weekend Report: Dis and Dat

Sun, 1 Nov 2009 21:12:34 -0800

Michael Jackson’s This Is It led weekend ticket sales with an estimated $21.1 million. It was the only wide release for the frame and as it fell short of out-sized predictions, business experienced a sharp downturn from seven days earlier.

20 Weeks to Oscar: The Rules of Ten

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:58:54 -0700

What we don’t see so far is an earnest effort by the “big movies” to get slots in the BP10… except for Up, which Disney has out there on parade early and often. All the sky-is-falling whining about Star Trek and The Hangover and Harry Potter as Best Picture contenders has been followed by Paramount and Warner Bros shrugging their campaigning shoulders and not spending a dime or more than a minute of effort moving the bar in that direction. Wisely.

New Trailer for THE ROAD

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:57:55 -0700

Enter to Win The Box!

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:57:18 -0700

Wilmington on Movies: Michael Jackson's This Is It

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:56:52 -0700

Michael Jackson -- looking like a will-o’-the-wisp in military/gangster drag, singing like honey poured through quicksilver, and dancing like a jitterbug angel whirling on the head of a pin -- gets an extraordinary posthumous sendoff in Michael Jackson’s This Is It.

The Alice in Wonderland Trailer #2

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:53:34 -0700

Trailer: The Green Zone

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:11:36 -0700

DVD Wrap: the BluRays and DVDs of the Week

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:10:00 -0700

Orphan, Fear(s) of the Dark, Sauna Pandemic, Stan Helsing, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs: Blu-ray, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure: Blu-ray, Mickey's Magical Christmas, Whatever Works, The Sam Fuller Collection, Champions Forever .. and more

Review: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:03:47 -0700

Unfortunately, director Paul Weitz, who co-wrote the screenplay with the generally more reliable Brian Helgeland and book series author Darren Shan, had to trim and snip so much to make it all fit that what we end up with is a visually pretty, nicely shot movie with some cool special effects, but not enough of a story or development of the characters to make it truly compelling.

Meet the A-Team

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:16:43 -0700

Reaching back to the 80s! The new version of The A-Team finds them vets of the Iraq War (instead of Vietnam) but keeps the characters we all know and love … Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson), the brains of the operation; Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper); ‘Howling Mad’ Murdock (Sharlto Copley); and B.A. Baracus (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson filling Mr. T’s shoes). And here they are …

Saw-ed in Half

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:14:15 -0700

The little chiller that could -- Paranormal Activity -- ascended to the top of the movie-going charts with an estimated $21.6 million. That was bad news for the launch of the latest installment of the Saw horror franchise with its sixth installment drawing less than half the box office of the prior edition with $14.8 million.

MCN's on Facebook - become a Fan!

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:33:25 -0700

MCN Weekend

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 11:32:42 -0700

Reviews, Trailers, DVDs and the picks of the week in posters andt railers.

Wilmington on Movies: Amelia, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, Motherhood ...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:17:58 -0700

Still, why not be a little happy that we can still get an adult-oriented movie like this, well and sometimes lovingly crafted and splendidly shot (by Stuart Dryburgh), with fine performances by Hilary Swank as the spunky, expert flier Amelia, Richard Gere as her media-savvy publisher/husband George Putnam, Ewan McGregor as her fellow pilot/aviation teacher/lover Gene Vidal, Christopher Eccleston as her hard drinking navigator Fred Noonan, Cherry Jones as New Deal first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (too brief, too brief), and most of the rest of a glittering cast, in the same week when the studios also give us another bash-’em, slash-’em horror franchise bloodbath (Saw VI) and another teen vampire movie (Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant).

DP/30 Junkets Fantastic Mr Fox w/ Bill Murray & Wes Anderson

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:00:28 -0700

A brief chat in Great Missenden, England for Fantastic Mr. Fox with one of the co-stars and the director/co-writer

MCN DVD Wrap

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:59:18 -0700

Cheri, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Live; The William Castle Film Collection; Marvel Animation Six Film Set; Zombies of the Stratosphere; Vega$;

The Wolfman - A New Trailer & New Pictures

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:33:21 -0700

BILL MECHANIC AND ADAM SHANKMAN NAMED OSCAR® TELECAST PRODUCERS

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:34:58 -0700

Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman will produce the 82nd Academy Awards® telecast, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak announced today. This will be the first major Oscar show involvement for both men

The Toy Story Characters

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:20:33 -0700

Each toy has their own poster .. no toy left behind.

Lukas Moodysson: The Greatest Director You Don't Know About

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:21:08 -0700

In his native Sweden, he has been called the heir apparent to Ingmar Bergman – whose work his films hardly resemble – but here in the United States, he is largely unknown to the majority of filmgoers. Boy, are they missing out.

Law Abiding Wild Thing

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:20:43 -0700

The weekend surprise was not the estimated $32.6 million grossed by Where the Wild Things Are that led ticker sales but the torrid $21.4 million debut of the legal thriller Law Abiding Citizen, which had high end expectations of a $15 million bow.

MCN Weekend: Reviews, Trailers and Weekend Boxoffice

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:43:48 -0700

Review: Law Abiding Citizen

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 09:42:52 -0700

Way back in March, I reviewed the dreadful movie Knowing. At the time, I thought perhaps I'd seen the worst atrocity foisted upon mainsteam theater audiences in 2009. Well, folks, we have another contender this week: the dreadful Jamie Foxx-Gerard Butler vehicle Law Abiding Citizen.

Review: Law Abiding Citizen

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:11:22 -0700

The movie begins with a bloody massacre, and then tries to keep building. Somehow, ten years after the two psychopaths who slaughtered his family are either free or due to be executed, Clyde starts running wild. (Why didn't he start earlier?)

Review: Where the Wild Things Are

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:11:04 -0700

Some children's stories work primarily for children. Some please both children and adults. But some are mostly for adults -- and I think that may be the case with Spike Jonze's new movie from Maurice Sendak's famous 1963 picture book Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze film takes Sendak's spare little book, which consists of 18 big bountifully colorful picture panels and the slightest of texts, and turns it into a wordy, beautifully visualized, but sometimes strangely enervated show, a film full of personality and intelligence, but lacking in punch or drive.

DVD Review: The Proposal

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:12:25 -0700

At a time when no Hollywood studio seems able to make a romantic comedy that is either romantic or particularly funny, even a modestly successful rom-com automatically becomes worthy of praise. The Proposal was just such a movie, and American audiences showed their gratitude by coughing up $160 million at the box office.

The Saw VI Posters .. so far

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:02:08 -0700

Trailer: Toy Story 3

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:01:21 -0700

The Third Annual Horrific State of the Horror Film

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:01:10 -0700

Each year around this time, I write a column that usually bemoans the sad state of the horror film (you can read last year's horror column here, and 2007's over here. It seemed for a while that the only horror films that being made, marketed and sold were “torture porn” movies like the Saw or Hostel franchise. I was never offended by those films in terms of what they put on the screen – some found the films to be misogynistic or mean-spirited, I just found them to be offensively stupid.

The Weekend Report: Advance to the Rear

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:15:22 -0700

Comedy ruled as the debut of Couples Retreat shattered expectations with an estimates $35.2 million opening to lead weekend ticket sales. The film had the unusual good fortune of being the only new national release in a session that includes holiday Mondays in Canada for its Thanksgiving as well as some Eastern states that celebrate Columbus Day.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Film Festival

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:08:00 -0700

On September 9, along with many of my fellow film journalists, I packed my bags and boarded a plane to Toronto for one of the most challenging (and occasionally rewarding) film festivals we film fest junkies work all year: the Toronto International Film Festival.

DVD Review: Snow White

Wed, 7 Oct 2009 16:07:48 -0700

Of all the jewels in Walt Disney’s crown, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs may have been the most valuable. As the first animated feature created by an American studio, it was essential for Snow White to be a box-office success, if only to silence the many Hollywood naysayers.

Trailer: The Messenger

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:39:55 -0700

DVD Review: Chinatown

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:39:27 -0700

Those are the chilling last words of Roman Polanski and Robert Towne’s great dark tale of politics, murder, and family secrets in ‘30s Los Angeles. And no matter what you think of Polanski and his current arrest and extradition problems -- and I bet they’re more complex than most of the cut-and-dried “He’s persecuted” or “He’s a fugitive schmuck” analyses offered by either his friends or foes -- the director’s 1974 private eye classic Chinatown is still some kind of masterpiece of film neo-noir.

DVD Review: Anvil!

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:38:57 -0700

This funny, sad, rockin’ little documentary is about a band of fiftyish Canadian heavy metal rockers, who flirted with fame in the early ‘60s, didn’t make it, but have hung on ever since --

DVD Review: Frost/Nixon

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:38:39 -0700

Most reminiscent of (and more satisfying than) Good Night and Good Luck, Ron Howard's 2008 docudrama, Frost/Nixon, from Universal, is about a television news personality who rises to the occasion and achieves a journalistic milestone when tasked with interviewing an emotionally enfortressed politician.

Picturing Iron Man 2

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 11:55:19 -0700

Good Low Art, Mediocre High Art

Mon, 5 Oct 2009 11:55:03 -0700

For me, it's one of the most difficult questions to answer when it comes to film: would I rather see a film that aims high and fails or a film that aims low and succeeds?

Weekend Boxoffice Report: Daze of the Dead

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 19:11:28 -0700

Zombieland sprung to life to lead weekend ticket sales with an estimated $24.8 million. The session also saw good results of $12.6 million for a 3-D combo of the Toy Story films but there were lesser signs of stamina for the comic The Invention of Lying of $7.3 million and a $4.8 million tally for the roller derby yarn Whip It.

Review: Whip It!

Sun, 4 Oct 2009 19:11:09 -0700

Drew Barrymore not only can handle the director's chair, but she has, in her first film, delivered the same kind of charm that made her a major movie star through the Wedding Singer to 50 First Dates period... or more specifically, the Fox movies, like Ever After and Never Been Kissed.

DVD Review: The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Edition

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:57:20 -0700

Some movies appeal to just about everybody -- like the heart-stoppingly entertaining and wonderful 1939 musical that MGM made out of L. Frank Baum’s American fairy tale, The Wizard of Oz (now released in a deluxe 70th anniversary DVD edition by Warner).

DVD Review: Julia

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:56:55 -0700

Every new film that stars Scottish actor Tilda Swinton should be cause for celebration, whether they’re big-budget fantasies (The Chronicles of Narnia), quirky comedies (Burn After Reading), enigmatic indies (Limits of Control), sexy psychodramas (Female Perversions) or corporate thrillers (Michael Clayton).

DVD Review: Away We Go

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:55:20 -0700

Sam Mendes, who was born in England and educated at Cambridge, has demonstrated a knowledge of the American psyche most native filmmakers could only dream of possessing. Not every outsider sees us with the clarity that informed American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road and, now, Away We Go.

Why the Hate for Megan Fox (and Diablo Cody)?

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:54:40 -0700

Perhaps they’re overexposed, but people are rarely overexposed to the entire public, merely overexposed to people who insist on watching their every appearance.

Where The Wild Things Are

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:01:53 -0700

The who's who banners.

Review: Love Happens

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:01:34 -0700

Here’s a middling romantic comedy with a heavy dose of melancholy, about a self-help bestseller writer

Review: The Informant

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:01:09 -0700

Damon plays the part beautifully, better than he did Ripley. Overweight, bespectacled, toupeed and full of instant affability and “gee whiz” pseudo-sincerity, he gives us, as many have mentioned, something like a comic version of Russell Crowe‘s pudgy, anguished whistle-blower in The Insider, but without the anguish.

Crude

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:16:42 -0700

Documentaries aren't like other movies. Facts, like disobedient children, don't always come when they're called. Too often, stories that appear to be no-brainers crumble like a house of cards, leaving filmmakers with nothing to show for their work, except a stack full of outstanding AmEx bills.

Up in the Air

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:16:09 -0700

DP/20 with Jason Reitman The Movie The Trailer Clip: Club Cards

Posters du Jour

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:15:32 -0700

Toy Story 3, Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, Visual Acoustics

Trailer: Everybody's Fine

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:15:18 -0700

Trailer: Defendor

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:13:46 -0700

When night falls and danger emerges from the shadows of Hammer Town’s alleyways, Defendor is the only man who stands between us and the drug-ravaged streets. He is the last bastion of decency, the last honourable man: he is Defendor! But he is also Arthur Poppington, ...

The Men Who Stare at Goats Gets Postered

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:15:46 -0700

“More is true than you would think …” a reporter discovers that ever since Vietnam and the Cold War the U.S. military has made attempts to harness psychic and telekinetic powers in order to train super soldiers, or “Jedi Warriors” ...

TIFF Review: A Single Man

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:45:31 -0700

Ford, as a first timer, does a nice job creating a living, breathing Vanity Fair magazine. The film is pretty. And Colin Firth is excellent as a closed off, pained man who feels his life is over with the loss of his lover.

TIFF Review: Chloe

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:44:42 -0700

Passion and brains and the interference of one over the other is always interesting and is my kind of fun.

TIFF Review: Whip It!

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:44:19 -0700

Is it perfection? No. But it is a warm, funny, kind, smart, loving movie that girls, grrrrrls, women, and womyn will really enjoy.

Wilmington on DVDs: Easy Virtue

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:43:55 -0700

There's sumptuous scenery and cinematography, guilty secrets, horrid sisters, saucy fox hunts and glamorous BMWs.

The DVD Wrap

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:43:16 -0700

Fringe, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Trumbo, The Country Teacher, Deadgirl, Trumbo, Camille, Mad Monster Party, Nightwatching

Podcast: John Malkovich

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:37:41 -0700

This week Noah chats with the legendary John Malkovich about his new film Disgrace, working with the Coen Brothers and his affection for Napoleon Dynamite..

Trailer: Michael Jackson's This Is It

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:01:27 -0700

Clip: Up in the Air

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:00:49 -0700

TIFF Review: Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:00:17 -0700

It is not the very best Gilliam ever, but it does play like a kind of greatest hits combined with more innovation from a master filmmaker.

TIFF Review: Harry Brown

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:59:57 -0700

It isn't the best made movie ever. It is often profoundly derivitive. But it is the first distributor-free mortal lock for a sale out of TIFF this year of which I am concious.

Pictures of The Men Who Stare at Goats

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:50:59 -0700

"More is true than you would think …” a reporter discovers that ever since Vietnam and the Cold War the U.S. military has made attempts to harness psychic and telekinetic powers in order to train super soldiers, or “Jedi Warriors” …

Today at TIFF: How to Hold a Flag

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:37:16 -0700

From The Hot Blog: The film is the final part of an Iraq trilogy by Michael Tucker and Petra Eperlein… and I consider all three films to be amongst the very best made on and around the subject.

Bacall, Calley, Corman and Willis to Receive Academy's Governors Awards

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:04:09 -0700

"These four individuals have each, in their own unique way, made lasting impressions on the motion picture industry and audiences worldwide," said Academy President Tom Sherak. "I'm thrilled that the Academy's Board selected them to be honored at our new Governors Awards event, which will be full of memorable moments celebrating their accomplishments."

Review: 9

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:06:48 -0700

The future, darkly. The world has become a twilight mass of wreck, ruin, devastation and weird buildings, rotting under dour skies, and populated by doll-like little robots with button eyes, and with their nemesis, a huge monstrous metal killing machine.

TIFF Review: Creation

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:04:43 -0700

Creation is an unfortunate name for the film because it is seems both too simple and obvious.

TIFF Review: Dogtooth

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:04:15 -0700

By the time you're about a third of the way into this film, there's nothing the director could throw at you with the behavior of this crazy family that could shock or surprise you, though you might find yourself, as I did, cringing and muttering, "Oh no, he's not gonna go there ..." more than once.

TIFF Review: Nymph

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:03:59 -0700

There are certain things in the film that feel dramatically off -- although it's entirely possible that they are culturally specific references that simply elude me...

TIFF Review: Broken Embraces

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:03:21 -0700

But like Bad Education, this is a really, really, really good piece of genre by Almodovar with the kinds of twists and turns that we would all be blown away by in an American film.

TIFF Review: Hotel Atlantico

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 08:02:34 -0700

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, which is in the tradition of Ken Loach and Kieslowski… raw and real. (Interestingly, Samantha Morton’s first feature, The Unloved, here at the fest, walks down a similar road.) Here it is the story of Mia, a 15-year-old with a lot of anger, but some earnest dreams and a will of iron. She’s played by Katie Jarvis in a turn that is pretty mesmerizing.

Trailer: Up in the Air

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 16:55:51 -0700

Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 16:55:09 -0700

Adapted from Jacques Tati’s story, directed by Sylvain Chomet, who sees “The Illusionnist” as the perfect evolution of his internationally acclaimed “Triplets of Belleville”.

DVD Review: Fast & Furious

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 16:54:39 -0700

Often feeling more like a video game than a movie, Fast & Furious, not to be confused with its predecessor, The Fast and the Furious, brings back the acting team that made the first film a hit and concocts a vaguely believable story about Mexican drug lords hiring street racers to zip their contraband across the border-in elaborate tunnels, which they have to travel through quickly for no apparent reason.

The Weekend Report: 125 Days of Summer

Mon, 7 Sep 2009 16:54:03 -0700

The Labor Day holiday session saw a slight dip from 2008 revenues but, regardless of how one slices the pie, the final season tally experienced a box office upturn. Initial summer returns add up to approximately $4.36 billion for an improvement of 4.8%.

NINE Images

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 11:49:01 -0700

Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Marion Cotillard, Sophia Loren …

DP/30: State of the Union

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 10:05:11 -0700

Bill Mechanic is at work on a slate of first-rate, high-quality commercial motion picture projects through his independent production company, Pandemonium.

The Gurus o' Gold are back in town!

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 09:48:31 -0700

A PRE-TORONTO LOOK AT THE FIELD September 3, 2009. The Gurus each picked 15 contenders, each giving 3 gold stars for being the most likely. Then each Guru picked one underdog actor and actress who might surprise with a nomination.

Of Love, Life and Loss

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 09:47:53 -0700

This is film, this is cinema, this sense that what you're seeing on the screen is more than just images and sound; the best writers and directors and actors know how to reach that place inside of you, to connect the story they're telling with something that feels real and honest and passionate, that can scrape your soul raw and make you face your own fears, your own failings, even when that terrifies you.

Trailer: Boondock Saints II

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 09:47:36 -0700

DVD Review: Honey West

Thu, 3 Sep 2009 09:47:17 -0700

It lasted just one season, but Honey West was such a breakthrough TV program that it easily overshadows Forbidden Planet as star Anne Francis' best remembered role.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 13:35:47 -0700

At the Toronto Film Fest ... The Road: Set in an indefinite, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world, The Road tells the story of a father and his young son who must make their way through the ruins of a devastated American landscape,

Wilmington on DVDs: September 1, 2009

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 12:05:44 -0700

State of Play, Earth, Sin Nombre, Skin Game, M*A*S*H* and more...

Astroboy gets a new Trailer!

Tue, 1 Sep 2009 12:05:36 -0700

Inglourious Masterpiece

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:21:56 -0700

Inglourious Basterds is an out-and-out masterpiece. Nobody is more surprised to see me write that sentence than me.

Toronto Film Fest: Posters du Jour

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:21:32 -0700

The Weekend Boxoffice Report

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 20:04:54 -0700

The debut of The Final Destination (we can only hope) usurped the competition to lead weekend ticket sales with an estimated $28.4 million. The penultimate summer weekend included two additional national preems. Another old pal, Halloween II, opened in position three with $17.2 million but there was little nostalgia for Taking Woodstock with a $3.7 million tally.

New Images from Twilight: New Moon

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:40:02 -0700

New Trailer for Alejandro Amenábar’s Agora

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:39:48 -0700

Trailer: The Men Who Stare at Goats

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:39:20 -0700

Rousing Soul Power with Jeffrey Levy-Hinte

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:38:53 -0700

Levy-Hinte began as an editor, working on Leon Gast's Oscar-winning boxing documentary When We Were Kings. The powerful, joyous Soul Power is constructed from footage of the twelve-hour concert in Zaire that was meant to accompany the 1974 "The Rumble in the Jungle" fights shown in that film, always known a definitive R&B event. But the footage hadn't been seen in years. There was such a wealth of material for Kings that footage hadn't even been cut together, and was stored in various places. The result, drawing only upon contemporary footage, is thrilling for being such a piece of anachronism: a great documentary experience drawn from film left fallow for almost thirty-five years. It looks downright fresh yet outright of its production era.

MCN Exclusive Early Look at STILL WALKING

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:34:11 -0700

Beloved director Kore-Eda Hirokazu (AFTER LIFE, NOBODY KNOWS) returns to the forefront of world cinema with STILL WALKING - an exquisitely detailed family drama that shines with warmth and understanding.

Ole Christian Madsen on His Army of Shooters

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:15:52 -0700

IFC's offering canny counterprogramming to the super-wide release of Inglorious Basterds, a historical revenge fantasy about World War II resistance in a mythical France, by releasing Flame & Citron, Ole Christian Madsen's solid thriller, based on fact, about resistance to the Nazi invaders in Denmark.

Five Saw VI Posters .. and counting

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:59:13 -0700

The Zombieland International Trailer

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:58:50 -0700

Nut up or shut up!

Wilmington on DVDS

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:50:05 -0700

Tony Gilroy's Duplicity is slick wish-fulfillment of a particularly delicious kind: a romantic comedy suspense thriller set in the same super-high-tech world of corporate intrigue and deadly gamesmanship Gilroy used as a stylish backdrop in Michael Clayton, but reconfigured this time as this time for a tongue-in-cheek contemporary Cary Grantish-Grace Kellyish sort-of-Hitchcockian vehicle for Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

DVD Notes: Julia, The Garden, Audience of One, Last Days of Disco

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:49:27 -0700

Images from the world of 9

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:39:36 -0700

The time is the too-near future. Powered and enabled by the invention known as the Great Machine, the world’s machines have turned on mankind and sparked social unrest, decimating the human population before being largely shut down.

Princess & the Frog: Creating Dr. Facilier

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:09:37 -0700

Creation of a villain … the animation and the voice of Dr. Facilier. Animator Bruce Smith, the voice of Keith David, and a little new footage to feast your eyes on.

MCN DVD Reviews: Sunshine Cleaning

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:09:02 -0700

Among the things accomplished by Christine Jeffs's offbeat dramedy, Sunshine Cleaning, is to provide an answer to the question, "What kind of person takes a job cleaning up after suicides, murders and people with horrendously bad hygiene?"

Trailer: The Ministers

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:55:05 -0700

Trailering Christopher Nolan's Inception

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 12:54:36 -0700

The Weekend Report: Natzi Schmooks

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:00:10 -0700

The alphabetically/historically challenged Inglourious Basterds quashed the Hun with an estimated $38.4 million to lead weekend movie going.

Trailer: Bronson

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:56:37 -0700

Review: Inglourious Basterds

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:54:52 -0700

Quentin Tarantino shoots the works in Inglorious Basterds, a wild movie-movie-lover’s blend of WW2 action movie pyrotechnics, subtitled art cinema romance, inside-movie allusions of every type and description, grand spaghetti-operatic Sergio Leone stylistics, and a brash “Let’s-rewrite-World War 2-and make-it-a-De Palma flick” ending so crazy it keeps blowing emotional and technical gaskets as you watch it

The Avatar Trailer

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:49:01 -0700

A paraplegic ex-marine war veteran is unwillingly sent to establish a human settlement on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious, digital 3-D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. Australian actor Sam Worthington stars as the reluctant human settler Jake Sully.

New Wolf Man Images

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:48:49 -0700

The Wolf Man Trailer

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:48:33 -0700

Posters of the Day

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:37:56 -0700

Up in the Air, Dorian Gray, Zombieland and New York I Love You

An Exclusive Early Look at Passing Strange

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:37:08 -0700

Tom Sherak Elected President of Academy

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:00:09 -0700

Tom Sherak was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tuesday night (8/18) by the organization’s Board of Governors.

The Weekly DVD Wrap: August 18, 2009

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:59:49 -0700

When Mike Tyson came to the attention of fans of the sweet science, it was as famed trainer Cus D'Amato's heroic reclamation project.

Watchmen: The Director's Cut

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:58:56 -0700

The theatrical release was a disappointment, but that has nothing to do with the much longer and immensely satisfying Warner Home Video release, Watchmen Director's Cut.

Twilight: New Moon - "Meet Jacob Black:

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:21:34 -0700

New trailer clip.

DVD Review: The Last House on the Left

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:55:59 -0700

I guess I can’t blame Craven and Cunningham for returning to their earlier, career-making franchises -- especially since they’ve made their living on franchises for years. And Craven can be a damned good director.

DVD Review: Hannah Montana

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 11:55:31 -0700

Hamstrung by a ludicrous, cliché-clogged script packed with cornball sentimentality, dubious “real life“ parallels and clumsily telegraphed so-called comedy, the show can’t sink the bouncy, razz-ma-tazz 16-year-old.

Images from Dr. Parnassus

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:25:45 -0700

The 10 Movies You Should be Excited About This Fall

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:02:14 -0700

As usual, this summer was one that emphasized explosions over character development at the box office.

The Weekend Boxoffice Report

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:25:32 -0700

The less than huggable E.T.s of District 9 led weekend box office viewing with an estimated $36.8 million. A clutch of new film releases with varying commercial potency buoyed ticket sales including the romantic sci-fi of The Time Traveler's Wife that ranked third with $19.3 million. There were passable returns for the comic perspective on car salesman The Goods: Live, Hard, Sell Hard of $5.3 million and an OK $3.4 million bow for the Japanese anime Ponyo but Bandslam's $2.2 million preem tagged it as an instant casualty.

Trailer: When In Rome

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:12:33 -0700

The Week in Posters

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:12:01 -0700

Amelia, Law Abiding Citizen, Whiteout, A Serious Man, Avatar, The Informant ... and more.

The Ballad of GI Joe

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:58:43 -0700

What all our favorite G.I. Joe characters really do at night when the day’s battle is over. Starring Henry Rollins, Julianne Moore, Chuck Liddell, Billy Crudup, Zach Galifianakis, Olivia Wilde, Vinnie Jones, Tony Hale and many more. Courtesy of Funny or Die.

The First Image from Avatar

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:46:57 -0700

Review: Ponyo

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:44:22 -0700

Hayao Miyazaki‘s devotion to old-fashioned animation, in an age of computerized cartoon virtuosity of all sorts, gives his movies a charmingly personal, beguilingly hand-crafted feel -- never more so than in his latest picture, Ponyo.

Review: Time Traveler's Wife

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:43:35 -0700

Time travel movie romances, like the locus classicus, Somewhere in Time are usually about the transience of love and desire, the bittersweet impossibility of reclaiming the past. That’s the theme of The Time Traveler’s Wife, based on Audrey Niffenegger’s novel and written by Bruce Joel Rubin of Ghost.

Life, the Movies and Everything

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:44:44 -0700

Movies are entertainment, not life. But sometimes when life delivers a solid sucker punch, you need a little something to see you through, and for me, the movies are great medicine for, well, the melancholy.

An Interview with It Might Get Loud Director Davis Guggenheim

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:46:19 -0700

Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, 45, has range. The son of three-time Oscar-winning documentarian Charles Guggenheim, Davis grew up in the business, and began his directing career in broadcast television on Party of Five, NYPD Blue, and ER, then went on to cable hits like Deadwood, while moving back and forth from TV to directing theatrical features (Gossip and Gracie), as well as producing them (Training Day).

MCN Poster Premiere:

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:45:32 -0700

Passing Strange: The Movie

MCN Weekend

Sat, 8 Aug 2009 06:10:34 -0700

Boxoffice, Reviews, DVDs and the week's picks in Trailers, Posters and Images

Review: Julie & Julia

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:12:06 -0700

That’s the twin theme of these stories: how a writer with a good husband strikes it rich by cooking, eating and scribbling about it. The difference, of course, lies in the fact that Julia Child -- along with her early collaborators Simone Beck (Linda Emond) and Louise Bertholle check (Helen Carey), brought something wonderful to the world

The Week in One Sheets

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 10:11:20 -0700

Uma Thurman, Motherhood, Sherlock Holmes, Avatar, The Informant, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cheri, The open Road, My One and Only ...

The Weekend Boxoffice Report

Sun, 2 Aug 2009 11:00:47 -0700

A modicum of laughter propelled Funny People to the top of the weekend box office chart with an estimated $23.2 million. The frame also saw a complete miss for the family targeted Aliens in the Attic of $7.7 million and an OK $3.3 million for the thriller The Collector.

The Week in Posters

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:42:21 -0700

A Cabin in the Woods, Jonah Hex, Saw VI, No Impact Man, Shutter Island, Nightmare on Elm Street and 2012

New Images from Gamer

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:42:02 -0700

Review: Thirst

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:03:45 -0700

Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, with its pre-James M. Cain deadly adultery plot, was made into a fine French period noir by Marcel Carne. Here, the same dark novel supplies the inspiration for a bloody, violent, riveting, sometimes nauseating vampire movie by Park Chan-wook, who made the snazzy Korea-noir OldBoy and here tries to come up with a Dracula Always Rings Twice.

Review: Funny People

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:03:32 -0700

Take it from Judd Apatow, Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen. Money doesn't solve everything, and maybe the right health care or good sex doesn't either. But at least moolah, good doctoring and the horizontal bop may help you make better, more serious movies, somewhere between all the crowd-pleasing dirty joke-a-thons.

Trailer: A Serious Man

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:15:35 -0700

The Coens newest – A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and “F-Troop” is on TV.

MCN Exclusive: Flame & Citron

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:13:19 -0700

Based on true events and developed from eyewitness accounts during World War II, Ole Christian Madsen's political thriller FLAME & CITRON is an ultra-stylized and remarkable spy noir about the murky moral complexities of wartime. Copenhagen, 1944. World War II is entering its final stretch in Europe. Denmark is occupied by Nazi Germany. Two resistance fighters nicknamed Flame (Thure Lindhart) and Citron (Mads Mikkelsen - CASINO ROYALE) become heroes of the underground dealing violently with traitors to their cause. When the pair is sent to execute Flame's lover Ketty (Stine Stengade), the line between ally and enemy is blurred forcing them to determine their own orders which starts with killing the much hated and feared chief of the Gestapo - Karl Heinz Hoffman (Christian Berkel).(

DVD Review: Watchmen

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:50:48 -0700

Zack Snyder’s adaptation of the graphic novel, Watchmen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons, divided fans of the much-worshipped original. It even caused Moore to take his name off the credits … although he might have done it, anyway, just to be ornery.

I Love You Phillip Morris

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:50:26 -0700

The International Trailer

The Prince of Persia Teases out a Poster

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:33:55 -0700

New Images from Wonderland

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:36:32 -0700

Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Red and White Queens ...

Twilight: New Moon

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:36:13 -0700

New images from Twilight: New Moon

Frenzy Like It's 1999

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:18:17 -0700

It’s basically an accepted fact at this point that 1999 was one of the absolute best years in (recent) movie history. It was a coming-out party for a number of visionary filmmakers as well as a reminder of the talent of some veteran guys. It was truly a year of auteurs, with new filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and David O. Russell emerging and filmmakers like Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and Michael Mann contributing some of their best work. And I was a sixteen year old budding film buff who thought the world of film was turning a corner.

Weekend Boxoffice: HP and the Full-Blooded Dish

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:13:32 -0700

It was all Harry 24/7 as the sixth installment, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, stormed the box office with an estimated $79.7 million box office ($159.9 million for 5½ days). It was the most fierce debut in the series history (inflation unadjusted) and all the more incredible in light of a paucity of Imax playdates (just three).

Full list of weekend boxoffice estimates.

The Week in Posters

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:26:37 -0700

Julie & Julia, 9, Brothers, It Might Get Loud, A Woman in Berlin, Jennifer's Body, Irreversi

MCN Review by Mike Wilmington: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:26:14 -0700

From the moment right near the start of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when we see three dark, murderous Death Eaters swooping across London, wreaking CGI havoc on the foggy city below, right up to this new movie‘s hellish climax, with teen wiz Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) observing and his wizardly mentor Prof. Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) fighting in a lake of fire filled with deadly, squirmy creatures, the new Harry Potter movie drenches us in a mix of horrific fantasy and teen romance/sexuality that’s a world away from the series’ sugary magical school days 2001 kickoff, the Chris Columbus-directed Harry Potter and the Sorcerer‘s Stone.

MCN Review by Kim Voynar: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:25:42 -0700

One of the complaints about the fanbase of a book (or book series) being adapted to film is that the fans can be a bit too obsessive when it comes to how their beloved reading material is translated to the big screen.

MCN Video Review by David Poland: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:36:09 -0700

They're teenagers. The movie is completely obsessed with them being teenagers. It's fine, y'know, it's number 6, it's not exceptional, David Yates is not an exceptional director. You know what it felt like to me?It's like the barn is set up , the props are out there, let's go do the show. Harry Potter is a series. You go for the ride. (video)

Until the Credits Do Us Part: Marriage and the Movies

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:38:18 -0700

But if it's true, to paraphrase Tolstoy, that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, then there must be an awful lot of interesting unhappiness going on between the bliss of falling in love and the agony of falling apart -- so why don't more movies focus on couples navigating that middle ground?

Trailer: An Education

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:38:02 -0700

Trailer: Despicable Me

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:37:48 -0700

Trailer: Percy Jackson & the Olympians – The Lightning Thief

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:36:33 -0700

DVD: Van Wilder Freshman Year (Unrated)

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:47:10 -0700

The third entry in Paramount’s Van Wilder franchise is so derivative of Animal House that ROTC cadets still consider it their duty to defend the honor of Coolidge College – and its female students -- from incoming slackers and stoners.

DVD: For All Mankind

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:46:48 -0700

Let’s see if the media expend a tenth as much time and energy covering the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing as they did obsessing over the death of Michael Jackson, who did some moon-walking of his own. Although such missions soon were taken for granted by a fickle citizenry, Apollo 11 dominated the headlines and newscasts in America and around the world for weeks. And, why not?

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:46:13 -0700

12, For All Mankind, This is Spinal Tap, The Haunting in Connecticut, and more...

Trailers du Jour

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:45:10 -0700

Another School of "Magic" ...
Plus - Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - The Way We Get By

MCN Poster Premiere: An Education

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:36:19 -0700

Weekend Report: Bru-Maybe

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:27:12 -0700

Fabulous! Brüno, everyone’s favorite Austrian fashionista, led weekend ticket sales with an estimated $30.2 million. The frame’s other national bow, I Love You, Beth Cooper received considerably less affection with a $5 million opener and in Quebec local hero De Pere en flic had a huge debut of $1.8 million that cracked the domestic top 10.

MCN Weekend

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 10:53:10 -0700

Film Reviews
Boxoffice Estimates MCN Critics Roundup Box Office Hell Interviews DVD Reviews One Sheet of the Week Trailer of the Week

The Next Oscars Will Be Rated X

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:59:50 -0700

How will 10 nominees change the dynamic of desperate efforts to spin trend stories? How can it be The Year Of… anything with such inevitable diversity?

Trailer: Cemetery Junction

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:57:39 -0700

Ricky Gervais’s 2010 Cemetery Junction - also starring Ralph “Chuckles” Fiennes. Not really a trailer ... more of a tease .. or maybe just three guys talking about a movie they're going to make. Well, two guys all about the movie and one all about mocking the comedic talents of the star of Schindler's List.

Bruno: Reviews & Fashion

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:49:20 -0700

Review: Soul Power

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:48:57 -0700

The music is vibrant, but the context is scanty, in this concert film/documentary about Zaire ‘74, the knockout 3-day music festival that accompanied the storied Zaire “Rumble in the Jungle”

Review: Humpday

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:48:15 -0700

Humpday also boasts one of the worst pickup basketball games I‘ve seen. Are these guys basketball virgins as well?

DP/30

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:47:54 -0700

The gang from Humpday (l-r, Alycia Delmore, Joshua Leonard, Lynn Shelton, Mark Duplass) sits down to discuss the film...

The Trailer for District 9

Thu, 9 Jul 2009 11:23:52 -0700

Thirty years ago, aliens made first contact with Earth. Humans waited for the hostile attack, or the giant advances in technology. Neither came. Instead, the aliens were refugees, the last survivors of their home world. The creatures were set up in a makeshift home in South Africa’s District 9 as the world’s nations argued over what to do with them. Now, patience over the alien situation has run out. Control over the aliens has been contracted out to Multi-National United (MNU), a private company uninterested in the aliens’ welfare — they will receive tremendous profits if they can make the aliens’ awesome weaponry work. So far, they have failed; activation of the weaponry requires alien DNA…

Posters du Jour

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 13:22:29 -0700

A Christmas Carol, I Love You Phillip Morris, Inglourious Basterds, Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Surrogates, The Collector, The Hurt Locker, G-Force, Sorority Row

The Slippery Slope of Truth in Non-Fiction Films

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 13:21:29 -0700

It's a great story -- until just before the final credits, when the filmmaker tosses in the coda to the case with a few terse words: "Dole appealed all verdicts in the case and accused Juan Dominguez of fabricating evidence. April 23, 2009.

Bruno: The Fashion Spread

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 10:13:15 -0700

Bruno as Fashion Icon ...

DVD Review: Knowing

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:59:36 -0700

How does poor Nicolas Cage wind up in so many movies involving telekinetic hoo-ha, improbable conspiracies and bizarre coincidence?

DVD Review: Push

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:59:10 -0700

The best way to explain what happens in Push is to compare it to X-Men, by way of The Matrix and Harry Potter.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:58:46 -0700

Knowing, Quo Vadis?, Lonely are the Brave, and more...

DVD Review: Waltz with Bashir

Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:57:56 -0700

The greatest so far untapped potential in all of cinema is the animated documentary.

Inglourious Basterds - New posters

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 16:55:31 -0700

The Hurt Locker: A War Story for Our Time

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:47:34 -0700

Take the “war” aspect out of the films and Three Kings is about how painful and rewarding selflessness can be, and The Hurt Locker is about how damaged one must be in order to be willing to be a hero.

The Reproductive System of Aliens?

Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:47:15 -0700

Listen and learn!

MCN Weekend

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 17:51:39 -0700

Film Reviews MCN Critics Roundup Box Office Hell Interviews DVD Reviews Posters du Jour While Michael Mann's take on the legendary outlaw bank robber John Dillinger is largely saved from its flaws by Johnny Depp, it's also lacking the soul and humanity that might have made elevated it to the extraordinary. ...more at MCN Weekend.

Looking Beyond the Veil: Arab Women in Film

Fri, 3 Jul 2009 17:51:16 -0700

In hindsight, it would be fair for a novice historian to assume that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -- when considered alongside Germany and Italy’s military actions in Europe and North Africa – would have provided sufficient motivation for Americans to support our entrance into a global war against the Axis powers.

Review: Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 14:32:22 -0700

Are those Ice Age wedding bells breaking up that old gang of mine? That jolly prehistoric Ice Age wild bunch composed of a fearsomely popular digitally animated woolly mammoth and his mammoth-babe, a sloth, and a saber-toothed tiger wandering around in some mad cartoon mish-mash of prehistory?

Trailer: Planet 51

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:12:54 -0700

The inhabitants of Planet 51 live in fear of alien invasion. Their paranoia is realized when an astronaut arrives from Earth.

Review: Bruno

Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:11:57 -0700

As Brüno, Cohen makes no attempt to soften the punches as he stares America's homophobia right in the face and dares it to blink first. While Brüno's completely outrageous and inappropriate in almost every conceivable way, there's nothing superfluous in the way he's refracting cultural mindsets and values back at us. And it's not a pretty sight.

The Fame and Misfortune of Michael Jackson

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 15:43:58 -0700

Michael Jackson was one of the most vivid examples of what a terrible curse fame can be; unlike many people who seek fame out and then learn too late that it's not all they thought it would be, Jackson had fame thrust upon him from the age of five whether he liked it or not, and he never could escape its clutches.

Posters du Jour

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 15:21:22 -0700

Couples Retreat, Precious and Carriers

Trailer: The Informant

Wed, 1 Jul 2009 15:10:44 -0700

Clooney's Smokehouse Moving To Sony

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:13:04 -0700

George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures are in final negotiations to sign an exclusive two-year theatrical development and production deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment, it was announced today by Amy Pascal, Co-Chairman of Sony Picture Entertainment and Chairman of the studio’s Motion Picture Group.

MCN Twitters ... do you?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:54:07 -0700

Follow MCN, The Hot Blog, Film Docket, Movie City Indie and FilmEssent on Twitter!

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:53:15 -0700

My Dinner with Andre, Two Lovers, Do the Right Thing and more...

Trailer: Amelia

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:24:38 -0700

Trailer: Daybreakers

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:24:24 -0700

Trailer: The Invention of Lying

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:23:59 -0700

Review: Bruno

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:12:00 -0700

Review: Public Enemies

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:01:32 -0700

Is Public Enemies (A) a blockbuster an astute exploration into the mind and soul of the century's most notorious bank robbers; (B) a Robin Hood tale about a legendary folk hero/outlaw; (C) a good/evil story about an outlaw and the law man who brings him to justice; or (D) None of the above?

Review by Kim Voynar: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:00:58 -0700

Were there any questions left unanswered from the first Transformers film that desperately needed answering, other than how much money the studio would rake in for a sequel between box office, DVD sales and merchandise relentlessly pimped to a new generation of young Transformers fans?

Review by Ray Pride: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:00:37 -0700

Two-and-a-half-hours of pummeling, lashing, transformation, goop, goo, fairy dust in a tube sock, simulacra of human behavior

Review by David Poland: Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:00:06 -0700

It's one of those occasions where they've managed to make a movie so incredibly bad that it represents career lows for almost everybody involved. (video)

Academy Awards Will Feature 10 Best Picture Nominees

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:04:55 -0700

The 82nd Academy Awards, which will be presented on March 7, 2010, will have 10 feature films vying in the Best Picture category, Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announced today (June 24) at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

The DVD Wrap

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:08:40 -0700

Inkheart, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Pink Panther 2, Rockers, Ghostbusters ...

The DVD Wrap: Waltz with Bashir

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:08:20 -0700

Awards junkies intrigued by the Motion Picture Academy and its often baffling nominating procedures will recall the drama surrounding the treatment of Ari Folman’s much-lauded animated documentary, Waltz With Bashir. First, it was denied a place in the feature-documentary category, based rules too byzantine to explain in a brief review. Neither did Folman’s agonizing study of wartime trauma make the cut in the animated-feature category, which inexplicably is limited to three entries each year.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:35:28 -0700

Woodstock, Last Year at Marianbad, Waltz with Bashir and more...

New Images from Michael Mann's Public Enemies

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:35:14 -0700

Trailer: Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:48:48 -0700

Tired Acts in Year One

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:15:14 -0700

How did Harold Ramis, Jack Black and Michael Cera -- otherwise intelligent, talented people -- end up involved in a mediocre, muddled project llike Year One? I'd like to say this film is a perfectly acceptable comedy, the kind of movie that gives you a couple smiles here and there, and can be forgiven for being the kind of dreck destined to populate some late-night cable movie slot, but given the level of talent wasted here, it's not.

Irene in Time: A Father's Day Gift from Henry Jaglom

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:25:49 -0700

Irene in Time, a movie devoid of any positive male role models, is being released Friday, two days ahead of Father’s Day. Naturally, the peculiar timing begged the question, “Who thought this was a good idea?”

JibJab has fun with Barack Obama - Come to Save the Day!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:16:11 -0700

A Merrie Melody For Friday Morning

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:02:21 -0700

Bugs Bunny is wanted "dead or alive" by the Mounted Police, led by Elmer Fudd. Produced in 1942

2012 - The Trailer

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:37:02 -0700

Review: Whatever Works

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:36:29 -0700

How are the Times-made-mighty fallen. Or pratfallen. Now, in Allen‘s latest movie Whatever Works, the Nobel Prize is used as a running gag. The film’s main character Boris Yellnikov (who isn’t played by Woody, but by Wood-alike Larry David) -- a misbegotten soul whose oddball romance with Mississippi-born homeless gal Melody St. Ann Celestine (Evan Rachel Wood) is the main plot -- keeps being described as string physics specialist who “almost won the Nobel Prize.”

The Relativity of Relationships

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:37:30 -0700

There's a certain irony in a film festival held in Las Vegas -- a town where the size, not the quality, of your chip stash matters and fliers offering beautiful girls sent to your hotel room are handed out on the streets -- programming some interesting films that focused on emotional connections.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Criterion Collection

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:52:21 -0700

"It's an interesting thing, shooting a movie with septua and octogenarians as extras because, you know, extras, normally, from the standpoint of the production team, do not engender a lot of sympathy. In fact, a lot of times they're sort of considered to be the most problematic department. It gave me a whole new take on how difficult and confusing the process of making movies is, to people who have never read the script and have no idea what it is you're trying to do. These are people who are very frail. It's like you don't kind of realize how frail somebody who's seventy-eight is until they have to stand up and hold a glass of lemonade for 13 hours and be in continuity. So, I have a newfound respect for extras."

Win Two Tickets to the LA Film Fest screening of IN THE LOOP

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:13:59 -0700

Transformers in My Mailbox

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:48:09 -0700

At the end of last week’s column, which was about unnecessary sequels being released this summer, I implored readers to send me e-mails if they were actually fans of the first Transformers movie and let me know why. I had stated that I didn’t know anybody who actually enjoyed that film, which was true. But now I’ve had the most e-mails I’ve ever received in my life, all from Transformers fans who passionately – and for the most part, reasonably – explained what they enjoyed about the film. I usually get about five to ten e-mails for every column; for this one, I received about seventy-five.

The Weekend Report: Sub-way Stories

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:09:50 -0700

Hangover and Up once again dominated weekend ticket sales with respective grosses of $33.1 million and $30.7 million and that put the kibosh on new releases. The highly anticipated The Taking of Pelham 123 pulled into third spot with a just passable $24.6 million gross while the $5.6 million box office for Imagine That was too cruel to contemplate.

The Man Behind Moon: An Interview with Duncan Jones

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:57:02 -0700

Brainy British writer-director Duncan Jones, 38, has made an impressive feature debut, the indie sci-fi thriller Moon, which opens in New York and L.A. on June 12. Smart, suspenseful, and artfully crafted on a modest budget of $5 million, it stars Sam Rockwell, often a supporting actor, but here carrying the entire film in two roles.

Review: The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:00:12 -0700

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 is, easily, the best non-animated studio movie of the summer so far.

Review: Food Inc

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:59:53 -0700

Are you aware that many of the pigs and chickens you eat live in inhuman conditions, crammed together in nearly airless, sunless warehouses, stuck deep in their own feces?

Review: Moon

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:59:33 -0700

Moon isn’t bad. Rockwell is good, twice, and Spacey may have another career available as a telephone answering service made to spook callers.

Review: Away We Go

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:59:16 -0700

Away We Go is well-directed, well-acted, well-written (in a way). And it has a number of beguilingly candid, well-observed scenes between Burt and Verona, that put to shame the notions of romantic love and parenting floated our way often in the average Hollywood domestic romance/comedy.

The Weekly DVD Wrapup

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 15:25:03 -0700

Gran Torino & Norman Lear TV Collection
Also ... The International, Home, Milking the Rhino, Earthquake in Chile, Strike, In Love we Trust .. and more.

Wilmington on DVD

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 15:23:38 -0700

Gran Torino , Revolution, The Rain People, and more...
And, as we watch C. E.‘s latest screen character in action -- a 70s-something widower/misanthrope named Walt Kowalski battling a local street gang -- he makes us feel lucky…. Fortunate to get another chance to watch this guy simmer and explode on screen.

Sequels Nobody Asked For

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 11:07:38 -0700

Box office receipts can be deceiving. Most studios will look at the box office results of the latest tent-pole blockbuster and based on those results, decide whether or not the film merits a sequel. Besides the fact that that is clearly not an artistic decision in any way, it’s also incredibly short-sighted. Just because a large portion of people saw a particular film, does that necessarily mean that they liked it?

Weekend Boxoffice: Land of the Loss

Sun, 7 Jun 2009 20:24:38 -0700

Belmont be damned … it was a photo-finish at the weekend box office with initial estimates giving the animated adventure Up a slight edge on the debut of the gonzo comedy The Hangover. First blush pegs Up with $44.5 million for a $200k lead on the new "boys' night out" misadventure.

Posters of the Week

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 14:24:19 -0700

The Goods, The Other Man, Final Destination, Shrink, Transformers, The End of the Line, Death in Love, Land of the Lost, The Answer Man

DVD Review: Defiance

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 14:23:35 -0700

The Holocaust has been a centerpiece of too many movies to count. Only a few, however, have shown Jews in anything but a purely defensive or subjugated position, their acts of heroism generally occurring in ghettos or concentration camps.

DVD Review: Man Hunt

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 11:41:45 -0700

The great Fritz Lang takes on Der Fuehrer in 1941‘s Man Hunt, a neglected 1941 gem of film noir and ballsy left-wing thriller, scripted by John Ford‘s liberal conscience, Dudley Nichols. Lang’s source novel is Geoffrey Household’s Rogue Male, a furiously topical pre-WW2 bestseller about a British big game hunter (played by Walter Pidgeon), who goes after Adolf Hitler (played by the actual Schickelgruber in documentary footage) , and then finds himself the target of Nazis, killers and fifth columnists in a very foggy London of shadowy houses and rain-slickened streets, where chills, betrayal and murder are always in the air.

DVD Review: Revolutionary Road

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 11:41:02 -0700

Revolutionary Road is one of these novels I‘ve always meant to crack -- like Remembrance of Things Past, or Middlemarch or At Swim Two Birds, but a somewhat easier read. So I was happy to see it on screen, since this Sam Mendes version of Richard Yates’ highly regarded 1961 novel -- a book which got great reviews and maintained its reputation --gave me a chance to buy and read Yates’ book, in a nice cheap movie tie-in paperback with Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet on the cover, nuzzling noses and swaddled in white.

DVD Review: The Da Vinci Code: Extended Cut

Tue, 2 Jun 2009 09:08:23 -0700

Exclusive to Blu-ray, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released a 175-minute Extended Cut 2-Disc Set presentation of Ron Howard's The Da Vinci Code. In terms of entertainment, the shorter version works better.

The Frenzy in Hawaii

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 12:26:43 -0700

I’m right in the middle of a two-week trip to Maui. Anytime I go on a trip, I always bring classic books I never got around to – this trip I brought Tender is the Night and Master and Margarita – and I also bring along a few DVDs to watch on the plane and in my down time. My plan is to fill in the substantial cinematic gaps that I, like every cinephile, have.

Weekend Boxoffice

Sun, 31 May 2009 15:53:24 -0700

Up was away up as it entered the marketplace with an estimated $67.8 million to command weekend ticket sales. The session also saw the national bow of the horror parable Drag Me to Hell, which ranked third with $16.7 million. Revenues overall were essentially flat from 2008 (to be rigorous; -0.5%).

Review: Up

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:46:05 -0700

Co-written and directed by Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc.) with Bob Peterson, it’s almost a great children‘s movie, and another strong argument that the Pixar cartoon cadre is the strongest creative force operating in mainstream Hollywood right now.

Review: Departures

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:47:05 -0700

eath begets beauty in Departures, a moving new film that teaches us, and its reluctant hero Daigo Kobayashi (Masahiro Motoki), all about the fine art of encoffination: the delicate ritual preparation of a corpse for cremation, a last rite performed with the utmost discretion and quiet showmanship in front of the assembled family and funeral guests, before the coffin is plunged into the flames.

Review: Drag Me to Hell

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:46:43 -0700

Drag Me to Hell, from Sam (SpiderMan) Raimi is in his Evil Dead mode and gear: a scary movie that’s really scary and a horror flick that, despite a hell-bound plot that‘s not too original and has notable holes, managed to keep the audience with whom I saw it, jumping and screaming -- and then laughing and applauding after each fresh jump and scream, all the way to the last shot. I won’t say I was one of the screamers. But I did jump more than once -- and I’ve seen David Lean‘s Great Expectations, Brian De Palma’s Carrie and the Evil Deads and Rosemary‘s Baby and the like, so I knew what to expect.

More than Skin Deep: Girls, Women and Career Choices

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:21:14 -0700

What will it take for women to compete on a level playing field with men in the world of film? And is it just the fault of Hollywood -- or the film world in general -- that men still largely dominate the industry when it comes to directing and the production side of the business, or are gender expectations, differences in the ways women were raised, and psychological barriers equally important hurdles?

Images: The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:20:54 -0700

Images: Sherlock Holmes

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:20:35 -0700

Images; The Book of Eli

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:20:01 -0700

January 2010

DVD Review: Marley & Me: Bad Dog Edition

Wed, 27 May 2009 14:13:57 -0700

Running 115 minutes, the enormously popular 2008 family film, Marley & Me, depicts the full life of a family dog as the family grows up around him. In his younger years, he is especially rambunctious, which contributed to the film's superb marketing campaign that suggested the movie would be another Beethoven-style slapstick piece.

The Hangover: Enter for a chance to Win!

Wed, 27 May 2009 13:53:57 -0700

DVD Review: Powder Blue

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:53:09 -0700

If nothing else, the free publicity had only served to build the wee bit of buzz in Powder Blue that actually existed, despite a cast that also included Ray Liotta, Forest Whitaker, Kris Kristofferson, Lisa Kudrow and a freakish performance by the ailing Patrick Swayze.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:52:48 -0700

Of Time and the City, El Dorado, Zabriskie Point, and more...

Getting Dragged to Hell

Mon, 25 May 2009 13:52:25 -0700

Sometimes, though, when you see a film with a great audience, it can make the film seem a lot better and more entertaining than it actually was. It doesn’t make the experience any less worthwhile, but you have to be careful not to let that great experience color your perception of the film.

Exhibitionists Rivet Robots

Sun, 24 May 2009 13:51:39 -0700

It was a trip to the Smithsonian rather than a date with doomsday that prevailed with American audiences at the multiplex. Night at the Museum 2 posted an estimated $53.4 million while Terminator Salvation brought in $43.3 million during the first three days of the Memorial weekend holiday. The impressive showdown nonetheless fell slightly short of last year’s tally.

MCN Weekend

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:51:19 -0700

Looking for reviews, interviews, film ratings and box office charts? You'll find it all at MCN Weekend.

Review: Dance Flick

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:51:04 -0700

It’s quite a Wayans clan wingding anyway. Damien is the son of Nadia Wayans, who had a bar bit in I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka. And assisting him here as co-writers are his uncles, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Shawn, Marlon, and Craig Wayans, who’s Keenen Ivory‘s cousin. The producers are Keenen Ivory, Shawn, Marlon and Rick Alvarez. (No, that’s not Rick Alvarez Wayans, and I don’t know how he got in there.)

Review: Night at the Museum

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:50:37 -0700

For my taste, there just weren’t enough laughs in this comedy. But it sure looks good. Especially when Adams is on screen.

Review: Terminator Salvation

Fri, 22 May 2009 13:50:07 -0700

Terminator Salvation -- a big, roaring, burn-down-the-planet sequel to the Terminator trilogy set in the future -- tries to be a super-apocalyptic nightmare, a cine-techno-bloodbath where man battles machine, cyborg battles mini-copter, robot battles android, rebels battles mechano-tyrant, bombshell commando battles robo-snake, guerillas battle the future, CG whizzes battle scriptwriters, and everything possible gets blown to hell.

An Exclusive Look At Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours

Thu, 21 May 2009 13:49:48 -0700

Real Life Meets Cinema: Issues Raised by Burma VJ Emphasized by Arrest of Activist

Thu, 21 May 2009 13:49:30 -0700

There was a day, not so long ago, when no potential blockbuster could be launched without the benefit of an elaborate publicity stunt. Every new Jaws was preceded by sightings of great white sharks on beaches from Cape Cod to Key West, and on-set romances had a way of dissolving as soon as the red carpets were rolled up.

Sex, Morality and The Girlfriend Experience )

Wed, 20 May 2009 13:24:14 -0700

You might expect Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience to be sexy -- or, at least, sexual -- given that it's about a high-end call girl played by Sasha Grey, an adult film actress known for going to extremes. It's not sexy at all, though it is beautifully shot; its tone is cold and deliberately distant.

DVD Review: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:22:28 -0700

John Ford’s last great Western is a visually spare masterpiece about the new and old frontiers, a classic mostly unappreciated in its day. And it boasts the "Casablanca” of movie Western ensemble casts, a remarkable gallery topped by friendly movie legends James Stewart and John Wayne.

DVD Review: Taken

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:21:40 -0700

The conceit behind Pierre Morel and Luc Besson’s murder-a-minute thriller was simple: white-slavers abduct an American teenager, unaware not only that she’s the daughter of a CIA operative, but that a teensy-weensy clue left behind by an arrogant kidnapper would also seal their doom. Liam Neeson plays the well-traveled spook, who retired early to rekindle the relationship with his daughter that was denied them by the necessities of his job. No sooner would Neeson’s Bryan Mills get settled into his new digs, however, than his estranged wife would ignore his advice about allowing the girl to spend her vacation in Paris, without adult supervision

DVD Review: Valkyrie

Tue, 19 May 2009 13:20:16 -0700

Good Nazis … who knew? Valkyrie makes the case for those few officers in the regular German military who despised Hitler enough to devise a plan to kill him and take control of the central command in Berlin: heroic, yes; heroes … probably not.

Frenzy on the Podcast

Mon, 18 May 2009 13:19:05 -0700

This week Noah talks with Judi Krant, director of the film Made in China which won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW. They talk about the difficulty of shooting in Shanghai, the relationship between art and commerce, the greatness of Sidney Lumet and the whimsy of Michel Gondry.

The Decline of Tom Hanks

Mon, 18 May 2009 01:18:35 -0700

What's happened to the Tom Hanks I once loved?

MCN Weekend

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:54:12 -0700

Looking for reviews, interviews, film ratings and box office charts? You'll find it all at MCN Weekend.

Posters du Jour

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:53:05 -0700

Up, The Horsemen, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator: Salvation, Orphan, Away We Go

MCN Review: Angels & Demons

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:52:28 -0700

Movies like Angels and Demons make me wish I was watching them while reclined in a comfy beach chair while slathered in SPF30: they aren't particularly intellectually challenging, they're fast-paced and, if you're into conspiracy theories, they're decent fun. Actually, even if you're not into conspiracy theories, they're still fun, because you can enjoy ripping the holes in the plot to shreds over coffee with your friends after you see it.

Terminator Salvation: Enter to Win

Fri, 15 May 2009 01:51:53 -0700

MCN Review: Angels & Demons

Thu, 14 May 2009 21:51:19 -0700

For sheer off-the charts looniness, it’ll be hard to top the furious plot and flabbergasting climax of Angels and Demons, Ron Howard‘s brisk, routinely spectacular-looking new movie of another book by Dan (The Da Vinci Code) Brown -- the Catholic apocalyptic thriller specialist and concocter of the daffiest conspiracy theories this side of Chicken Little.

Girls of Summer

Wed, 13 May 2009 21:50:38 -0700

There are plenty of action-packed films with muscle-bound male heroes running around shooting bad guys and blowing things up, but where are the tough girls, the brainy, independent girls this summer?

Home is Still Where My Eyes Are

Tue, 12 May 2009 22:52:48 -0700

Last year around this time I wrote a column about my issues with the seeing the latest films in movie theaters. I wanted to revisit that column because with summer blockbusters here, there’s a good chance that we’ll all be spending a great deal of time in air-conditioned (hopefully) movie theaters, trying to cool off, have some (over-priced) popcorn and some (passable) entertainment.

DVD Review: An American in Paris BluRay

Tue, 12 May 2009 22:53:15 -0700

So you've just bought a Blu-ray player and you've never seen An American in Paris before? Well, aren't you in for a treat.

The Importance Of Overkill

Tue, 12 May 2009 22:51:51 -0700

Believe it or not, I actually have a degree in Film Studies. And from a major university, no less, not some clown college bullshit. One of my regular professors was some affable but bookish and tweedy sort with a horn rims, ‘70s handlebar and Beef-A-Roni ‘fro, very much looking like some long-lost extra from The Harrad Experiment.

Weekend Boxoffice

Sun, 10 May 2009 10:39:51 -0700

May 10, 2009 Weekend Estimates Domestic Market Share Hi Trek! It was another weekend of "how big?" Short of a mass flu epidemic sweeping the nation, nothing was going to get in the way of the Star Trek juggernaut. Though tracking and trekking were buoyant along with advance sales, the gut instinct was that it would not open quite as vigorously as X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The guestimators were trotting out somewhere in the low to mid-$60 million range and those forecasts proved to be on the light side.

MCN Weekend

Thu, 7 May 2009 22:48:25 -0700

Looking for reviews, interviews, film ratings and box office charts? You'll find it all at MCN Weekend.

Film Review: Star Trek

Thu, 7 May 2009 16:27:33 -0700

Countries, eras and presidential administrations (thank God) may come and go, but Captain Kirk and Vulcan First Officer Spock, the dynamic duo trading barbs and running the Starship Enterprise on Star Trek, may just apparently live on the edge of forever -- or as long as the Trek movies keep making lots of money.

Of Monologues and Dialogues: Does Any Artist Really Work in a Vacuum?

Wed, 6 May 2009 23:37:45 -0700

Is the best art created when the artist isolates himself as much as possible from outside influences? Or is art, by its nature, collaborative?

Shawn Levy on Paul Newman: A Life

Wed, 6 May 2009 18:04:54 -0700

In the first complete biography of the actor, director and philanthropist, Levy has observed that Newman was a lot like Lewis, or Frank Sinatra, whom he wrote about in Rat Pack Confidential: "Men like this have incredible capacities for work and activity."

Posters du Jour

Wed, 6 May 2009 10:50:50 -0700

25 posters .. PLUS the Star Trek, GI Joe and Inglourious Basterds Sets.

DVD Wrap

Tue, 5 May 2009 12:18:11 -0700

Bride Wars, Incendiary, Look, Last Chance Harvey, Enchanted April, Chandni Chowk to Chin, Ivanhoe, Hotel for Dogs, A Plumm Summer and more .. ,

DVD Reviews: Enchanted April

Tue, 5 May 2009 12:17:50 -0700

Originally shown on British television, Enchanted April was exported to the U.S. as a theatrical feature in 1992, and it worked both as a travelogue and a literary confection.

DVD Reviews: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Tue, 5 May 2009 12:17:24 -0700

Like most one-trick ponies that fall in love with their own cleverness, David Fincher’s 166-minute adaptation of a 25-page F. Scott Fitzgerald short story didn’t know when to take a bow and leave the stage. While it was impossible not to admire the ability of Fincher’s special-effects and makeup team to reverse the aging process, what transpired on Benjamin Button’s curious journey from the cradle to the grave was only as interesting as the characters who crossed his path when he most resembled Brad Pitt. Some were compelling … others, not so much.

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince: The Posters So Far

Tue, 5 May 2009 12:17:00 -0700

The Los Angeles Film Fest Lineup Announced

Tue, 5 May 2009 12:15:54 -0700

Today Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced the official selections for the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times.

The LAFF Lineup: About the Films

Tue, 5 May 2009 12:16:36 -0700

A PDF of all films & descriptions.

Soderbergh's Wonderful Girlfriend Experience

Mon, 4 May 2009 11:53:58 -0700

Soderbergh is, quite possibly, the most fascinating filmmaker working today. I’m in awe of his ability to vacillate between projects big and small, studio and indie, straightforward and quirky.

Trailering Soderbergh's Wonderful Girlfriend Experience

Mon, 4 May 2009 11:54:01 -0700

Trailering G.I. Joe

Mon, 4 May 2009 11:52:19 -0700

Do you Twitter?

Mon, 4 May 2009 08:51:34 -0700

MCN Does.

MCN Weekend

Sun, 3 May 2009 10:03:03 -0700

Looking for weekend boxoffice? Rreviews, interviews, film ratings? You'll find it all at MCN Weekend.

Review: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:35:49 -0700

This one is just a glossy, giddy, smart-alec misfire. From director Mark Waters and the writers who committed Four Christmases, it‘s an expensive, showy update of the great Charles Dickens’ endlessly remade and recycled Yuletide classic A Christmas Carol -- in which, this time, the Scrooge is a cynical serial seducer and bed-hopping star photographer named Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey).

Review: Wolverine

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:35:35 -0700

The question of the day, in a world beset with war, pandemics, economic collapse, crazed cable news-slingers and other problems up the wazoo: Where did Wolverine -- the sullen, steel-taloned superhero of the X-Men gang played by Hugh Jackman -- come up with his retractable claws, his superpowers and his surly disposition?

Roger & Me

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:08:48 -0700

When I was a little girl growing up in Oklahoma City, I was a little geek who read books voraciously and wrote incessantly. I told stories to myself while walking to school to pass the time. I scribbled stories during class, hiding a notebook inside my textbook so my teachers wouldn't know what I was doing. And I also, thanks in large part to my grandmother and Roger Ebert, came to love the storytelling of movies.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:08:25 -0700

Nothing But the Truth, Johnny Got His Gun, In the Realm of the Senses and more...

The DVD Wrap

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:07:33 -0700

Empire of Passion, What Doesn't Kill You, The She Beast, The Caller, The Last Templar, and more ...

DVD Review: Nothing but the Truth

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 16:06:57 -0700

Although it’s impossible not to compare what happens in Nothing But the Truth to the prosecution of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, the differences between the two cases are, at once, significant and irrelevant.

Short Cuts

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:17:57 -0700

There’s a lot of stuff percolating in the movie world these days, as well as a number of thoughts that have been percolating in my noggin. So, what follows is a series of scattershot thoughts and theories that I’ve been collecting over the past few days ...

Pride, Unprejudiced

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:18:13 -0700

Four movies from three stars to none: the surprising Fighting; the listless The Informers; the pictorial qualities of The Soloist; and the Taxi Driver-ness of Observe and Report.

The Weekend Report

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:20:20 -0700

Audiences opted for the perverse office politics of Obsessed with the film bowing to an estimated $28.8 million. The frame's other national debuts included the hard kicking actioner Fighting with $11.3 million in third position and, close behind, the potent drama The Soloist with $9.7 million. Also new was the eco-documentary Earth that bowed on Wednesday and scored an opening weekend tally of $8.6 million

MCN Weekend

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:41:51 -0700

Looking for reviews, interviews, film ratings and box office charts? You'll find it all at the new MCN Weekend page, where we've gathered everything you want to know about the current films playing at a theater near you.

Podcast: Thomas Haden Church and Elisabeth Shu

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:41:27 -0700

This week Noah talks to Elisabeth Shue and Thomas Haden Church about their new film Don McKay, working together and working apart, the wonder of Meryl Streep and Shue's great work in Cocktail!

Rush to Judgement: The Soloist

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:41:05 -0700

On a strictly objective basis it’s rather easy to pick apart a film like The Soloist. The story has a tendency to lose focus as it shifts emphasis from one character to another; sub-plots that appear to have significance eventually evaporate as do secondary roles; and there are myriad lapses in logic, continuity and chronology.

Review: Tyson

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:40:38 -0700

In a movie interview that's both fiercely candid and incongruously sensitive, ex-heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson comes across here-- under the sympathetic eyes and hands of director/friend James Toback -- as much more than the wayward knockout king, fallen boxing hero and beast of the ring he seemed through much of his career.

Review: The Soloist

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:40:04 -0700

The Soloist is a movie where Hollywood/Los Angeles tries to show its better, kinder side, and though it's the kind of project some critics love to ridicule, for me, much of it worked.

Yellow-facing and White-washing: The Racial Issues Raised by the Casting of The Last Airbender

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:35:50 -0700

I've been loosely following the whole kerfuffle surrounding the casting of M. Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender (renamed The Last Airbender, presumably to avoid confusion with James Cameron's Avatar project), wherein the lead characters of the Asian-influenced animated television series have magically become white people in the live-action version.

DVD Review: The Wrestler

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:53:42 -0700

In addition to the digital copy for portable media platforms, the Blu-ray edition adds featurettes on the filming of pro-wrestling events, the tricks of a real wrestler’s trade and music video of Bruce Springsteen’s The Wrestler, a song unfairly ignored by the Motion Picture Academy’s nominating committee.-

DVD Review: Assault on Precinct 13

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:53:02 -0700

On the last day and night before the L. A. Precinct 13 police outpost closes forever, the station -- now manned by a skeleton crew and an unhappy but highly skilled new commander (Austin Stoker), is suddenly besieged by a murderous multi-racial street gang.

DVD Review: Frost/Nixon

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:51:05 -0700

Taken from Peter Morgan‘s stage play -- which also starred the spot-on Frank Langella as dark, fallen Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as his breezy Brit TV interlocutor David Frost -- this is an actor‘s showcase of an especially grand and luscious kind.

Vanishing Point: BluRay

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:50:26 -0700

The film's symbolic and quasi-supernatural elements are totally silly, but so are the realistic sequences-the story, after all, is about the police chasing the hero in his 1970 white Dodge Challenger for two days across the Nevada desert-and the movie is more valid as an argument against mythology-that modern warfare, modern corruption, modern communications and modern information dissemination have destroyed the ability to create any reflective mythology that is not satire-than it is to be celebrated for a few esoteric sleights of hand. But mostly, fans just want to bask in Newman's super-cool attitude, the supremacy of his vehicle over all opponents, and the lovely constant buzz of the highway whipping by.

Summer 2009 Preview, Part Two

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:49:58 -0700

July and August are loaded this year with a ton of films that also promise to bring some excitement to those lazy summer days. As always, release dates could shift, but as of now, here's a look at the hot summer action heading our way.

Weekend Boxoffice: 17 Again ... and Again ... and Again

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 18:18:04 -0700

The tenacity of wish-fulfillment was evident in 17 Again, bolstered by the current popularity of its star Zac Efron. Industry trackers expected the old war horse to score in the low 20s and estimates were about 10% better than those projections. It not surprisingly played best with young fans rather than anyone old enough to muse on a second chance.

MCN WEEKEND!

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:16:21 -0700

Looking for all our reviews, interviews, film ratings and box office charts? You'll find it all here in our new MCN Weekend page, where we've gathered everything you want to know about the current films playing at a theater near you.

Posters du Jour

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:06:56 -0700

Where the Wild Things Are, Star Trek, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian; The Brothers Bloom, Old Dogs, More Than a Game, 500 Days of Summer, Ice Age, Wolverine, Moon, Management and Post Grad

Review: 17 Again

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:05:16 -0700

What would you so if you had a chance to be reborn as your old 17 year old self -- and that self just happened to be Zac Efron?

MCN Image of the Week

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:01:14 -0700

Film Review: Anvil!

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:50:04 -0700

This funny, sad, terrific little documentary is about a band of fiftyish Canadian heavy metal rockers, who flirted with fame in the early ‘60s, didn’t make it, but have hung on ever since -- especially the groups’ two founding members, mercurial lead guitarist/singer Steve “Lips” Kudlow and the quieter, calmed drummer Robb Reiner, two guys who --like Mick Jagger and Keith Richard or John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, have been rocking out together since their mid-teen years.

Film Review: State of Play

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:49:28 -0700

This is a thriller, with (for me) a phony, unsatisfying ending -- surprising considering its illustrious source -- one that sent me out of the theater with a sour aftertaste. But, as a gritty-scrappy, lovingly detailed mash note to our dying profession and vanishing world --a milieu partly killed by the very internet website universe around us now -- and as a showcase for some brilliant and/or attractive actors (including Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Jeff Daniels and Jason Bateman, who comes close to stealing the whole movie from that formidable lineup) -- it succeeds.

The French Connection

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:01:15 -0700

Would whoever kidnapped William Friedkin in the late Seventies and replaced him with an evil twin please let the poor man go?

An Exclusive Early Look At Lemon Tree

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:00:54 -0700

Winner of the Audience Award at the Berlin Film Festival and Best Actress prize (Hiam Abbass) at the Israeli Film Academy Awards, LEMON TREE is Eran Riklis' (THE SYRIAN BRIDE, CUP FINAL) engaging human drama of one woman's struggle to preserve her way of life in the midst of political turmoil. The wonderful Hiam Abbass (THE VISITOR) is Salma, a Palestinian widow who earns her living tending to her late father's lemon grove. When an Israeli government minister moves next door and declares the grove a potential security threat, Salma struggles to defend her peaceful livelihood. Personal drama gives way to political controversies as Salma forms an unexpected bond with the minister's lonely wife (Rona Lipaz-Michael), and takes her protest - with the help of her young lawyer (Ali Suliman, PARADISE NOW) - all the way to the Israeli Supreme Court..

Drunken Sex or Date Rape? A Look at the Issues Raised by Observe and Report

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:00:41 -0700

ere's been a bit of a brouhaha stirring over opening weekend about the alleged "date rape" scene in Observe and Report. When the film played at SXSW I didn't hear a single person even mention this scene as being at all controversial. Now, as the film is seen – or not seen - by a larger group of film writers, some are accusing the film of making comedy of date rape. But does it?

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:12:32 -0700

The Reader , Pete Seeger: Live in Australia 1963, Happy Together, Pillow Talk and more ...

Summer 2009 Preview, Part One

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:07:07 -0700

Ahh, can you smell that? Trees are blooming, flowers are blossoming, and Hollywood is preparing to assault your senses with explosions, car crashes and cyborgs. Yes indeed, my friends, the summer movie season is soon upon us. Considering the shrug-inducing first four months of the year, it will be a pleasure to watch movies that are visceral; at least with summer films, the studios are actually trying to entertain you.

Hannalujah!

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:50:57 -0700

The great Easter egg hunt delivered record breaking numbers with Hannah Montana: The Movie leading the charge with an estimated $34.3 million. The holiday session also included two other national debuts. Anti-Paul Blart: Mall Cop Observe and Report ranked fourth overall with a middling $11.1 million while the live-action manga adaptation Dragonball: Evolution eked out $4.6 million.

Friday Boxoffice Estimates

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:49:47 -0700

Review: Hannah Montana: The Movie

Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:49:18 -0700

I actually like Miley Cyrus and her Disney channel television show, Hannah Montana. It's one of the better shows targeted at tween and teen girls, with a unique concept -- average school girl leads a secret double life as the world's most famous pop star -- and it's generally well-written (for what it is) and well-produced. Unfortunately, this new big-screen version of the Hannah Montana story fails to do either the series or its star justice.

Review: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:21:26 -0700

This is an approximation of an American art movie, based on Michael Chabon’s well-regarded novel, and here, it comes off as just another navel-gazing coming-of-age script.

Review: Hannah Montana: The Movie

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:20:57 -0700

Hannah Montana: the Movie isn’t a very good movie, but that isn’t the fault of Disney Channel superstar Hannah, aka Miley Cyrus. Despite being hamstrung by a ludicrous, cliché-clogged script packed with cornball sentimentality, dubious “real life“ parallels and clumsily telegraphed so-called comedy, the show can’t sink the bouncy, razz-ma-tazz 16-year-old.

Review: Observe and Report

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:20:27 -0700

This oddball show, in which Seth Rogen gets fat and psycho-nasty, and Ray Liotta and Anna Faris respectively play his tough cop and trashy babe nemeses, is, no kidding, the Taxi Driver of mall cop comedies, as writer-director Jody Hill has already confessed was his intention. And that’s a title it will never lose.

What's the Truth About Objectivity in Documentaries?

Thu, 9 Apr 2009 12:20:05 -0700

The idea of a documentary film tends to evoke a certain perception that what we're seeing on-screen is purely non-fiction, a "document of the truth." But is it possible to say that any documentary encapsulates some objective idea of "truth," as opposed to the story the filmmaker seeks to tell, albeit through footage taken from "real life" rather than a narrative fictional script?

The Weekly DVD Wrap

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 14:47:29 -0700

Yes Man, Bedtime Stories, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Drancy Avenir, American High School, Not Easily Broken, Leonard Cohen: Live in London: Blu-ray

The Hot Blog: J&J&J

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 10:42:56 -0700

In this economy, even chick flicks are now doing the Pirates thing and shooting the sequels as they shoot the first films.

No comment: Where film criticism belongs

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 10:42:05 -0700

The randomness that is the internets provides this student emanation on "Where Film Criticism Belongs by Sam Watermeier of the Carmel High School HiLite, Indiana.

Film Essent: Movie Manners

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 10:41:37 -0700

Pop Quiz: You want to take your older kids to a free screening of a movie, but you can't find a sitter for your fussy 9-month-old baby. Do you:

Enter for a Chance to Win!

Wed, 8 Apr 2009 10:41:06 -0700

Observe & Report .. today.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 7 Apr 2009 10:40:31 -0700

Doubt, Alexandra, The Last Metro, Fallen Angels, No Country for Old Men and more ...

DVD Review: Quantum of Solace

Tue, 7 Apr 2009 10:39:46 -0700

The best feature on the second platter of Special Edition is a 46-minute collection of interviews, original shot for Internet promotion, with various subsidiary members of the film's crew. There is also a 25-minute production featurette and 14 minutes of shorter pieces.

Catching Up

Mon, 6 Apr 2009 17:02:19 -0700

With April here, it seems we’re not too far away from better movies – or at the very least, better produced and slicker products – so I thought I would look back on a few films from the first couple months of 2009.

Pop Goes the Diesel

Sun, 5 Apr 2009 17:01:50 -0700

Fast & Furious lived up to its moniker, speeding past the competition and re-writing the record books with an estimated $72.4 million debut. In another expansive frame the only other national debut -- the droll retro-comedy Adventureland -- didn’t provide much in counter-programming with a $5.7 million tally.

Interview: Cary Fukunaga Makes His Name with Sin Nombre

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 22:51:29 -0700

Oakland native Cary Fukunaga, 31, is on the fast track. After winning a Student Academy Award for his 2004 short, Victoria para chino, he moved on to the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program to develop his first feature, Sin Nombre, which Focus Features is rolling out wider on April 3.

Wilmington on Movies: Fast and Furious, Silent Light, Sugar, Adventureland, and Paris 36

Thu, 2 Apr 2009 22:50:53 -0700

Fast and Furious -- fourth in the mega-muscle-car-chase, car-crash series that began with The Fast and the Furious back in 2001 -- is a show for anyone who likes to waste a lot of time, or who could get sexually excited at the thought of Vin Diesel in a 1970 Dodge Charger smacking into Paul Walker in an F-Bomb Camaro (or maybe it was the 1972 Gran Torino), while a gang of fiendish Mexican drug dealers snarl and swagger, hide out in churches and smuggle heroin though the border in racetrack cave tunnels, and every girl is either rubbing fenders in bikini tops, spouting soap operatic twaddle or hopping from diesel fuel trucks as they careen around mountain roads during daring gas heist robberies.

Gentle Pressure, Relentlessly Applied: Women's Voices in a Man's World

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 10:04:47 -0700

Hip-hop music is a male-dominated field, although there have long been female voices fighting for a place above the testosterone-heavy fray. When the predominant voice of a culture, artistically, politically, and socially, belongs to one gender, how does the other perspective get heard -- and, when it is heard, taken seriously?

Wilmington on DVDS

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:57:47 -0700

Slumdog Millionaire, Danton, Il Generale Della Rovere and more ...

DVD Wrap Up: Marley & Me: 3-Disc Bad Dog Edition

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:38 -0700

I'm not enough of a dog person to understand how anyone could put up with such an unruly puppy - and anarchic adult - as Marley.

DVD Wrap Up: Seven Pounds

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:38 -0700

Audiences have come to depend on Will Smith to deliver the goods, even in movies that almost certainly would have struggled to survive in the hands of a less charismatic actor. Like Tom Hanks, and Jimmy Stewart before them, Smith is a peculiarly American Everyman. We see ourselves in nearly every character he's played, from Will, in The Fresh Prince to Bel-Air, to Ben Thomas, in Seven Pounds.

DVD Wrap Up: Slumdog Millionaire

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:24:38 -0700

Once upon a time, winners of the Oscar for Best Picture would take their good-natured time making their way from the nation's multiplexes to the local video store.

The Mount Rushmore of Forgettable Actors

Wed, 1 Apr 2009 09:59:34 -0700

It’s a troubling time in theaters right now, not for most moviegoers who see a movie or two a week, but for people like me who have an addiction; I don’t really know what to do with myself. I’ve caught up with Duplicity, I Love You, Man, and pretty much every movie I have any interest in seeing in a theater. This past weekend was one of the least appetizing weekends of new releases that I’ve seen in a while; put a gun to my head and I might see Monsters vs. Aliens but I won’t really be happy about it. And to make matters worse, my birthday is in the middle of the week and for the first time in many years, I will not see a movie in theaters on my birthday.

Monster Smash

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:37:31 -0700

The debut of Monsters vs. Aliens scared up an estimated $57.3 million to handily take control of weekend movie viewing. The Haunting in Connecticut, a more traditional chiller, also bowed to an impressive $23.2 million and the two top sellers accounted for approximately 55% of the frame's admissions.

Podcast: Wiley Wiggins, star of Sorry, Thanks

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:09:02 -0700

This week Noah talks to Wiley Wiggins about his new film, Sorry, Thanks, being in the cast of Dazed and Confused, mumblecore films, and great sci-fi films.

Review: The Haunting in Conneticut

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:15:31 -0700

The Haunting in Connecticut is a haunted-house horror movie, supposedly based on fact, and it’s dismayingly full of shadowy rooms, dingy décor, rotting corpses, a bedeviled family, screaming kids and a loud, clanging clamorous soundtrack to cue the scares. There’s even an exorcist of sorts, played by the always intense Elias Koteas -- who manages the movie‘s best performance, despite the scene where he suddenly realizes he may have screwed up.

Review: Monsters v. Aliens

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 11:16:44 -0700

Monsters Vs. Aliens seemed a little better to me while I was watching it than it does in retrospect. But it’s still a pretty nifty show: a fast-paced parody horror sci-fi comedy extravaganza with an all-star cast and lots of gaudy 3D effects. If you see it in 3D (and you should), it looks great -- the kind of movie where the ingenious technology takes on an added measure of delight because its handled so skillfully and playfully.

In Which We Discuss the Need for Nicolas Cage to Stop Making Bad Movies

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 07:57:02 -0700

Whatever happened to the Cage who started out making films like Racing with the Moon, Peggy Sue Got Married, Raising Arizona and Moonstruck? Or the later Cage, who intrigued with potent, evocative performances in Wild at Heart and Leaving Las Vegas? Or even the Cage who carried solid, action-packed films like The Rock (one of the few Michael Bay films that are worth watching) or Face/Off? There was a time when I looked forward to seeing a new Nic Cage film, when his talent on screen, combined with an ability to discern which scripts were worth making, made a new Nic Cage film something to at least be interested in, if not excited about. But these days, his choices tend more toward the explosion-packed and banal than the engaging and brilliant. And I miss the other Nic Cage.

DVD Review: Quantum of Solace

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:06:26 -0700

Just as Ian Fleming’s original series of James Bond adventures were best read back-to-back, it only made sense to watch Quantum of Solace after first seeing Casino Royale. Otherwise, instead of a revenge thriller, the second Daniel Craig entry resembles one very long, albeit extremely well choreographed chase.

Wilmington on DVDs

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:00:44 -0700

A Secret, Dodes’ka-den, L'Innocente and more ... Plus This Week's Box Set

An Interview with Tony Gilroy

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:14:49 -0700

“ We rehearsed for a week, just the three of us, which I had never done… I didn’t rehearse on Clayton at all… just the three of us, never at performance level, just to make sure… it’s a real tempo movie… everything is about tempo… and making sure that everyone could swing and that everything was there.”

The Brilliance of Hunger

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 06:04:08 -0700

Hunger shed light on something of which I, being an American who was born two years after the events depicted in the film, was unaware. While I can’t say that I walked out of the film with a greater understanding of the political reason why IRA prisoners would deliberately starve themselves to achieve their goals, I don’t think that was the point of the film either. Instead, I left with a pit in my stomach, having experienced something so visceral and harrowing that I was moved physically.

Film Review: Duplicity

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:49:37 -0700

Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity is slick wish-fulfillment of a particularly delicious kind: a romantic comedy suspense thriller set in the same super-high-tech world of corporate intrigue and deadly gamesmanship Gilroy used as a stylish backdrop in Michael Clayton, but reconfigured this time as this time for a tongue-in-cheek contemporary Cary Grantish-Grace Kellyish sort-of-Hitchcockian vehicle for Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.

Film Review: I Love You Man

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 09:50:16 -0700

I Love You, Man is a buddy-buddy comedy with flawless central casting: two near-perfectly mismatched buddies -- played by Paul Rudd and Jason Segel as nervous, sensitive real estate agent Peter Klaven and Sydney Fife, his slobbo, over-direct, appealingly macho bud. It also has a lot of canny, clever insights into the psychosexual links between close male friends from director-writer John Hamburg and co writer Larry Levin, as well as the actors.

SXSW's Janet Pierson on Stepping Up to the Plate and Out of the Shadows

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:51:00 -0700

This is Janet Pierson's "Hillary Moment," and she's loving every minute of it.

DVD Review: Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:39:59 -0800

The talking-dog days of winter have arrived for Disney, with the release in DVD of Air Bud: Special Edition and what I suspect will be its next franchise title, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, in DVD and Blu-ray.

DVD Review: Ashes of Time Redux

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:39:08 -0800

Australia, Beatrix Potter, and more ... plus, this week's box set

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:38:46 -0800

Over the top it may be, sport, but Baz (Moulin Rouge!) Luhrmann’s visually scrumptious, rousing epic of WW2-era Australia unbound, was one of my favorite movies of 2008.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:38:21 -0800

The Criterion Collection release of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is so immaculate that the previous Paramount release is rendered unwatchable. Paramount's presentation turns out to be extensively speckled-white speckles in the black areas of the screen and black speckles in the white areas of the screen-as well as being grainy and having a fairly noisy soundtrack.

The Mindscape of Alan Moore

Tue, 3 Mar 2009 20:37:47 -0800

One of the biggest creative talents behind Zack Snyder’s new movie Watchmen is absent from the credits: Alan Moore, the author of the original graphic novel on which the film is (by early accounts, faithfully) based.

An Exclusive MCN Preview

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:48:21 -0800

Everlasting Moments

What Will Women Watch(men)?

Mon, 2 Mar 2009 16:47:57 -0800

I'm looking forward to seeing Watchmen tonight. I know what's coming, having read the graphic novel and hearing from early reviews that the film is as true to the source material as it is to the costumes. So as a woman who's not terribly enamored of violence in films, how will I react to watching that violence on a screen, bigger than life?

The Weekend Report: Jonas and the Wail

Sun, 1 Mar 2009 12:47:10 -0800

Despite a 60% drop in business and anticipated fierce competition, Madea Goes to Jail retained its position as top ticket seller with an estimated $16.4 million gross. The presumed champ - Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience - got off to a fast start but quickly faltered and finished second overall with a $12.6 million tally.

Reviews: Crossing Over and Two Lovers

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:51:59 -0800

Writer-director Wayne Kramer goes the Short Cuts-Crash - L. A. kaleidoscope route in this pretty good message drama about the pitfalls and evils of U. S. immigration policy and urban racism.

Hurray, Independent!

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:51:30 -0800

Every year, in the days immediately following the Academy Awards, I rejoice in the knowledge that members of the mainstream and Internet media will get over themselves long enough to ponder something other than who’s wearing what, and by whom; which five, of the 25 equally qualified actors and directors nominated, are mortal-locks to take home an Oscar; why those predictions didn’t pan out; how many people around the world watched the ceremony; why the Nielsen ratings inched ahead, fell behind or remained the same; and, that old chestnut, how come it sucked so bad?

Accepting Remakes

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:50:58 -0800

Over the years, as the movie industry’s fetish for remaking anything and everything has become more prevalent, there have been tons of articles written about how “remakes” are destroying the very fabric of film or some such other hyperbolic thesis.

The Watchmen

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:50:08 -0800

Enter to win!

The DVD Wrap

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:49:41 -0800

If any two people in Hollywood should have been capable of combining their talents on a scathing satire of the industry’s creative malaise, veteran multi-hyphenates Art Linson and Barry Levinson surely would be among the most likely candidates.

Wilmington on DVD

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:48:51 -0800

Dear Zachary, Rachel, Rachel, Faces, and more ... plus, this week's box set.

Collector's Choice: The Films of Michael Powell

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:47:49 -0800

After what has seemed like an eternity, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's outstanding 1946 wartime fantasy,

Mr. Hollywood and the Women

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:47:28 -0800

When it comes to the movies, we all know sex sells ... but to what extent does Hollywood perpetuate gender stereotypes and the objectification of women?

The Speeches

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:58:22 -0800

The Oscar Acceptance Speeches from Danny Boyle, Kate Winslet, Sean Penn, Penelope Cruz, Heath Ledger's Family ...

The Oscar Winners

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:57:52 -0800

Slumdog, Sean Penn, Penelope Cruz, Wall-E ...

Oscar Day

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 22:11:54 -0800

The Gurus Ballot The Critics Scoreboard 20 Weeks of Oscar Print Your Own Ballot

Oscars Versus Spirits: My Likely Winners

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:20:31 -0800

For the past several years, I've enlisted my children's help when it came time to make a guess as to who would win what Oscars, on the theory that a pack of children playing a random game with the names of nominees worked in would result in predictions more-or-less as accurate as those made by my colleagues who made their guesses using actual thought, reasoning and Oscar history as their guides.

Reviews: Fired Up!, Friday the 13th and Must Read After My Death

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:19:56 -0800

Having sex with a high school cheerleader is probably one of the number one geek fantasies of a misspent youth.

MCN Exclusive; The Watchmen Covers

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:19:28 -0800

That Obscure Sense Of Surprise

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:18:54 -0800

don’t think many people expect Slumdog Millionaire to get anything less than 6 Oscars, including Picture, Director, and Screenplay. But in the Top 8 categories, Rourke vs Penn, Winslet vs Streep vs Hathaway vs Leo, Cruz vs Davis, and Stanton vs Black are all still uncertain in many minds. Add Slumdog’s three and Heath Ledger as locks and you have half the top awards in play.

DVD Wrap: Hight School Musical 3

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:18:12 -0800

High School Musical 3: Senior Year arrives this week in several video iterations, one more elaborate than the other. Disney has also repackaged and remixed earlier installments in the ever-expanding franchise.

DVD Review: An American Carol

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:17:26 -0800

Kevin Farley portrays a Moore-like documentary filmmaker and personality who is shown the realities of the world by several historical figures-primarily George Patton (played by Kelsey Grammer), who hardly seems like a promising role model.

Wondering About Slumdog

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:17:12 -0800

So the big show is coming up this weekend and I’m sensing an overall feeling of inevitability about the results on Sunday. And I don’t think that should be the case.

Pondering the Contenders in the Best Picture Derby

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:45:52 -0800

With ten days to go until Oscar, it's time for Oscar Outsider to take a look at the Best Picture nominees. Here's a rundown of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Best Picture contenders as we come down to the wire ... and what the Academy voters might be thinking.

DVD Review: Nights in Rodanthe

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:01:48 -0800

Nights in Rodanthe could only exist in one other genre: the achingly romantic, inevitably bittersweet mid-budget Hollywood tear-jerker.

DVD Review: Frozen River

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:58:54 -0800

Apart from appearances in several of Henry Jaglom's ensemble pieces, Melissa Leo came to our attention as detective Kay Howard in the brilliant police series, Homicide: Life on the Streets.

Bridging the Cultural Gulf with Trouble the Water

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:58:34 -0800

One of the things that particularly interests me about independent film is the way in which movies can both shine a light on social issues and act as agents of change in shifting the way in which those who watch a given film view the world around them.

Kate Winslet Should Not Win the Oscar this Year

Mon, 9 Feb 2009 14:26:28 -0800

For actresses, the top actresses are very close together in terms of skill; I’m talking about women like Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, and Rachel Weisz. But from the second I saw her in Heavenly Creatures, I felt that Kate Winslet was just a smidgen ahead of all the others.

Complete BAFTA Winners List Here

Sun, 8 Feb 2009 17:04:46 -0800

Sweet Coraline ... So Into You

Sun, 8 Feb 2009 17:04:24 -0800

The debut of rom-com He’s Just Not That Into You led the frame with an estimated $27.9 million. Three other films bowed this weekend to varying results including a sturdy start for the 3-D animated Coraline of $16.3 million that ranked third overall. There was OK response of $9.9 million for the thriller Push but in light of cost and awareness, The Pink Panther 2 gross of $11.8 was viewed as disappointing.

WGA Writers Inscribe Slumdog, Milk, Bashir

Sat, 7 Feb 2009 22:29:37 -0800

Review: He's Just Not That Into You

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 11:04:12 -0800

Can we have a moratorium on movies based on both video games and self-help books? This is not a good strategy for artistic success. Nor does Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo’s relationship tome He’s Just Not That Into You provide fertile soil, or jokes, for the attractive young cast assembled here, hired to impersonate a bunch of Baltimore yuppies, attractive but enmired in sexual dilemmas of sometimes maddening triviality.

Review: Coraline

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 11:03:47 -0800

Other movie genres may need some more oomph. But -- at least among the big popular, well-budgeted and well-distributed movies that have huge poster displays at the Multiplexes -- animation still seems in a kind of modern Golden Age.

Review: The Pink Panther 2

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 11:01:27 -0800

Peter Seller is dead - and The Pink Panther 2is anther funny-sad reminder. I‘m not sure why Steve Martin wants to revive Sellers’ pricelessly inept Inspector Jacques Clouseau so badly, but this movie is no better than his first “Pink Panther“ remake -- hit though it may have been

Wilmington on DVD

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 11:01:01 -0800

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Being There and more ... plus, this week's box set.

Who Let The Dogs In?

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 10:22:03 -0800

Ladies & Gentlemen… children of all ages… seven Oscar nominees who really didn’t go into this season expecting to be attending the Academy Awards…

Who's the Best of the Best Director Nominees?

Fri, 6 Feb 2009 10:21:18 -0800

Here we are 17 short days from Oscar, the "Biggest Movie Event of the Year," and over on the Gurus chart, they've got it nailed down to their top two picks in each category. I've written a lot of Oscar columns since coming on board here, covering the adapted and original screenplays, the acting categories, the foreigns, and the docs. Now, with less than three weeks to go until Hollywood's big hot date night with itself, I'm taking a look at the contenders in the Best Director category.

DVD Review: Lakeview Terrace

Sat, 7 Feb 2009 10:20:57 -0800

In cinema provocateur Neil LaBute's most personal films - In the Company of Men, The Shape of Things, Your Friends & Neighbors - he asks questions of his audience that demand responses that border on the visceral.

DVD Review: Zack & Miri Make Porno

Sat, 7 Feb 2009 10:20:16 -0800

The adult industry has repeatedly proven that it's perfectly capable of making fun of itself, while also lampooning mainstream entertainments.

The London Film Critics Hand Out Awards

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:45:27 -0800

The Wrestler, Slumdog Millionaire, Waltz with Bashir, Kate and Ben Button, too ...

Two Lovers

Wed, 4 Feb 2009 16:19:25 -0800

If Joaquin Phoenix is truly retired from acting it would be a shame because Two Lovers is definitely the best work he's done yet.

Gurus o' Gold

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 21:27:20 -0800

The Gurus give their number 1 and number 2 picks in every category ... including the shorts.

The Weekend Boxoffice Report

Sun, 1 Feb 2009 10:31:59 -0800

The kidnap thriller Taken topped weekend movie going with an estimated $24.5 million. While the top title's take was upbeat, two other premiering films had below par results. The chiller The Uninvited ranked third overall with $10.5 million and the issue comedy New in Town slotted eighth with a $6.7 million gross.

Taken leads the Top Ten Boxoffice for the Weekend

Sun, 1 Feb 2009 10:05:07 -0800

Slumdog Wins at the DGA

Sun, 1 Feb 2009 10:03:17 -0800

Kung Fu Panda Sweeps Up The Annie Awards

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:38:51 -0800

The Critics and Guild Awards So Far ..

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:36:13 -0800

Wilmington on DVD

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:34:18 -0800

Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Pink Panther, Mary Poppins, The Lucky Ones, and more ... plus, this week's box set.

Review: The Uninvited

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:33:53 -0800

For most of this movie’s length, it’s a gripping, atmospherically-shot horror movie with good actors and nice twists.

Review: New In Town

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 07:33:26 -0800

Welcome to New Ulm, Minnesota, where the tapioca is fine, the snow is omnipresent, the accents are out of Fargo, ice fishing is the town craze, the local most-eligible bachelor and labor union rep is played by Harry Connick Jr., and the local food plant is about to be downsized by a lot of mean big city Miami executives in expensive suits, who’ve sent sexy little Lucy Hill (Renee Zellweger) up to New Ulm to do their dirty work.