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Box-Office Oracle: It's 'The Vow' vs. 'Safe House' vs. 'Journey 2' vs. 'Star Wars' - Yikes!

Laremy Legel — Thu, 9 Feb 2012 13:05:36 -0700

It's bounce back weekend for the box office, there's no football to keep people home on Sunday and four new releases are available. Women, families, and Denzel fans are well represented, and the top twelve should bring in a tidy $136m this weekend. Let's break this thing down!

Laremy predicted the #1 movie correctly 4 Weeks In A Row

The Vow

Tracking is around $30m, and I've seen predictions in the $20s. I'm going bigger here, as women are still vastly under-served at the box office - plus, after Super Bowl weekend they can essentially force a date to see The Vow. Man up, fellas. Take one for the team. If you're looking for historical precedent I give you Dear John.

As of publish time the four new releases ranged from 47 to 60 percent on RottenTomatoes, so there's no clear "quality" play here. Thus, the film with the most targeted demographic looks poised to strike. Congrats, The Vow.

What will this $30m+ opening mean for the leads? Well, anything above $30.4m will put it above Dear John for second place on Tatum's resume (trailing only G.I. Joe). An opening at $34m will give it the bronze medal for Rachel McAdams, besting Wedding Crashers and only trailing both films in the Sherlock Holmes franchise. As such, you could very easily make the case that this is the biggest weekend for both of their careers, most of their projects have been either smaller or more ensemble based.

Prediction: $33.6 million

2. Safe House

I'm going slightly bear-ish here because I don't like the Saturday / Sunday word of mouth prospects.

Prediction: $22.5 million

3. Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace

A very difficult film to project because the call measures the fatigue of audiences for 3-D and re-releases vs. their desire to take kids to to potentially see this for the first time.

Prediction: $18.2 million

4. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

The first one was released in July, whereas this is getting the February treatment. That pretty much tells you all you need to know, right? But the family dollar will be there.

Prediction: $17 million

5. Chronicle

I'm only dippping it 47 percent because last weekend's frontload effect was non-existent due to the Super Bowl.

Prediction: $11.66 million

6. The Woman in Black

A bigger dipper here, 52 percent, based solely on the CinemaScore.

Prediction: $10.02 million

7. The Grey

$40m worldwide on a production budget of $25m mostly works, especially once you factor in some legs and residuals.

Prediction: $5.02 million

8. Big Miracle

If you ever make a big mistake at work just know that you didn't spend $40m to make Big Miracle and feel instantly better about yourself.

Prediction: $4.66 million

9. The Descendants

$111m worldwide, and what could it have cost to bring in? Sideways was around $16m, so even if you call this at $35m they are still looking at a very nice windfall.

Prediction: $3.64 million

10. One for the Money

They spent $40m here too, but they've recouped a massive $20m. Poor Lionsgate, they seem to have really bad taste mixed with poor business acumen.

Prediction: $2.7 million

How say you? I know you're eager to project the four new releases so I'll cede the rest of my time to you. Get some!

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Jean Dujardin Auditions for Villain Role in 'Skyfall,' 'Mission: Impossible 5,' 'Die Hard 5' and More

Brad Brevet — Thu, 9 Feb 2012 11:32:45 -0700

This video is amazing! Funny or Die, always spot on with the trends in Hollywood explores yet another one, pointing out how international stars hit the worldwide stage and are then promptly cast in villain roles in major Hollywood features. Christoph Waltz and Javier Bardem are the two examples used in the following video as The Artist star Jean Dujardin audiences for the villain roles in films such as Skyfall, Mission: Impossible 5, Die Hard 5 and even sequels to Jack and Jill and Bridesmaids. I hadn't even watched the whole thing when he blurts out the line, "Not so fast Ethan Hunt... Looks like this mission... is impossible," and I had to share it immediately. I've watched the rest since and it is well worth the three minutes. Not many of these videos actually make me laugh out loud, this one did... If anything, this may be enough to prompt you to check out Dujardin in the OSS 117 films, which are both available on NetFlix Instant. "Ha ha ha, it appears you have bought your last zoo!" Okay... go watch... On a side note, the "Lights, camera, action!" at the opening of the video comes from Jean-Luc Godard's Une Femme est une Femme.

My Three Favorite Moments in Hitchcock's 'Spellbound'

Brad Brevet — Thu, 9 Feb 2012 10:47:04 -0700

I hadn't seen Alfred Hitchcock's 1945 feature Spellbound until it arrived on Blu-ray and I can understand why it isn't one of the first films people talk about when they are listing off their favorite films from the master of suspense. Story wise, the film did little for me, but a lot of that is owed to the fact I am only seeing it for the first time now and so many films since have aped the idea of a psychiatrist falling for their potentially dangerous patient. It's not the film's fault I've seen so many other films explore this premise in my life since Spellbound first hit theaters over 65 years ago. That's just unfortunate timing due to what may be considered a late birth. However, that isn't to say Spellbound is a dud, not by any measure. In fact, I came away with three specific moments that truly impressed me as Hitchcock once again proves his unique talent for toying with the audience and delivering one tense scene after another knows no bounds. On a side note, before we go any further, included in this post are screen captures from the DVD edition, not the Blu-ray. In fact, the Blu-ray looks much better, just as was the case with Rebecca (read my thoughts on that one here). Now, let's dig in... in Spellbound, the ravishing Ingrid Bergman plays Dr. Constance Petersen, a by-the-book psychiatrist whose world is thrown for a loop when she takes an interest in her institution's new chief of staff, Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck). As it turns out, Anthony may not be who he says he is and Constance's involvement with him has placed her in potentially grave danger or, at the very least, painted her as an accomplice.

Michael Chekhov in Spellbound
Photo: MGM Home Entertainment

In the scene captured above, Anthony has grabbed a straight razor and appears to be sleep-walking. The man's face you can see in the photo is Dr. Brulov (Michael Chekhov), Constance's teacher and mentor, and as Anthony approaches him Brulov is able to calm him down with a glass of milk spiked with a sleeping agent. Hitchcock shows the scene from Anthony's perspective as the glass is brought to the front of the camera and the milk slowly disappears, the scene fading away along with the built up tension, setting the audience at ease once again.

A scene from Spellbound
Photo: MGM Home Entertainment

A similar first-person method is employed in another scene where a character looks down the barrel of their own gun and commits suicide. The hand in the scene is quite clearly fake, but that matters very little as the consequences of the moment take over. It's said the scene took a week to prepare and after 19 takes Hitchcock was finally satisfied. Unlike today, where the entire moment might have been rendered in CGI or shown from the other side so as to witness the gory results, Hitchcock uses the moment and a splash of color in the otherwise 100% black-and-white feature as the sound of the gun fires and a burst of red tint ably implies what comes next. Even without the gore-splattered wall behind the victim, we're pretty sure they didn't survive.

A scene from Spellbound
Photo: CBS Films

Finally, we have my favorite part of the whole film, a dream sequence conceived by Salvador Dali as Hitchcock tells Francois Truffaut called on him because he "wanted to convey the dreams with great visual sharpness and clarity, sharper than the film itself." Producer David O. Selznick ended up cutting the scene down from what may have been up to 22 minutes and brought in William Cameron Menzies to complete the scene as Hitchcock had nothing to do with it, but as you can see from the first screen capture from the sequence directly above, it screams Dali.

(left) Spellbound and (right) Un Chien Andalou
Photo: MGM Home Entertainment

This next screen capture is also indicative of Dali as it would appear to be an homage to the short film Un Chien Andalou (watch that here) Dali made with fellow surrealist filmmaker Luis Bunuel, a film we've discussed more than once as of late. A scene featuring Dr. Peterson covered in ants was also conceived as part of a moment where Bergman would have been turned into a statue, but it didn't make the final cut of the film and would have been yet another callback to Andalou. You can watch the sequence in its brief 4 minute and 30 second entirety compared to what might have been directly to the right. While Spellbound may not necessarily be the best film Hitchcock has given us it's certainly nowhere near his worst. In fact I would watch it again in an instance thanks to the moments I've discussed here, all of which I see as signs of a true master. As for this Blu-ray, as I already mentioned, the image is impressive as are the features, which have all been brought over from the previously released Premiere Collection which include an audio commentary, an interview with Hitchcock conducted by Peter Bogdanovich, a featurette on Hitch's work with Dali, a 1948 radio version of the story and more. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this film to first time Hitchcock viewers as there are several other features to consider if you're only beginning your exploration of the master's work, but for those familiar with what he has to offer and looking to delve even further this film has a lot to offer, even if I don't think I'll ever get beyond the ridiculous skiing scene.

First Look Pictures at 'Seven Psychopaths' Suggest Mickey Rourke Gave Up a Meaty Role

Brad Brevet — Thu, 9 Feb 2012 09:00:10 -0700

Mickey Rourke was originally set to star in Martin McDonagh's next feature Seven Psychopaths, a film I listed as my number four most anticipated film of 2012. However, he was replaced by Woody Harrelson and Rourke followed that up by calling McDonagh a "jerkoff" and said, "He can go play with himself." I don't mind Rourke not having the role in the least, but these four new images from the film courtesy of Entertainment Weekly suggest he gave up a rather large part. Seven Psychopaths gets its name from a screenplay the film's lead character, Marty (Colin Farrell), is struggling to write. He is ultimately drawn into the dog kidnapping schemes of his oddball friends (Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken) and when they end up stealing the dog of a psychopathetic gangster (Harrelson) things spin out of control. The four images released feature first looks at Farrell, Rockwell, Walken and, yes, Harrelson. For those of you wondering why this would be one of my top five most anticipated films of the year, it begins with the fact McDonagh wrote and directed In Bruges, one of my favorite films of the last ten years and on top of the names already mentioned the cast also includes Olga Kurylenko, Tom Waits and Abbie Cornish. CBS Films already picked it up for distribution, but an official release date has not yet been set. You can read a longer synopsis right here and check out the additional three new images directly below.

Colin Farrell and Sam Rockwell in Seven Psychopaths
Photo: CBS Films

Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths
Photo: CBS Films

Woody Harrelson in Seven Psychopaths
Photo: CBS Films

Set Pics from 'After Earth' Revealed by Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan

Brad Brevet — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 16:17:28 -0700

Will Smith and M. Night Shyamalan have been keeping fans updated on the goings on in Costa Rica as the two have teamed up for the sci-fi feature After Earth. The story is set one thousand years after Earth has been abandoned, and a young boy and his father return to the now frightening planet after their spaceship crashes. Smith plays the father and he's joined by his son Jaden Smith on the feature which Columbia Pictures has currently slated for a June 7, 2013 release and thanks to Shyamalan's WhoSay page and Will Smith's Facebook page we are getting a first look at the set. Overall there are seven images I've featured in the gallery below, five of which come from Shyamalan and I've accompanied those by his commentary on each photo. Additionally, we have the video you see to the right as one of the members of the crew has decided to pick up a "jumping pit viper" that was found near the set, or as Shyamalan put it on Twitter, where he "usually [goes] to think during a set up." Little else is known about the film though it is rumored that Zoe Kravitz (X-Men: First Class) and Sophie Okonedo (Hotel Rwanda) also star. Click on any of the thumbnails below to begin exploring the images. [gallery columns="7" exclude="54180,54181"]

What Do You Say to People Who Won't Shut Up During a Movie?

Brad Brevet — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 12:00:39 -0700

Last night during our screening of Safe House, I was sitting next to Laremy when he leaned over and says to me, "This woman next to men won't shut up." I felt lucky I couldn't hear her, but I knew his pain. Someone talking through a movie is perhaps the number one thing that can ruin your enjoyment. I suggested he ask her to be quiet, but as the quote from David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo goes, "Isn't it amazing the fear of offending is greater than the fear of pain?" Laremy opted for pain in this instance and didn't ask her to be quiet, I would not have been so polite. I can't remember how long ago it was, but during a screening a few years back a group of people were continually chattering during the film when one person in the audience suddenly belt out, "You're not in your living room!" It was a stroke of genius, the people shut up and on top of that there is nothing to say after that. I have used it since and it's a true gem. For example, I took my family to go see Knight and Day a couple years back and some guy behind us and his daughters were yapping throughout the first 15 minutes of the film. I get fed up, turned around and asked them to please be quiet to which he responded, "Just calm down." His attempt to act as if I were in the wrong caused me to bring out the big gun. "You're not in your living room," I said quietly but with an air of confidence and scorn. He didn't say another word. A father in front of his wife and children, being reprimanded with indisputable facts by someone most likely 20 years younger than him can't exactly be confidence inspiring. I'm sure he sat there stewing for the next two hours, but the fact of the matter remained, he wasn't in his living room. He was in the public with an audience of people that had paid money to enjoy a film on the big screen, not to listen to him and his daughters blurt out obvious observations or help one another keep up with the plot. I recently had to ask some people to be quiet during my screening of Haywire and, as always, they look on with incredulity, as if I am crazy for not wanting them to talk, but as long as they stop talking what do I care? These people must be stopped. So it is here that I call on you, share your stories. In what ways have you had to ask people to shut up during a movie? What worked? What didn't? Offer up some ideas so the next time Laremy is confronted with a talker he will have a few phrases in his arsenal.

Did You Watch The Series Premiere of 'The River'? What Did You Think?

Brad Brevet — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 09:52:04 -0700

So after my screening of Safe House last night I journeyed home to watch ABC's two-hour premiere of "The River". After laying out my hopes for it yesterday I wondered if I would be able to give it a fair shake or if I was expecting too much. As it turns out, it's not too bad and I will continue watching, but there are definite causes for concern. First off, for those that didn't watch or don't know what it's about, the big selling point is that it comes from Paranormal Activity writer/director Oren Peli who helped come up with the story with Paranormal Activity 2 screenwriter Michael R. Perry, Michael Green (Green Lantern) and Zack Estrin ("Prison Break", "Tru Calling"). As you would expect from such a teaming, it's roots in the "found footage" style of story-telling are definitely there, but it all seems a bit arbitrary, but more on that in a second. The story centers on the idea that famed television adventurer, Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), went missing in the Amazon six months ago and was since been presumed dead. However, his location beacon just fired back up and now his family and a television crew, from the same network that aired his adventure show, are headed into the jungle to find him. The search and rescue party includes Emmet's wife Tess (Leslie Hope) and his son Lincoln (Joe Anderson) who are joined by Emmet's longtime boat mechanic, Emilio (Daniel Zacapa), and Emilio's capable daughter Jahel (Paulina Gaitan); the network man, Clark (Paul Blackthorne); lead camera man A.J. (Shaun Parkes); the weapons man; Kurt (Thomas Kretschmann); and family friend and a love interest for Lincoln named Lena (Eloise Mumford). This group navigates their way through the Amazon and eventually comes across Emmet's ship, which is where things begin to pick up and it's made quite clear this show is about something supernatural. The first scary occurrence involves some sort of black cloud looking demon that feeds off your blood and haunts the crew for the first hour of the premiere episode while another scare inducing plot device is conjured up for episode two. If anything, the first hour is Blair Witch-inspired while the second hour is clearly all Paranormal Activity. Just watch the clip included here as established surveillance cameras in the trees fast forward through the night to the scary parts and one of the characters is slowly dragged out of his tent and eventually thrown into the jungle. The gimmicky camerawork that works so well in the Paranormal franchise, sadly, doesn't work here for a multitude of reasons. First is that they don't commit to it. Not only is the show presented through surveillance cameras on the ship and A.J.'s camera, sometimes the show is presented from a camera independent of the production, which eliminates any of the intimacy the first person aspect is meant for. Not only that, the production value is seriously lacking. Peli spent $15,000 making the first Paranormal Activity film and his feature was far more convincing than this show, which is almost silly in the way about 30% of it is presented with a glossy HD image with CCTV scan lines processed into the image. It doesn't just look fake, it is fake. I also don't know why you present the show as a television production and then show it from camera angles that are clearly not part of the production. In one instance the surveillance camera would have needed to be in the river to get the angle it was shooting, yet, there's the shot, processed scan lines on it and all. The show is something of a "Lost" meets Blair Witch Project meets Paranormal Activity. The mystery found in "Lost" is there as Emmet's disappearance has something to do with the uncharted land he's wandered in on, but beyond that a necklace he was given in the past and a tattoo on Lena's neck suggest Emmet has been knee deep in this stuff for years. Then it brings in the "lost in the wilderness" aspect of Blair Witch and its particular shooting style and the clear influence of the Paranormal Activity franchise. One major red flag for me were the flashback sequences as they can only make the plot more convoluted and on top of that it appears the goal will be to simply bring to light one new scare each episode while only forwarding the plot in infinitesimal amounts each week. We already know Jahel is the spiritual expert, Clark is there for the TV show, the son and father didn't have a great relationship, Tess cheated on Emmet, Lena is tied to this much more than maybe even she knows and Kurt is there protecting whatever the "Source" is for some outside entity. Each of these little things can become the focus of any episode, which would only drag the mystery on longer to the point you reach so many episodes and just don't care any longer. Peli essentially confirmed what I've just said, telling the New York Daily News, "Every episode stands on its own as a mini horror movie" and that they "do have a roadmap so we know where we're going to be going on future seasons." That's fine and dandy, and I hope that roadmap doesn't intend to make this too long of a journey because I feel they can only keep their audience so long with what they did for the first two episodes. Had they only started with just the first half of this premiere episode, it certainly wouldn't have been enough to keep audience attention. I still have my DVR set to record next Tuesday's episode. If you weren't able to watch the first two episodes you can begin right here with "Magus" and then watch episode two, "Marbeley," right here. I'm sorry, I'm not sure if those links are able to be played outside of the United States, but if you saw it I would love to read your thoughts in the comments below.

'The Bourne Legacy' Trailer and Poster

Brad Brevet — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 09:27:55 -0700

Last night before my screening of Safe House the trailer you are about to watch for The Bourne Legacy played and at first I couldn't tell what I was watching, but it quickly clicked and as much as I would love to say I liked what I saw I can honestly say it didn't do much for me. The film continues the Bourne franchise first started with Matt Damon (who will not be seen in this film at all) as the title character with The Bourne Identity back in 2002 and the franchise really took off when Paul Greengrass took over with The Bourne Supremacy in 2004 and finally The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007. Now, franchise screenwriter Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) has taken things over and brings us a story and a trailer that tells us... "There was never just one." Jeremy Renner stars as a new character that was caught up in the Treadstone operation and he's joined by franchise veterans Albert Finney, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Scott Glenn as well as newcomers that include Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Oscar Isaac. The film hits theaters on August 3 so take a look below and let me know what you think and you can check out a hi-res look at the poster right here.

Disney's New Animated Short, 'Paperman', Revealed in Latest MPAA Ratings

Brad Brevet — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 08:17:27 -0700

Included in today's MPAA bulletin is the rating for a new Walt Disney short called Paperman that I had not heard of before so I did a little snooping and it turns out it's directed by John Kahrs, an animator who worked on such Disney films as Ratatouille, The Incredibles and Toy Story 2. Kahrs also served as animation supervisor on Tangled and he's teamed with Tangled animator Patrick Osborne who posted the following on his personal blog on December 29, 2011:

We're finishing up a rather exciting project at Disney in the next few weeks. It's been keeping me pretty busy and away from this blog. The short is called Paperman. Directed by John Kahrs, the short will be running the festival circuit next year. We're very proud of this one and can't wait to show the world. produced by Kristina Reed animation supervision by myself art direction by Jeff Turley Vfx sup. Kyle Odermat

Other than that, there isn't any additional information that I could find, though I wouldn't be surprised if it were to be screened in front of Disney's Wreck-It Ralph on November 2. Now with that bit of information out of the way, here are the new MPAA ratings for BULLETIN NO: 2209.

2 Headed Shark Attack Special Edition

Rated R For bloody creature violence, some sexuality/nudity and language.

Afghan Luke

Rated R For pervasive language, some violence and drug use.

Apart

Rated R For some violence, bloody images and language.

NOTE: INTENDS TO APPEAL TO THE C.A.R.A. APPEALS BOARD.

Bringing Up Bobby

Rated PG-13 For language, sexual content and some drug material.

Darling Companion

Rated PG-13 For some sexual content including references, and language.

Release Date: April 20, 2012

The Divide

Rated R For disturbing strong violence and sexuality, and for pervasive language.

Release Date: January 13, 2012

Fancypants

Rated PG-13 For violent sports action and some crude references.2

God Bless America

Rated R For strong violence and language including some sexual sequences.

Release Date: May 11, 2012

Hysteria

Rated R For sexual content.

Release Date: May 18, 2012

Isle Of Dogs

Rated R For strong bloody violence, pervasive language, some sexuality and drug use.

L!fe Happens

Rated R For sexual content including references.

Lockout

Rated PG-13 For intense sequences of violence and action, and language including some sexual references.

Release Date: April 20, 2012

Lola Versus

Rated R For language, sexuality and drug use.

London, Paris, New York

Rated PG-13 For sexual content and smoking.

Metal Tornado

Rated PG For disaster action/peril and mild language.

Mother's Day

Rated R For strong brutal bloody violence and torture, pervasive language and some sexual content.

Release Date: , 2012

Musical Chairs

Rated PG-13 For language, some sexual material and a brief drug reference.

Paperman

Rated G

The Surrogate

Rated R For strong sexuality including graphic nudity and frank dialogue.

Release Date: TBA 2012

A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures

Rated PG For mild peril.

Woman Thou Art Loosed: On The 7th Day

Rated PG-13 For mature thematic material, violence, sexuality, drug and alcohol content, and language.

You can always stay up-to-date on all the latest updates to our database right here.

2012 Visual Effects Society Awards: Paramount and 'Rango' Clean Up

Brad Brevet — Wed, 8 Feb 2012 06:00:37 -0700

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has weighed in with their 2012 awards and Paramount cleaned house beginning with their animated feature Rango which took home four awards followed by Hugo and Transformers: Dark of the Moon with two each. 20th Century Fox and their Oscar-frontrunner for the Visual Effects Award, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, also took home two. This is a nice bit of notoriety for Rango, which is largely considered the best seen animated movie from 2011, though not many have seen fellow animated Oscar nominees A Cat in Paris and Chico and#038; Rita, the latter of which I will actually be seeing this Friday. Rango, however, was not nominated for Best Visual Effects at the Oscars while the other three films I mentioned above are along with fellow nominees Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and Real Steel. Those two, however, can probably consider themselves on the outside looking in as the race here, I believe, begins and ends with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Apes won for Best Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture and a second award for the work done on the film's lead ape, Caesar, a character the VES considered an "Animated Character" which continues to make me wonder why films such as Alvin and the Chipmunks are considered animated features at the Oscars while films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Avatar are not. Oh well, not like it really matters. The one Paramount film that went home empty handed was the VES's leading nominee, The Adventures of Tintin. Nominated six times across four categories, Spielberg's film went home empty handed while Rango won for all four of its nominations. Captain America: The First Avenger, another Paramount feature, was the only other feature film to take home an award, winning for Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture. I have listed all of the night's winners, including television, below and as I look over the list, I don't really see any reason to update my Visual Effects Oscar predictions as I still think it will go to Apes. After all, the category for Best Effects in Visual Effects-Driven Film is essentially the equivalent to Oscar's Best Visual Effects category. You can see all of my Oscar predictions right here and browse the rest of last night's VES winners directly below. Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, Cyndi Ochs, Kurt Williams Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture Hugo: Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning, Rob Legato, Karen Murphy Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Rango: Tim Alexander, Hal Hickel, Jacqui Lopez, Katie Lynch Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Caesar: Daniel Barrett, Florian Fernandez, Matthew Muntean, Eric Reynolds Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Rango - Rango: Frank Gravatt, Kevin Martel, Brian Paik, Steve Walton Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture Transformers: Dark of the Moon - 155 Wacker Drive: Giles Hancock, John Hanson, Tom Martinek, Scott Younkin Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Rango - Main Street Dirt: John Bell, Polly Ing, Martin Murphy, Russell Paul Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture Hugo: Martin Chamney, Rob Legato, Adam Watkins, Fabio Zangla Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in an Animated Feature Motion Picture Rango - The Dirt Saloon: Colin Benoit, Philippe Rebours, Nelson Sepulveda, Nick Walker Outstanding Models in a Feature Motion Picture Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Driller: Tim Brakensiek, Kelvin Chu, David Fogler, Rene Garcia Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture Captain America: The First Avenger - Skinny Steve: Casey Allen, Trent Claus, Brian Hajek, Cliff Welsh Outstanding Created Environment in a Broadcast Program or Commercial "Game of Thrones" - The Icewall: Markus Kuha, Dante Harbridge Robinson, Damien Mac, Fani Vassiadi Outstanding Models in a Broadcast Program or Commercial "Boardwalk Empire" - Georgia Peaches: Matthew Conner, Eran Dinur, David Reynolds, Szymon Weglarski Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program or Commercial "Boardwalk Empire" - Gimcrack and#038; Bunkum: Anton Dawson. Eran Dinur, Austin Meyers, David Reynolds Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Miniseries, Movie, or Special "Inside the Human Body": Phil Dobree, Sophie Orde, Dan Upton Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series "Terra Nova" - Occupation and#038; Resistance: Kevin Blank, Colin Brady, Adica Manis, Jason Zimmerman Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program "Game of Thrones" - Winter is Coming: Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor, Angela Barson, Ed Bruce, Adam McInnes Outstanding Visual Effects in an Animated Commercial or Video Game Trailer "Diablo III: The Black Soulstone": Nicholas S. Carpenter, Graham Cunningham, Chris Thunig, Taka Yasuda Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Broadcast Program or Commercial "Gears of War 3" - Dust to Dust: Niles Heckman, Richard Morton, Vernon Wilbert Jr. Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project Transformers the Ride: The Ultimate 3D Battle: Lori Arnold, Yanick Dusseault, Delio Tramontozzi, Jeff White Outstanding Visual Effects in a Live Action Commercial Dior J'adore: Pascal Giroux, Julien Meesters, Stephane Pivron, Manuel Souillac Outstanding Animated Character in a Broadcast Program or Commercial Canal + The Bear: Laurent Creusot, Guillaume Ho, Olivier Mitonneau, Michal Nauzin Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project a.maize: Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper, Florian Wittmann

Podcast: Super Bowl Trailers, 'The River,' 'Spider-Man,' Over / Under and an Over-Bearing Security Guy

Brad Brevet — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 14:10:39 -0700

Welcome to another episode of the RopeofSilicon podcast as Laremy and I delve into the ever-so-important bowels of the film industry with a dose of sports and television to keep things lively. Today the obvious starting off point is the Super Bowl and the myriad of trailers that played during it (watch all of them here) as well as the new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man. We also explore tonight's premiere of "The River", discuss video games, tell a story about an over-bearing security guy at our Act of Valor screening last night, play a little over/under, discuss the new DVD and Blu-ray releases and mix in a little bit of this and a little bit of that along the way. Best part, not a single mention of the Oscars or the awards season. You're welcome! Also, remember, we are giving away prizes for the best question/topic every Friday so ask away in the comments below and I hope you enjoy this week's episode. As always, I have broken down this episode on a minute-by-minute basis if you would like to skip ahead and below I have featured the information on how to download the podcast, find us on iTunes or merely just listen in your browser.

00:00-6:44 - Introduction and straight into Super Bowl and Super Bowl trailers
6:45-8:21 - The Amazing Spider-Man trailer (watch it here)
8:22-18:16 - Talking TV and ABC's "The River"
18:17-22:58 - [Listener Question] Brad a few podcasts ago you mentioned you had a PS3, I assume you play games? Do you have any favorites? Also where do you stand on the video games as art debate? [Snicket]
22:59-27:53 - Story of an over-bearing security guy at out Act of Valor screening
27:54-41:37 - Over / Under
- $32 million opening weekend for The Vow
- $270 million domestic for March's largest film
- 1.5 Song and dance numbers that aren't Best Song nominees
- 5 more 3-D movies nominated for Best Picture
- $2 billion in worldwide box-office for the two Hobbit films
41:38-50:42 - New DVDs and Blu-rays (read my article here)
50:43-52:34 - [Listener Question] Hey Brad, interesting comment you made that you enjoy watching the Ravens for their defense and don't like the Steelers. I think those two teams have very similar defenses. [adu]
52:35-57:53 - This week we're seeing six movies in six days
57:54-1:05:04 - More Spider-Man trailer and predicting the quality of movies like The Avengers, Spider-Man and G.I. Joe: Retaliation
1:05:05-1:08:38 - Closing and Epilogue

Finally, I do have one quick request. If you could give us a review on iTunes it would be greatly appreciated. You can listen below, download the audio by right-clicking here and saving it to your computer or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. It's up to you. NOTE: Apple's iTunes randomly checks for updated episodes, so sometimes the latest episode may not be immediately available in iTunes. Your browser does not support the audio element. You can find Laremy's writing here on RopeofSilicon.com and also at Film.com and on Twitter at @Laremy.

Here's What I Hope for from Oren Peli's TV Show 'The River'

Brad Brevet — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 11:05:01 -0700

I think I mentioned this on the podcast last week, but tonight "The River" debuts on ABC with a two-hour premiere. The show was put together by Paranormal Activity writer/director Oren Peli with Paranormal Activity 2 screenwriter Michael R. Perry, Michael Green (Green Lantern) and Zack Estrin ("Prison Break", "Tru Calling") and stars Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) as Dr. Emmet Cole, an television adventurer who went missing deep in the Amazon and was been presumed dead. However, his location beacon begins relaying a signal six months after his disappearance persuading his wife (Leslie Hope) and son (Joe Anderson) to journey through the Amazon to find him and if you've seen the trailer it's shot in that first person documentary style and is quite obvious it comes from the man behind the Paranormal Activity franchise. Tonight's two-hour episode was directed by Unknown and House of Wax helmer Jaume Collet-Serra and I have to admit, I'm looking forward to it. As a big fan of the Paranormal franchise I'm wondering how far they can take things on network television and still maintain tension, how the story will be presented and whether there will be an actual end in sight or if it will play out like "Lost," which felt like the ending was never considered beyond vague ideas of where they may want to take things. As anyone that reads this site often, you know I don't really watch too much television. I recently tried watching "Alcatraz" but what a mess that show is. From the first episode it felt like the series was on life support with each episode appearing to exist only to create more confusion for the next with absolutely no end in sight. I think network television has done a good job of coming up with new ideas and shows that keep audiences on edge, but the lure of keeping a show on television longer than it should causes for lulls in story-telling and silly storylines. Based on what we know about "The River" it looks to me like it should have a lifespan of two, maybe three seasons. If the creators and ABC went into it with this in mind then maybe we'll have something special here. Another thought is to make sure each season has a definitive ending. Treat it like a movie in that you wrap-up one big storyline, be it over the course of 12 or 24 episodes, and leave just enough room for things to continue beyond that. In the case of "The River" I can imagine the first season finale ending with them finally escaping the Amazon with Emmet alive, but for whatever reason he's not the same person he was when they last saw him, something is drawing him back to the river. The second season could explore that attraction and some erratic behavior that takes them back into the jungle and a third season could tidy things up with a myriad of endings such as Emmet disappearing to the Amazon forever, leaving his family clueless as to his fate. Or the entire family could find themselves drawn back to the river where whatever the attraction may be holds them there to do its bidding. I don't know, I'm just thinking off the top of my head here, but I think a lot of this goes back to our discussion over the ending to Joe Carnahan's The Grey. I think with television the inclination is always to show the audience everything. Television shows are forced to keep certain secrets hidden from the audience to maintain an allure to keep viewers coming back... "Will they show us what's really going on this week?" "Will they finally get off the island?" The problem is, audiences have now come to expect all the secrets to be revealed. A rule seems to be in place that you can only keep so much from the audience and I guess that's okay, but I also think it depends on how much you're hiding and the reasons why. "Lost" is a perfect example of too many secrets with answers that were kept from the audience by adding flashbacks and other nonsense only to pad the storyline, delaying the inevitable. The delays caused for more questions to be ginned up, allowing for about two more episodes before the answers were revealed, and let's face it, those answers are rarely satisfying. The entertainment is in the journey, it's not about waiting around for the answer, pissed off because it is now expected to be revealed next week. For once I'd like to see one of these network shows not answer all the questions, leaving the fate of the lead characters up in the air. Create an air of mystery. Many people confuse things to where they believe the reason they are watching something or paying attention to a story is to find out how it all ends. Yes, the ending is a vital piece of the puzzle, but only in how it ties back to everything you've already seen. The fun is in the journey, not in the fact that it ends. Things end because they have to, but once it ends, if a story has been told well, you should be enticed to watch it again, looking for clues and reasons to support where it all ended and your interpretation of that ending. Tonight when I watch "The River" I hope to see signs this is a show that may deliver in these areas. If you haven't seen a trailer for the show (first off, where have you been?) I have added it directly below. Also, if it's any good I may try and do a write up tomorrow, so if you can, give it a watch tonight on ABC (it starts at 9 PM PST) and maybe we can discuss it tomorrow.

Oscar Trailer for 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' and Featurette for 'Hugo'

Brad Brevet — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 09:38:41 -0700

Every year it's going to be easy to look at the Oscar nominations and say something like, "That movie got three nominations while this one got none?" In recent history, films such as Norbit and Click are two such examples and this year I've already seen people point to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which earned three nominations -- two for sound and one for effects -- but as much as I would have liked to see Shame and We Need to Talk about Kevin get nominations, I don't think it's all that realistic for me to think they were highly competitive in those three categories. So, we shrug our shoulders and move on to where we can now watch a new Academy trailer for Transformers boasting the film's sound and visuals. One film Transformers will be competing against in both sound categories and in visual effects is Martin Scorsese's Hugo, a film I currently have predicted to take home four Oscars, topping Transformers in both sound categories and I think it's quite obvious, which one Paramount is pushing harder. Transformers gets a short 30-second spot while the following "The Magic of Hugo" is a full 6-minute featurette. This one is focusing on every creative aspect of the film, not just sound and effects, but other categories the film is nominated in including art direction, costumes and the film's score from Howard Shore. Give it a watch below and for all of my updated Oscar predictions you can click here.

'Anonymous' and 'Twilight: Breaking Dawn' Top This Week's New DVD and Blu-ray Releases

Brad Brevet — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 06:00:58 -0700

Anonymous

The fact this is hitting DVD and Blu-ray and no one has really seen it and Columbia has done very little to encourage people to see it is a bit frustrating. As someone that loves and writes about movies you want the good ones to be seen and I can tell you this is a good film. I don't know what it was that scared Sony into releasing it into only 513 theaters at its widest release, but I guess that just stands to mean it will be a small gem found on DVD and Blu-ray.

andnbsp;

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

This one actually doesn't arrive until Saturday, February 11, but I'm sure young girls all across the country are already queuing up to be the first to own the first part of the final film in the Twilight franchise in which nothing happens and Summit makes millions of dollars as a result.

andnbsp;

Lady and the Tramp [Blu-ray]

I almost regret not requesting a review copy of this one, but even though I think this is a good film I can't say I felt the urge to watch it again. I'm sure it looks spectacular fully restored in high-definition, but I'll save a little time up for the release of Finding Nemo on Blu-ray later this year.

andnbsp;

A Very Harold and#038; Kumar Christmas

Oh hey, we were just talking about 3-D movies just yesterday and here is an example of one that uses the gimmick to its fullest extent. At this point I'm pretty much convinced your film needs to be 100% self-aware and embrace the gimmick that is 3-D in order to use the medium to any extent. After all, to not acknowledge the group of people that having paid additional money so they can put on glasses to watch your movie is a bit insulting... isn't it?

andnbsp;

La Jetee/Sans Soleil (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

I have seen La Jetee only once and haven't yet began exploring this Criterion release, but I can say it is, at the very least intriguing. I have not seen Sans Soleil and actually don't know anything at all about it, but I hope it's as satisfying a counterpart to La Jetee as Criterion makes it out to be.

andnbsp;

Fireflies in the Garden

Even though it stars Julia Roberts, Carrie-Anne Moss, Ryan Reynolds, Emily Watson, Willem Dafoe, Hayden Panettiere and Ioan Gruffudd, this film had a hard time making it to theaters due to some legal issues with the now defunct distributor Senator Entertainment. It ended up only taking in $70,600 at the box-office after being released in only 14 theaters for three weeks and I have not yet seen it and haven't heard any comments on it, though the 21% RottenTomatoes rating isn't exactly encouraging. If you haven't seen the trailer you can click here to give it a peek.

andnbsp;

EVEN MORE

Ben-Hur: 50th Anniversary Edition [Blu-ray]
The Sunset Limited
Dangerous Liaisons [Blu-ray]
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World [Blu-ray]
Downton Abbey: Season 2

LATEST DVD ANNOUNCEMENTS

DVD

The Iron Lady (buy now)
Releasing on April 10, 2012
Young Adult (buy now)
Releasing on March 13, 2012
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (buy now)
Releasing on March 20, 2012
A Dangerous Method (buy now)
Releasing on March 27, 2012
The Son of No One (buy now)
Releasing on February 21, 2012
Carnage (buy now)
Releasing on March 20, 2012
The Sitter (buy now)
Releasing on March 20, 2012
Jack and Jill (buy now)
Releasing on March 6, 2012
I Melt With You (buy now)
Releasing on February 28, 2012
Born to be Wild (buy now)
Releasing on April 17, 2012

BLU-RAY

The Iron Lady (buy now)
Releasing on April 10, 2012
The Three Musketeers (buy now)
Releasing on March 13, 2012
Young Adult (buy now)
Releasing on March 13, 2012
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (buy now)
Releasing on March 20, 2012
A Dangerous Method (buy now)
Releasing on March 27, 2012
The Son of No One (buy now)
Releasing on February 21, 2012
The Sitter (buy now)
Releasing on March 20, 2012
Jack and Jill (buy now)
Releasing on March 6, 2012
I Melt With You (buy now)
Releasing on February 28, 2012
Born to be Wild (buy now)
Releasing on April 17, 2012

New 'The Amazing Spider-Man' Trailer - The Lizard is Revealed

Brad Brevet — Tue, 7 Feb 2012 00:39:37 -0700

Columbia Pictures has debuted the brand new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man following yesterday's fan event in which the trailer screened in 3-D and fans were also shown an eight-minute sizzle reel featuring scenes from the upcoming film introduced via satellite by the film's director, Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer). The Amazing Spider-Man is supposedly a new and fresh look at the origins of the web-slinger and a franchise independent of the trilogy directed by Sam Raimi, which came to an end following the lackluster response to Spider-Man 3 in 2007. Starring Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) as Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) the film follows his upbringing by his aunt and uncle and what happens once he's bitten by a radioactive spider that gives him super powers. Here's the studio provided synopsis:

The Amazing Spider-Man is the story of Peter Parker (Garfield), an outcast high schooler who was abandoned by his parents as a boy, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Ben (Sheen) and Aunt May (Field). Like most teenagers, Peter is trying to figure out who he is and how he got to be the person he is today. Peter is also finding his way with his first high school crush, Gwen Stacy (Stone), and together, they struggle with love, commitment, and secrets. As Peter discovers a mysterious briefcase that belonged to his father, he begins a quest to understand his parents' disappearance -- leading him directly to Oscorp and the lab of Dr. Curt Connors (Ifans), his father's former partner. As Spider-Man is set on a collision course with Connors' alter-ego, The Lizard, Peter will make life-altering choices to use his powers and shape his destiny to become a hero.

As would be expected, people liked what they saw out of the Spider-Man event yesterday, but who can really be surprised considering they were shown marketing material hand selected to build buzz. It would be a bigger surprise if they came out of a calculated effort to build buzz and actually had bad things to say. Of course, the potential for negativity is there as many believe it is too soon to reboot the character. That said, have a look at this new trailer and see what you think. The film hits theaters in 3-D on July 3 and along with Garfield it's loaded with a rather strong cast that also includes Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary, Irrfan Khan, Campbell Scott, Annie Parisse, Julianne Nicholson, C. Thomas Howell and Chris Zylka. I will also add, just skimming through the trailer to find the image at the lede of this post, it does have a solid visual appeal, something Drew Taylor at The Playlist alluded to in his write-up of yesterday's events.

What Does It Mean to Have "Good" 3-D?

Brad Brevet — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 16:43:07 -0700

Today Columbia Pictures went all out with The Amazing Spider-Man previewing footage from the upcoming July release across several cities as well as debuting the brand new 3D trailer. As with all things fanboy related it is receiving plenty of praise from all corners, but the one comment that has already hit me comes from The Playlist's Drew Taylor who opens his comments on the footage saying "visually the movie appears to be absolutely ravishing -- deep and immersive in ways most 3D movies lack." What does that mean? How is it more immersive? How can something that does not surround you in any way become immersive? We have been discussing 3-D on the podcast recently (particularly this episode here) and asking what does it mean to have good 3-D? I know lately everyone has been slobbering Martin Scorsese's Hugo and it's so-called incredible 3-D. I saw nothing with the 3-D in Hugo that made me think it was anything different from every other 3-D movie, which is to say it was a movie in which I had to wear glasses so as to ensure the picture wasn't blurry. Roger Ebert, the author of a "Newsweek" editorial titled "Why I Hate 3-D (And You Should Too)", however, feels differently, writing in his review of Hugo:

Scorsese uses 3-D here as it should be used, not as a gimmick but as an enhancement of the total effect. Notice in particular his re-creation of the famous little film "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat" (1897), by the Lumiere brothers. You've probably heard its legend: As a train rushes toward the camera, the audience panics and struggles to get out of its way. That is a shot which demonstrates the proper use of 3-D, which the Lumieres might have used had it been available.

Ah yes, Scorsese's celebration of "the birth of the cinema," as Ebert puts it, gets a pass because a train rushing toward the screen in 3-D... isn't a gimmick, but an "enhancement"? What? I assume his point is that the only way to get today's audiences to understand the feeling of believing the train might actually come out of the screen is to play it in 3-D, but if that's the overall takeaway aren't we splitting hairs? I saw Journey 2: The Mysterious Island this last weekend and I know one scene audiences will be going ape for. It's the moment The Rock sits down with a ukelele and sings "What a Wonderful World." And guess what... IT'S IN 3-D!!! I must say, it was so immersive I felt as if I was right there around the campfire as Michael Caine laughed like a loon. Definitely well worth the additional admission price people will be paying. But let's get back to my opening thought, asking what exactly makes a good 3-D movie? I guess I'll only know the answer when I finally see one. For example, I enjoyed Avatar a lot and even paid to see it in IMAX on its extended release. Is it a great 3-D movie or just a good movie? I'll definitely opt for the latter. In fact, the only 3-D movie I have ever seen that actually impressed me to the point I thought the 3-D enhanced what I was seeing in the way that didn't feel like a gimmick was Hubble 3-D in IMAX. The image took up the entire screen from floor to ceiling and at times looked as if the screen was an extension of the room I was in. Now that is immersive. When the screen is so large you can hardly see the edges then you are finally delivering something. However, with a widescreen image several feet in front of you, curtains on the side and the blackness on top and bottom you still have a long way to go before you arrive at immersive. More immersive than any 3-D movie I've seen (outside of Hubble) were the non-3-D, IMAX sequences from The Dark Knight and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The opening sequence in The Dark Knight is jaw-dropping and the moment when Tom Cruise looks out from the Burj Khalifa building and director Brad Bird zooms in and expands the frame from widescreen to IMAX is something to talk about and a clear example in what kind of difference the size of IMAX makes. I wonder, how does this new Amazing Spider-Man footage stack up to those two moments? I guess I'll find out in July. As for the new 3-D trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man everyone saw today, I'll have it for you here tomorrow, Tuesday, February 7, at 3 a.m. EST / 12 a.m. PST. For now I have added a few new images from the film to my gallery right here and the official site has been updated with some wallpapers, which you can grab right here.

Pictures from Disney's New Animated Feature 'Wreck-It Ralph'

Brad Brevet — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 13:49:38 -0700

Disney just sent over three first look images at Disney's newest non-Pixar animated feature film Wreck-It Ralph, which to this point has been a bit of a mystery. During their D23 convention last year we learned the once-titled Reboot Ralph centers on the title character, Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly), a video game bad guy who longs to be as beloved as his game's perfect good guy, Fix-It Felix (voiced by Jack McBrayer). So when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voiced by Jane Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan -- win a medal -- but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph eventually teams up with Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman), a young trouble-making "glitch" from a candy-coated cart racing game. Disney has provided descriptions for each scene which I have included under each image, which you probably already figured out based on the image above, and I have added all three images to my gallery for the film which you can access right here. Wreck-It Ralph is set to hit theaters on November 2 and is directed by Rich Moore.

A look at the in-movie video game "Hero's Duty," a sci-fi, first-person shooter in which a platoon of soldiers must battle mutant Cy-Bugs that threaten the safety of the universe.
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

In Walt Disney Animation Studios' Wreck-It Ralph, video game "bad guy" Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) spends his lonely evenings gazing at the apartment building that it's his job to destroy.
Photo: Walt Disney Pictures

What was Your Favorite 2012 Super Bowl Trailer?

Brad Brevet — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 12:25:28 -0700

NOTE: If you haven't yet seen all the trailers from yesterday's Super Bowl you can view them here. I don't know about you, but I thought yesterday's Super Bowl was pretty great. Not only did the Giants win (which is who I was rooting for), but they won in a good game, which is more important as far as I'm concerned. However, one of the new pastimes for many people is not the game, but the commercials and this year filmmakers were quite prevalent in more than just the movie trailers. For example, Slashfilm did an impressive round-up of commercials made by major Hollywood directors. Did you know Peter Berg, who directed Battleship, also directed the commercial for "The Voice" in all its Mortal Kombat-esque glory? And Noam Murro who is directing the upcoming sequel 300: Battle of Artemisia directed several of yesterday's commercials including Pepsi's "King's Court" spot, which featured X Factor 2011 winner Melanie Amaro and Elton John. Then there was the ad that may have been the most talked about, David Gordon Green's Chrysler commercial featuring Clint Eastwood that played just before the second half. I was watching my Google Analytics stats right after that commercial played and several people were arriving at the site after searching for Clint Eastwood's hometown, which, for those of you that still might be curious, is San Francisco. Now here's that commercial in case you missed it. But the fact of the matter is, this is a movie website so we are going to talk about movie trailers. You can talk about how Battleship not only looks like Transformers 4 without Michael Bay at the helm, or how it stole the "Fire everything!" line from Star Trek, or complain, as my girlfriend did after the trailer played, and say, "Why does it always have to be effing robots or aliens?!?!?!" She was quite adamant about that.

I would suspect most of you, like my girlfriend, were also impressed with the trailer for The Avengers, which gave us a new look at Mark Ruffalo as the CGI version of The Hulk and I know people seem to be impressed with the trailer for G.I. Joe: Retaliation and are hopefully despite how bad the first one was. The most negativity I saw was aimed at the trailer for Universal's animated film The Lorax and Disney's John Carter appears to be split down the middle with people either really anticipating it or really not liking what they see at all. And so, with all of that said, what was your favorite of the day? If you haven't seen them all or need a refresher I have all of them right here. Discuss in the comments below and vote in the poll directly below. [poll id = "208"]

2012 Oscar Predictions: The Close Races for Best Actor and Actress

Brad Brevet — Mon, 6 Feb 2012 10:25:14 -0700

I've had a poll on the homepage for a little while now asking who you think will win Best Actor at the Oscars. I posted the question shortly after Jean Dujardin (The Artist) won at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, which I took as a sign that all of Hollywood was ready to show support for The Artist. That same night Viola Davis won for The Help, which would appear to give her the edge heading into the Oscars, but with George Clooney and Meryl Streep as the runners-up in both races can anyone say for sure who will win? Looking over the major categories at this year's Oscars I can't help but get the feeling the Best Actor and Actress races are the two races that seem poised for a surprise. Christopher Plummer (Beginners) looks like he has Supporting Actor locked up. Octavia Spencer (The Help) has had Supporting Actress locked up for quite some time. And the support for The Artist leads me to believe the film will win Best Picture and Michel Hazanavicius will win Best Director. Of course, if you don't think those last two things will come true then I don't think we can count on much of anything at this year's Oscars and as we've learned in the past, these things are rather predictable. This is why the race for the two lead actor categories offer the main intrigue. Dujardin is a newcomer and not to mention French, to see Clooney actually take home the Oscar wouldn't be too much of a surprise, and if the poll I placed on the homepage is any indication it wouldn't surprise others either as Dujardin holds only a slight 20 vote lead over Clooney. For Best Actress, would anyone really be all that surprised to see Streep beat Davis? No. My guess is many are counting on that to happen despite the fact 12 out of the 17 years the SAG Awards have been held the Best Actress winner has gone on to win the Oscar. A 70% chance isn't a 100% chance, but it makes for pretty good odds. The men's race isn't quite as accurate being 11 for 17, but the last four years have matched up exactly and if you're placing bets you like Dujardin's 64% chance over Clooney's 36% chance. And with that, I have included the poll that has been running on the homepage recently and added a new poll with the Best Actress nominees... take your pick. I will do these polls again a couple days before the Oscars, which take place on February 26, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to take an early temperature from the audience. For all of my predictions in the top 21 categories you can click here. NOTE: If you already voted in the homepage poll for Best Actor then your vote has been recorded and only the results will show.

[poll id = "206"]

[poll id = "207"]

2012 Super Bowl Commercials - The Movie Trailers

Brad Brevet — Sun, 5 Feb 2012 16:03:26 -0700

It's Super Bowl XLVI and the trailers are coming in and I'll be doing my best to compile them for your viewing pleasure. As the game plays on and new ones come in I will be adding them to the first page of the article with older ones moving off to the second page to make sure the page doesn't take forever to load. To begin I have the trailer for Transformers The Ride 3D and the previously released trailers for The Dictator and G.I. Joe: Retaliation as well as the teasers for the John Carter and The Avengers trailers. So watch what I have for you below and I'll be bringing more as soon as they are available. UPDATE #1 The trailer for Battleship has been added. UPDATE #2: Just added the trailer for Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. UPDATE #3: Just added the full Super Bowl trailer for John Carter. UPDATE #4: Just added the full Super Bowl trailer for The Avengers. UPDATE #5: Just added the full Super Bowl trailer for Act of Valor.

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace 3D

Act of Valor

The Avengers

John Carter

Dr. Seuss' The Lorax

Battleship

Transformers The Ride 3D

The Dictator

The Avengers (Teaser)

John Carter (Teaser)

2012 Oscar Predictions: Art Directors Guild Honors 'Hugo,' 'Potter' and 'Dragon Tattoo'

Brad Brevet — Sun, 5 Feb 2012 10:25:40 -0700

It looks like I'll be sticking with my prediction that Hugo will just barely edge out The Artist for Best Art Direction at this year's Oscars as that is the way the Art Directors Guild (ADG) went with their awards last night where Hugo's production designer Dante Ferretti took home best art direction for a period film. Also nominated for an Oscar, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 production designer Stuart Craig won for best art direction in a fantasy film while Donald Graham Burt was awarded for his work on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for best art direction in a contemporary film. Burt, however, was not nominated for an Oscar. So it becomes a three horse race at the Oscars between Hugo, The Artist and Harry Potter. Hugo and The Artist are the front-runners, but I can't help but wonder if Craig will finally be honored for his work on the Potter franchise. And while he has three Oscars to his name for work on such films as The English Patient, Dangerous Liaisons and Gandhi, this is the fourth time he's been nominated for his work on the Potter films and he has never won. My predictions in this category haven't changed and they most likely won't by the time the Oscars roll around on February 26, so here they are once again and you can browse all of my predictions in the 21 major categories right here and I've added these three winners to my "Oscar Overture" right here. Next up are the Visual Effects Society Awards on the 7th.

Weekend Box-Office: 'Chronicle' Edges Out 'Woman in Black' for Super Bowl Weekend Win

Brad Brevet — Sun, 5 Feb 2012 10:03:41 -0700

It was a close race, but humans with telekinetic powers have used said powers to banish ghosts to the number two slot as Chronicle takes the box-office weekend win over The Woman in Black by a mere $1 million as the box-office continues to rise with this weekend outperforming the same frame last year by 26%. Let's take a look at how it all played out.

Laremy predicted the #1 movie correctly 4 Weeks In A Row

Chronicle

At the moment Chronicle has the upper hand as estimates place it in the #1 slot, but estimates on a Super Bowl Sunday are tough as you don't know how many people will actually decide to rush to the theaters to see a movie before the big game. However, both Chronicle and The Woman in Black are over-performing with Chronicle's $22 million being a big surprise, taking in almost $7 million more than Laremy predicted on Thursday. At least he can be happy for the moment that it would appear he picked the number one movie correctly.

Taking a look at reader predictions, John-PT was working some serious mojo when he predicted not only Chronicle to bring in $22.5 million, but he was also closest on the number two film, which was...

Weekend: $22 million
RottenTomatoes Score: 85%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #1 and his prediction of $15.4 million was $6.6m off for a percentage error of 30%.

2. The Woman in Black

The Woman in Black beat expectations as well, as Daniel Radcliffe's first post-Harry Potter feature is off to a good start and with CBS Films paying a mere $3 million to pick it up they have to be smiling at this point.

Weekend: $21 million
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #2 with $11.88 million, which is $9.12m off for a 43.43% error.

3. The Grey

I'm happy to see The Grey didn't drop as much as I was expecting it to and in fact, this is a really impressive hold for the film should these numbers not prove to be drastically overestimated. A $9.5 million weekend looks pretty lofty if you ask me considering this film seems like it would play specifically to the Super Bowl audience and Friday's numbers weren't necessarily suggesting this kind of performance.

Weekend: $9.5 million (-51.5% drop) / Cume: $34.7 million / RottenTomatoes: 77%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #3 with $10.29 million, which is $0.79m off for a 8.32% error.

4. Big Miracle

The title doesn't seem necessarily apt at this point as Big Miracle was anything but at the box-office. I guess Dolphin Tale already stole all of its thunder. However, with a $40 million budget I don't think Universal is crying too many tears and this is the one film in the top five that I could actually see gaining a little on its estimates this weekend.

As far as predictions go, Laremy was a bit low while "Sensei White Lotus" was the closest on Thursday's predictions with a $9.1 million prediction.

Weekend: $8.4 million / RottenTomatoes: 71%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #4 with $6.65 million, which is $1.75m off for a 20.83% error.

5. Underworld Awakening

I liked this film and I like the franchise (except for the third one, which I pretend doesn't exist) and it is now $8 million shy of becoming the highest grossing in the franchise. Of course, with inflation and 3-D price hikes, Underworld: Evolution is probably still a bigger earner, but it's not really important enough to quibble over.

Weekend: $5.6 million (-54.1% drop) / Cume: $54.3 million / RottenTomatoes: 28%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #6 with $6.29 million, which is $0.69m off for a 12.32% error.

6. One for the Money

Next up for Katherine Heigl is a movie called Face Blind and a movie called The Happytime Murders, the latter sounds more interesting as it takes place in a world where humans and puppets co-exist, with the puppets viewed as second-class citizens. When the puppet cast of an '80s children's TV show called "The Happytime Gang" begins to get murdered one by one, a disgraced LAPD detective-turned-private eye puppet takes on the case.

Weekend: $5.2 million (-54.8% drop) / Cume: $19.6 million / RottenTomatoes: 3%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #7 with $4.95 million, which is $0.25m off for a 4.81% error.

7. Red Tails

Holding on, and we're moving on...

Weekend: $5 million (-51.5% drop) / Cume: $41.3 million / RottenTomatoes: 38%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #5 with $6.32 million, which is $1.32m off for a 26.4% error.

8. The Descendants

I look at this box-office total and am continually amazed this isn't the Oscar front-runner. How is it The Artist is the clear Oscar front-runner when so many films are far more beloved and sought out by both critics and audiences?

Weekend: $4.6 million (-28.1% drop) / Cume: $65.5 million / RottenTomatoes: 90%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #10 with $3.97 million, which is $0.63m off for a 13.7% error.

9. Man on a Ledge

The fact this film only dipped 45% is some kind of ... big miracle.

Weekend: $4.4 million (-45% drop) / Cume: $14.7 million / RottenTomatoes: 32%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #8 with $4.32 million, which is $0.08m off for a 1.82% error.

10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Had this film not been one of the surprise Oscar nominees I don't think it would have made hardly a drop, and quite frankly the way it was announced as the final nominee on nomination morning smelled like some kind of conspiracy. That said, I love this film and think you should all go see it.

Weekend: $3.9 million (-43.5% drop) / Cume: $26.7 million / RottenTomatoes: 46%
Laremy's rank: Laremy picked it to finish #9 with $4.18 million, which is $0.28m off for a 7.18% error.

In other news, The Artist added another 108 theaters and is now up to 1,005 and made $2.5 million and is now up to $20.5 million and Madonna's W.E. opened in four theaters this weekend and took in $45,000.

Next weekend sees the release of Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House and The Vow as the family, action and romance tickets are all punched.

This weekend proved once again the 2012 box-office is continuing to outperform last year and I don't see things slowing down next week. How do you see next week turning out and who have you got in the Super Bowl? Let's hope the game is as close as the weekend's box-office numbers.

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What I Watched, What You Watched: Installment #131

Brad Brevet — Sun, 5 Feb 2012 05:00:41 -0700

Thanks to Turner Classic Movies and their "31 Days of Oscars" I was able to enjoy a true classic this week...

Some Like It Hot (1959)

For whatever reason I couldn't remember if I had only seen clips from Some Like It Hot or if I'd actually seen the whole movie. Turns out within about 30 seconds of watching it again I had seen it before, which meant I had the pleasure of enjoying it all over again as it's the first film I recorded during TCM's 31 Days of Oscar. I guess it's only fitting seeing how Michelle Williams did such a great job of portraying Marilyn Monroe in her Oscar-nominated performance in My Week with Marilyn and watching this film again I am reminded just how spot-on that performance was, even if I didn't like the film that much.

It was also interesting to watch this film and think of how many films nowadays are chastised for looking for comedy in the idea of two men dressing up as women and yet this film remains a classic. What is it that makes that so?

If I had to attempt to place my finger on it I would say it has everything to do with subtlety and wit as opposed to potty humor and vulgarity. Admittedly, Some Like It Hot may not have the large laughs earned by sight gags in today's "comedies" but the difference here is how much fun you are having the entire time and how happy you are just watching the story play out and it culminates in a fantastic ending as yet one more example of a kind of storytelling that, for the large part, has shamefully been abandoned.

Now... I'll leave you with Marilyn...

And that does it for me, though I could add I watched about 50% of Mission: Impossible II for an article I'm working on, but more on that soon enough... Now it's your turn, what did you watch this week? Oh, and are you planning on watching "The River" on the 7th? I am actually anticipating that film with high hopes, but hesitant expectations.

Over 75 New Pictures from 'Snow White,' 'G.I. Joe 2,' 'Lockout,' 'Intruders' and More

Brad Brevet — Sat, 4 Feb 2012 13:55:34 -0700

I've been busy adding new images to the site as of late and today I added several more as I have over 75 new pictures added in the last seven days to share with you. Among the selection are several from a just-released Universal Pictures 2012 preview that includes new looks at Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth in Snow White and the Huntsman, a new alien pic from Battleship, the first look at Judd Apatow's Knocked Up follow-up This is Forty, a full gallery of images from Dr. Seuss' The Lorax and a nice hi-res look at that previously released image of Jeremy Renner in The Bourne Legacy. Additionally, Relativity sent over a full gallery of images for their Navy SEAL feature Act of Valor and another look at Lily Collins as Snow White in Tarsem Singh's Mirror Mirror. Open Road delivered a batch of 12 images from the Guy Pearce sci-fi thriller Lockout, Columbia gives us a first look at Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg in I Hate You Dad and another promo image of Andrew Garfield from The Amazing Spider-Man and CBS Films offers the first image from 7500. On top of this, I dare you to try and name all the people in this new picture from Ben Affleck's Argo. Like I said, there are a lot of new images. You can check out all the galleries by clicking on the movie title in the list below, which will open up a new browser window. Once you are done looking at the pics, close that window to return back to this post.

Enjoy, and remember you can stay up-to-date on all the latest images added to the site either on the homepage, on the movie stills homepage or by simply adding the RSS feed to your feed reader and you will never miss a pic.

Snow White and the Huntsman (6 new pictures)
Lockout (12 new pictures)
The Bourne Legacy (Hi-res look at Jeremy Renner in the lead role)
Battleship (1 new picture)
This is Forty (The first picture)
Act of Valor (Full gallery of 30 images)
Dr. Seuss' The Lorax (Full gallery of 23 images)
Mirror Mirror (1 new picture)
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (1 new picture and 6 screenshots from the Super Bowl trailer)
Intruders (First look at the poster)
Think Like a Man (Full gallery of 10 images)
Argo (1 new picture)
The Cold Light of Day (First look at the poster)
The Amazing Spider-Man (1 new picture)
I Hate You Dad (The first picture)
7500 (The first picture)

Friday Box-Office: 'Chronicle' Fends Off 'Woman in Black' in Tight Weekend Lead

Brad Brevet — Sat, 4 Feb 2012 12:53:11 -0700

It's going to be a close one at the box-office this weekend as Fox's low-budget telekenisis feature Chronicle holds a slight lead over Daniel Radcliffe in his first post-Harry Potter feature, The Woman in Black. And even more interesting is the fact both films are beating expectation. Let's see if we can figure out which one will end up on top on Sunday. To begin, Chronicle pulled in $8.6 million on Friday along with a B CinemaScore from audiences. This is well above tracking and Laremy's prediction of $15.4 million for the three-day is obviously low at this point as the film could bump up against $20 million or more. Considering it was made on a budget somewhere in the $13 million range that makes the folks at Fox very happy. Equally happy are the CBS Films execs as they have a legitimate shot at the #1 spot as well with The Woman in Black, a film they acquired for only $3 million last May. Black took in $8.3 million with a B- CinemaScore from audiences and could also see a result around $20 million, though the big question will be how the film's will stack up on Sunday once the Super Bowl kicks off. If I was to take a stab in the dark I would say Chronicle may be hurt a little more by the Super Bowl as it seems like a film targeting a younger male demographic that would be more likely to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, but there's nothing scientific in my assumption as far as that goes. The CinemaScores are relatively the same, though once you hit B- and lower it doesn't necessarily bode well for your longevity. In third is last weekend's number one, The Grey is one example of what a B- CinemaScore can mean is it took in only $3 million on Friday and can now only hope for $9 million for the weekend, a 54% drop should it be able to hit that number, though I would guess $8 million or potentially even less is more likely. The weekend's other new wide release is Big Miracle starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, which took in only $2.3 million, though can at least say those that attended enjoyed it as it earned an A- CinemaScore. That, however, won't translate into much money as an $8 million weekend is now likely. I have included Friday's top ten directly below and will be back on Sunday morning with a complete wrap-up. Take a look at the numbers and tell me what you think. Who have you got, Chronicle or Woman in Black taking the #1 spot? Weigh in in the comments below.

Chronicle - $8.6 million
The Woman in Black - $8.3 million
The Grey - $3 million
Big Miracle - $2.3 million
One for the Money - $1.73 million
Underworld Awakening - $1.7 million
Man on a Ledge - $1.503 million
Red Tails - $1.5 million
The Descendants - $1.4 million
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - $1.2 million

Podcast: 'Chronicle,' 'The Woman in Black,' Over/Under and TONS of Listener Questions

Brad Brevet — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 13:13:16 -0700

It's Friday and you know what that means, we're giving away two signed posters from The Artist on today's podcast and I have to say, you guys delivered when it comes to questions/topics. Between the last two podcasts and Monday's article announcing the giveaway there were over 105 comments and it was not easy to choose the best, but more on that in a second... We open this week's episode looking at Skyfall, The Hobbit, Katherine Heigl and Bridget Jones' 3 before Laremy introduces us to another rousing game of over/under. From there we review Chronicle and The Woman in Black and then it's nothing but listener questions as we search for a winner for The Artist posters, which have already been notified via email and are announced at the 80-minute mark of yet another long podcast that ended up running just over 97 minutes, but we did our best to get to all the questions and topics we could to give everyone a fair shake. Also, remember, this isn't the end of prizes for questions and topics for the podcast as we will continue to give away a prize for the best question/topic every Friday so ask away in the comments below and I hope you enjoy this week's episode. As always, I have broken down this episode on a minute-by-minute basis if you would like to skip ahead and below I have featured the information on how to download the podcast, find us on iTunes or merely just listen in your browser.

00:00-2:04 - Introduction
2:05-4:27 - New Skyfall Photo (see it here)
4:28-7:48 - Peter Jackson says The Hobbit will be visually and tonally consistent with The Lord of the Rings trilogy and we react. (source)
7:49-11:35 - Katherine Heigl signs on for Face Blind
11:36-12:43 - Working Title Films Debunks Bridget Jones 3 Rumors (source)
12:44-22:05 - Over/Under
- .5 RoboCop movies by the end of 2013.
- 8.5% margin of victory Obama vs. Romney
- 7 Years Facebook #1 Social Network Tool
- 1.5 More Oscar Nominations for Jonah Hill
- 3.5 Best Picture Nominees to come out of Cannes 2012
22:06-25:14 - [Listener Question] If you could give anyone an Oscar right now that has never won one, either alive or dead who would they be? [Joey Wiesen]
25:15-33:17 - Three listener questions submitted by Bren, Daisy and Gabriel Rincon that Brad answers "No" to, but what will Laremy say?
- Do you think The Artist will generate any broader interest in silent films here in the U.S. to the point where we may see more in the future (albeit not a LOT more)?
- Do either of you believe that the success of The Artist will inspire studios to allow filmmakers to make films just like The Artist?
- Do either of you feel that the films that are nominated and those that win at Academy Awards are an accurate representation of the best film(s) of the year?
33:18-37:01 - Chronicle review (read my review here)
37:02-44:29 - The Woman in Black review (read my review here)
44:30-46:31 - [Listener Question] What's the absolute best film about politics ever made? [andrew]
46:32-50:32 - [Listener Question] Can you guys brainstorm some food/drink suggestions for an Oscar party: [William]
50:33-54:00 - [Listener Question] Associating questions:
- Who gets the credit when it comes to the aesthetic and feel to a film? the Director or the Cinematographer? [Nhat Pham]
- Do you think the best film critics are the ones with actual filmmaking experience? What perspective does it add for a critic? [Snicket]
54:01-56:46 - [Listener Question] Which classic movies hold up the best in modern times? [Garrett]
56:47-57:40 - [Listener Question] What are your favorite performances by animals in movies? [Michael]
57:41-59:47 - [Listener Question] Brad do you think then Jack Nicholson and#038; Hilary Swank shouldn't be nominated again since he has won 3 and she has 2? Where do u draw the line? [Roberto925]
59:48-1:05:18 - [Listener Topic] I believe that a 3D movie will win best picture when it has a director who uses the technology to the extent that 3D doesn't just become a gimmick, but instead integrates itself into the story-telling experience. [Elijah]
1:05:19-1:08:54 - [Listener Question] Where does CGI and visual effects go from here? [Jake H.] (and even more 3D talk)
1:08:55-1:10:03 - [Listener Question] For what film have you witnessed the greatest disconnect between its marketing and the film itself, and did this disconnect enhance or diminish your experience with the film? [Jackson]
1:10:04-1:11:34 - [Listener Question] What classic Hollywood movie would you have liked to have been shot in that handheld intimate camera sort of style seen in Chronicle and Cloverfield? [darnoc]
1:11:35-1:13:52 - [Listener Question] At what point would you consider ambiguous endings lazy storytelling? [Kish]
1:13:53-1:20:21 - [Listener Question] What are films you loved as a child but don't like that much now? [Harry Fuertes]
1:20:22-1:25:55 - Posters giveway
1:25:56-1:28:53 - Closing and Super Bowl talk
1:28:54-1:30:05 - Next week's movies
1:30:06-1:37:20 - Epilogue and a story about how Brad chased a squatter out of his apartment building

'The Woman in Black' Review (2012)

Brad Brevet — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 08:24:17 -0700

I wish I could sit back and randomly throw things at you as you read this review, or blast noise through your computer's speakers at random just so you would have an idea of what kind of "scary" movie The Woman in Black is. Just imagine how hard it would be to read this if you were consistently worried about what I was going to throw at you next.

Jump scares are the play here and they take away from the fact this is a decent supernatural story with plenty of atmosphere and a solid little tale at its core. Too bad it's marred by loud noises out of nowhere and a final five minutes that only prove Drag Me to Hell did it much better.

Adapted from Susan Hill's 1983 thriller by Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class), The Woman in Black is set in the early 1900s and centers on Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a young lawyer assigned a task in the small town of Crythin Gifford to settle the affairs of the recently deceased owner of the Eel Marsh House.

This is sort of a last chance for Arthur whose wife passed away while giving birth to their son a few years back, which found him growing more and more detached to the point even his son draws pictures of him with a frown on his face. The bills are beginning to pile up and he's determined not to lose his job and try and find some joy in his life. So he hits the rails for Crythin Gifford with plans for his son and the nanny to join him in a few days, once his work is completed.

As Arthur travels across the English countryside, director James Watkins is already setting the mood. The train passes through the night with its cloudy plumes blotting the sky in thick inky blotches, and this is just one example of the atmospheric appeal The Woman in Black has to it. It's both beautiful and haunting and these foreboding qualities end up being its number one attribute as is evident in these early scenes and later in the dark corners of the Eel Marsh House.

Upon Arthur's arrival in town it's immediately evident he's not welcome. He's handed a folder of papers and told he cannot visit the house, which stands secluded from the rest of the town and cut off for a few hours each day by the incoming tide. It's as gloomy and unwelcoming as any house you'll see in such genre films and if you combine that with the attitude of the local population you immediately have to wonder why Arthur doesn't ask more questions before going about his business.

Sure, I understand his job may be on the line and the debt is piling up, but he could at least ask why these people are acting like such loons. But he doesn't, so we carry on... off to the house where the story unfolds and, despite seeing some pretty crazy things, Arthur isn't going home until the job's done. Oh, it's also here where the endless barrage of loud noises begin to assault your ears.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm beating a dead horse, but the first jump scare in this movie is dirty water pouring out of a rusty faucet as if it had been shot out of a cannon. Boom! Water! Look, it's dirty! Ewwww. But wait, it's not scary, it's just loud. It's like being constantly hit with a defibrillator and yelling at the doctor to tell him you're alive just before he yells, "Clear!" once again and hits you with another thousand volts. I was never legitimately scared by the story, only pounded into submission by loud noises.

Otherwise, the handling of the story is quite satisfying as Watkins keeps the mystery close to the chest and even in the end doesn't beat us over the head with exposition, instead opting for a satisfying scene between Arthur and a woman haunted by the death of her son played by Janet McTeer. Unfortunately, even that is mildly squandered as the final moments of the film play for for about two minutes too long.

Radcliffe is serviceable in the lead role, though I never quite bought the idea of him as a father or even a lawyer for that matter. Ciaran Hinds gets the film's only other meaty role outside of McTeer and he does just fine, but his character is just one more example of someone in the film that could have given Arthur a heads up as to what he was getting into. Instead, he's chosen to ignore the situation and hope things don't get any worse. To tell Arthur about it would be to acknowledge the possibility something actually is wrong. It's a narrative trick most will likely overlook, but when no one is helping this kid out I had no choice but to either be frustrated with him for not asking what the hell was going on or everyone else for not offering up the information willingly.

The Woman in Black has an interesting little legend to tell, but I had a hard time getting over the annoying use of worthless scares, which distracted from what was in fact a solid story. Whether they felt they needed those scares to ramp up the intensity or they felt the movie wasn't scary enough without them I'll never be sure, but it appears to me they just didn't have enough confidence in their story and felt they needed something more to make it more memorable. I say cut those bits out, add a little logic and snip a couple of minutes off the ending and you may have a top notch genre flick on your hands. As it is, it's just average.

GRADE: C

Pfriday's Poster Puzzles: February 3, 2012

Brad Brevet — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 05:00:17 -0700

The rules for this one are simple, what you see is a piece of a movie poster and your job is to guess the movie it's promoting. Be sure to spell correctly, misspelled titles are wrong answers.

NOTE: DO NOT reveal the answer in the comments section.

[poster_form]

GIVE UP? CLICK HERE

'Chronicle' Review (2012)

Brad Brevet — Fri, 3 Feb 2012 01:19:34 -0700

When it comes to story, Chronicle is about as simple as they come. If you've seen the trailer you're already aware three high schoolers stumble upon a hole in the ground and after being exposed to whatever is down there they begin to enjoy a growing form of telekinesis that only gets stronger the more they use it. As the film progresses one of the boys turns to the dark side and things go wonky from there. The end.

Inside of that bit of story, screenwriter Max Landis hammers home the fact Andrew (Dane DeHaan) -- he's the one that turns into a bad guy -- has had a pretty crappy upbringing. His mom is dying of cancer, his dad was a firefighter who was injured on the job and now stays home collecting checks and caring for his wife (when he's not drunk and beating on Andrew) and Andrew is an outcast at school and picked on with regularity. His only friend is his cousin (Alex Russell) and even that seems like it's more forced than real.

Things only change when Andrew buys a camera to begin documenting his day-to-day life. In the beginning, though, the camera isn't winning him any popularity contests with the bullying at school continuing and the cheerleaders calling him "creepy". It's only at a party when his cousin and the senior class big shot, Steve (Michael B. Jordan), find the hole I mentioned earlier and need the light on his camera to go down in that the camera seems to actually serve a purpose. From there, Andrew feels the need to "document" their powers and the camera remains a part of the story from that point forward.

I will, however, give Josh Trank some credit for how he dealt with the "found footage" aspect of this film. Trank tells the story with the understanding that any camera catching the action can be used, not only the one being operated by protagonist. This includes surveillance cameras, Andrew's camera, video phones from bystanders and such. Of course, it is still ridiculous how often Andrew is actually filming and where he takes the camera, such as a late night pouting session 30,000 feet in the air. Combine that with an equally obsessive camera operator played by Ashley Hinshaw, who is constantly filming even if it's just to open the front door, and you're well beyond ridiculous. But, for what it's worth I liked the presentation.

In fact, I liked the movie, it's just that it is so simple there isn't much to talk about or get excited over beyond the few minutes you're in the theater watching. The plot is easy enough to relate to as we've all wanted to fight back at some point. And, Andrew, with his new powers and the relentless amount of bottled rage, he's finally able to muster up the courage to stand up for himself, but it comes at the cost of his rage taking over.

Which brings me to one major point, if there's any complaint in the actual story, it's the exhaustive the film goes to just to show how bad Andrew's life is. It gets so heavy-handed in some moments it runs the risk of turning our feelings for Andrew from pity to animosity, but I guess they figured they needed to fill the time with something as Chronicle only runs 83 minutes long.

The rest of the film, however, leaves little to complain about. The performances from the three leads are solid (Michael B. Jordan was the stand out for me with charisma to spare) and the effects for a low budget feature are quite impressive. Trank was working on a budget somewhere around $13 million and still managed to effectively destroy most of downtown Seattle and send three high schoolers flying through the air along with cars, helicopters, buses and whatever else got in the way. At some moments the wire work is a bit clumsy, but for the price you can't really beat it.

Chronicle is a small story with a heavy dose of action and I enjoyed it for that. It essentially plays like an episode of "Heroes" without all the unnecessary mumbo-jumbo to get in the way. We're not talking high concept here as we're only talking about a "what if?" scenario if you were to suddenly realize you could crush a car with your mind, but that's enough for an 83-minute movie to keep me entertained.

GRADE: C+

Storyboards and Set Pics of Vin Diesel as He Returns for 'Riddick'

Brad Brevet — Thu, 2 Feb 2012 15:31:25 -0700

Vin Diesel on the set of Riddick
Photo: Vin Diesel's Facebook Page

Vin Diesel and director David Twohy have been keeping fans updated every step of the way as they return to the sci-fi world they began in 2000 with Pitch Black with the upcoming third feature in the franchise, Riddick. First off, Diesel has been updating fans via his Facebook page where today he dropped the third image of him on the set as he returns to play the film's title character. That said, here's the film's synopsis:

Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick (Diesel) fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick only to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. With his enemies right where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeance before returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction.

Shooting on the film is obviously underway right now up in Montreal, and just below are two more images Diesel has posted from the set and after that a special treat courtesy of writer/director David Twohy.

Vin Diesel on the set of Riddick
Photo: Vin Diesel's Facebook Page

Back in mid-January Twohy posted the following four pieces of storyboard art as he was only one week away from the first day of shooting. Along with the art from Charles Ratteray, Twohy added the following note:

[M]ost of you don't know about an artist named Charles Ratteray who does storyboards for me, just utterly dope stuff like what you see here. Well Charles wound up in the hospital this weekend with cardiac issues -- way too young for that nonsense at just 36 years old -- and this is big shout out to him, hoping he recovers quick and picks up that magical stylus soon. You have a lot of fans in Montreal, Charles.

Diesel is joined by "Battlestar Galactica" star Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Molla, and Nolan Funk in the film, which will be released by Universal, but does not yet have an official release date.

Storyboard for Riddick by Charles Ratteray
Photo: David Twohy's Blog