20 articles
Oscar documentary scandal: The real reason too many good movies got left out
8 hours ago | EW.com - The Movie Critics | See recent EW.com - The Movie Critics news »
The 15-film "short list" for this year's Best Documentary competition in the Academy Awards has provoked more than the usual shock and outrage, and for good reason. Every year, there's a certain level of white-noise griping about Oscar "snubs." This year's list, though, isn't just lackluster -- there's something fundamentally off about it. It's almost perverse. Compiled by a star chamber of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters (it's not specified how many of the 151 documentary branch members actually watch the films and produce the final roster), the list omits far too many of the documentaries -- like, »
- Owen Gleiberman
Movie Reviews: “Planet 51”
6 hours ago | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
Planet 51, an animated film about an alternate Earth still living in the 1950s (while the inhabitants are green and sport antennas on their heads, they speak English) that is invaded by modern man, is likely to attract an alternate audience -- families. It's receiving so-so reviews. "Although not bowling me over, Planet 51 is a jolly and good-looking animated feature in glorious 2D," writes the Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert, who is no fan of most animated 3D features. Stephen Holden in the New York Times calls it "agreeable but flagrantly unoriginal." Annie Biancolli in the San Francisco Chronicle regards Planet 51 as "an innocuous computerized bauble." And Nancy Churnin in the Dallas Morning News says it's "definitely a planet worth a visit." But Steven Rea of the Philadelphia Inquirer regards it as an "uninspired computer-animated feature that may satisfy undiscriminating pipsqueaks and nearly no one else." Yet, Jan Horwitz notes in the Washington Post, "Most of the jokes are geared to adults and are a little tasteless, yet the story itself seems aimed at kids." Similarly, Ty Burr writes in the Boston Globe that the movie is "obnoxiously written, with too many cutesy-dirty double-entendres that are meant to appeal to the grown-ups but that only make the movie seem cringingly infantile." »
Kick-Ass Gets A UK Distributor
13 hours ago | | See recent news »
Good news, British readers: Kick-Ass, the really exciting, very funny and slightly twisted new film from Matthew Vaughn, has found a UK distributor. Yes, Universal will be bringing us the tale of superheroes minus superpowers, which is good news for audiences still waiting more than a month after it found a Us distributor.The film is based, of course, on the Mark Millar comics about a boy who decides to become a superhero without the benefit of superpowers, super-suits or super-anything else. Except for maybe super-ability-to-get-his-ass-kicked.It stars Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, Nicolas Cage and Mark Strong. We suspect that the UK release date will closely mirror the planned Us release on April 16, but we'll bring you confirmation of that as soon as we have it. »
Theater Necking To Take On New Meaning
6 hours ago | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
Defying conventional wisdom that teenage boys control the box office, box office analysts are predicting record crowds -- mostly of teenage girls -- for this weekend's opening of Summit Entertainment's The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times said that the film will likely sell about $90 million worth of tickets and could possibly cross the $100-million mark, putting it just behind the year's biggest ticket seller, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke quoted sources as saying that the movie's midnight take may have exceeded that of The Dark Knight. Both Transformers and Knight were aimed squarely at young men, while the Twilight movie is aimed at young women. Although today's ticket sales are likely to be enormous, Saturday's are likely to fall off dramatically, if the original Twilight is any indication. That movie saw a decline of 41 percent on its second day, then drop 62 percent on its second weekend, despite the fact that it, like its sequel, went into its second week with the benefit of the Thanksgiving holiday. The vampire/werewolf love-triangle will be doing battle with the second week of the end-of-the-world saga 2012, which is expected to lose more than half its opening-weekend audience, but still perform quite nicely. Two new films (besides New Moon) opening wide, Planet 51 and The Blind Side, are iffy propositions.
Update: The Twilight Saga: New Moon amassed a sensational $26.27 million for its midnight screenings, smashing the previous record, according to estimates released today (Friday) by its producer, Summit Entertainment. The result far outdistanced that for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which recorded a midnight opening of $22.20 million in July, to set a record for a five-day weekend, and The Dark Knight, which garnered $18.5 million in July of 2008, to set the record for a three-day weekend. »
IFC & Netflix Team To Stream 53 Indies
13 hours ago | IndieWIRE | See recent indieWIRE news »
IFC Entertainment and Netflix have announced a partnership that gives Netflix the U.S. rights to 53 unique titles from IFC Entertainment. Through this agreement select titles from IFC Entertainment’s library of independent films will become available to be streamed instantly to televisions and computers via the Netflix service. The deal was announced jointly by Lisa Schwartz, executive vice president for IFC Entertainment, and Robert Kyncl, vice president of content acquisition for … »
Oscar 2010: Animated Short Film Semi-Finalists
6 hours ago | | See recent news »
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 semi-finalists in the animated short film category of the 2010 Academy Awards. Thirty-seven entries had originally qualified in the category. They are: The Cat Piano, Eddie White and Ari Gibson, directors (The People’s Republic of Animation) French Roast, Fabrice O. Joubert, director (Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films) Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, Nicky Phelan, director, and Darragh O’Connell, producer (Brown Bag Films) The Kinematograph, Tomek Baginski, director-producer (Platige Image) The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), Javier Recio Gracia, director (Kandor Graphics and Green Moon) Logorama, Nicolas Schmerkin, producer (Autour de Minuit) A Matter of Loaf and Death, Nick Park, director (Aardman Animations Ltd.) Partly Cloudy, Peter [...] »
- Anna Robinson
Best Film Not Playing At A Theater Near You @Moma This Weekend
2 hours ago | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »
Contributing Editor Brandon Harris has posted on his blog a new preview of Filmmaker and MoMA's annual "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" program, which unspools at the museum this week. Screening will be the five films that will be competing for the Gotham Award we sponsor on December 1. (For schedule and film descriptions, visit MoMA's site.) Brandon writes that this year's program is the strongest we've put together in the six years of doing this series, and I agree. This isn't to say that previous years haven't been strong, but in the past we've always been able to indulge ourselves with some element of whimsicality in the selection process, including films that would truly be offbeat pictures in a theatrical context. This... »
- Scott Macaulay
Academy Announces 10 Best Animated Short Film Contenders
3 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the animated short films short list, a list of 10 shorts, narrowed down from 37 films, that will advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards. The Academy branch members will select five nominees from the ten titles. I have included the list of 10 short films after the jump, along with trailers/previews, or video embeds of the full short films, when available. "The Cat Piano," Eddie White and Ari Gibson The Cat Piano from Pra on Vimeo. "French Roast," Fabrice O. Joubert "Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty," Nicky Phelan "The Kinematograph," Tomek Baginski "The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)," Javier Recio Gracia "Logorama," Nicolas Schmerkin [new video] "A Matter of Loaf and Death," Nick Park "Partly Cloudy," Peter Sohn "Runaway," Cordell Barker "Variete," Roelof van den Bergh The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced Tuesday, February 2nd, »
- Peter Sciretta
Interview: Judd Apatow (Part One)
4 hours ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
Funny People was the latest in Judd Apatow's ongoing series of summer comedies, but it was anything but a typical summer comedy: following a successful comedian (played by Apatow's longtime friend Adam Sandler) who reflects on his life after discovering he's going to die, the film offered lots of humor but with decidedly heavier themes lurking beneath the yuks. The film debuts on Blu-ray in a 2-Disc Collector's Edition next week, and the contents are amazing, showing how Apatow combined lighthearted fare with more serious ideas in the service of exploring something substantive.
Cinematical was lucky enough to catch up with Apatow via telephone one recent morning to discuss the process of putting together the film's home video iteration. In addition to discussing the bonus materials, extras, featurettes, and a documentary that's the most thorough and thoughtful ever produced about a comedy production, Apatow talked about finding the right ending for his magnum opus, »
- Todd Gilchrist
Serious Scores: 'Aguirre: The Wrath of God'
5 hours ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
We're doing something crazy, and launching another little series here on Cinematical: Serious Scores. You're a smart bunch, so I imagine you've already figured out that the goal isn't to highlight our favorite bank heists, but to praise the creme de la creme of cinema's soundtracks. Hopefully, you'll find something new for your iPod, rediscover a lost favorite, or appreciate a piece along with us.
Technically, Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God doesn't have an official soundtrack. The entire score was recorded by the German progressive band Popol Vuh (the first of many collaborations they did with Herzog), and was released as an album in 1975, with a 2004 re-release. Only two tracks were actually used in the film: Aguirre I and Aguirre II. If you disdain the rest of their Krautrock, the magic of iTunes and Amazon allows you to buy them individually. Now you can put them on a playlist, »
- Elisabeth Rappe
Royal flush: five of the best play Queen in new film
5 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
C4 documentary drama to portray the monarch in key moments since the 1950s
Playing the Queen brought Helen Mirren international fame and enough awards to fill a trophy room. Now five more British actors are taking on the role in a new Channel 4 documentary drama series.
The Queen, a five-part series starting next Sunday, focuses on crisis moments since the 1953 coronation. Emilia Fox stars in the first episode, centred around events in 1955 when Princess Margaret was considering marriage to a divorced equerry, Peter Townsend. Samantha Bond, best known as Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films, plays her during the early 1970s era of power cuts, strikes and Ira threats. Susan Jameson portrays her in conflict with Margaret Thatcher over the South Africa sanctions row that threatened the Commonwealth.
Barbara Flynn picks up the role during the "annus horribilis" of 1992, when Charles and Diana's failed marriage was laid bare in the »
- Tim Lusher
'Young and the Restless' star Peter Bergman on Eric Braeden: 'We all thought he was going to be gone'
5 hours ago | EW - Hollywood Insider.com | See recent EW.com - Hollywood Insider news »
On Nov. 27, Peter Bergman will celebrate his 20th year playing Jack Abbott on CBS's top-rated The Young and The Restless. The veteran soap star (he previously played Dr. Cliff Warner on ABC's All My Children) talked exclusively to EW.com about what it was like to originally assume the role, how he felt about his character talking to a ghost, and whether he and the cast believed that Eric Braeden would ever really quit the show. EW: What was it replacing Terry Lester, who had previously played Jack Abbott, 20 years ago? Peter Bergman: He had burned every bridge he could burn before he left. »
- Lynette Rice
Review: Planet 51
5 hours ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
As voiced by Dwayne "the artist formerly known as The Rock" Johnson, astronaut Chuck Baker is the paragon of all-American achievement -- that is, until he conquers a far off world with an unexpected population, one inexplicably steeped in our '50s-era culture and terrified by the prospect of an alien invader in human form. More unfortunately for us, Chuck has landed smack-dab in the middle of Planet 51, a short-sighted assembly of sci-fi references and scatalogical humor that should nonetheless placate undemanding tots and, by extension, their undiscerning parents for ninety minutes or so.
Filed under: Action, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Sony, Theatrical Reviews
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- William Goss
Our Commenters of the Week Win A T-Shirt Emblazoned with TV's Hottest New Catchphrase!
5 hours ago | Movieline | See recent Movieline news »
The CW is desperately trying to make Heather Locklear and Melrose Place happen, and who are we to stand in the way? And so it is that the writers of our five best comments this week will receive a t-shirt featuring Locklear's instant-classic, not-overwritten-at-all-why-would-you-say-that rejoinder, "I'm not so sure it dissipated." Someday, when we are all 55-year-old gay men (this happens to everyone), we will pass this line down to the twinks of the future and remember a time when TV bitchery was at its most torturously composed peak. So who are our winners? »
With Law Abiding Citizen, payback is making a comeback
6 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Why does recession bring with it a thirst for dumb revenge dramas?
Law Abiding Citizen, which I should say at the outset is a terrible, terrible movie – either the stupidest of the year so far or the most unintentionally funny – takes the urban revenge movie and grafts on to it certain depressing innovations from other genres, including the serial killer-as-genius trope from The Silence Of The Lambs, and the post-Saw/Hostel enthusiasm for torture-porn and mega bloodshed. Let's just say it doesn't tell us much except that the revenge movie is back with, um, a vengeance.
Gerard Butler plays a man who takes complicated, detailed and violent revenge against the killers who raped and murdered his wife and daughter. Thing is, he's already in jail when most of the killings occur (cue evil genius!), which doesn't stop one victim from being surgically deprived of various extremities, up to and including his Johnson (hello, »
- John Patterson
This week's new cinema previews
6 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
A Serious Man (15)
(Ethan & Joel Coen, 2009, Us) Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Richard Kind. 105 mins.
A "proper" Coens movie after the brothers' recent, atypical efforts, and it's one of their, and the year's, best, striking that contradictory, tragicomic, mundane-surreal tone only they can achieve. Harking back to their own late-1960s youth, it's a portrait of one man's suburban hell, with Stuhlbarg's Jewish physics professor plagued by all manner of uncertainty: domestic, religious, scientific. He doesn't even know whether to laugh or cry. The result is a procession of unforgettable scenes and characters, with a mighty metaphysical wallop.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (12A)
(Chris Weitz, 2009, Us) Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart. 131 mins.
Legions of fanatics have had this film's release date tattooed on their brains for a year already. For non-Twi-hards, it's more of the same swoony, hormonal teen angst with a supernatural edge and hot young stars to die for – literally. »
- Steve Rose
Exclusive: Producer Joel Silver on Ninja Assassin, Lobo, Sgt. Rock, The Losers, Unknown White Male, More
6 hours ago | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »
With Warner Bros. Ninja Assassin set for release next week, the studio held a press day this afternoon here in Los Angeles. While I’ll have plenty of video interviews for you to watch over the next few days, the first one I’d like to share is with producer Joel Silver. Also, since Silver is producing tons of other projects like Sherlock Holmes, The Losers, Sgt. Rock, Lobo, Unknown White Male, and The Book of Eli, I figure his interview is the first one I should post.
While I didn’t get any major scoops, I did find out what’s up with Lobo and what does he think of Jeffrey Dean Morgan for the role. Also, we talked about how Francis Lawrence landed the directing job on Sgt. Rock and does he think it might get made next year. Of course many other subjects were talked about so »
- Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub
The second outing of John Hurt
6 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
He got his big break playing Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant and now, 34 years later, John Hurt is at it again
There's something disturbing about John Hurt. That familiar Mount Rushmore face seems to have ironed itself out. It was once compared to a komodo dragon – even his lines seemed to have lines – but today he looks peachy as a schoolboy. You've been on the Botox, haven't you? He roars with how-dare-you laughter. "Nah! Hahahaha! No. Don't say that. That would be awful. Not in a million years would I do that." He's got a point: take away the cracks and creases, and his job prospects would diminish no end. His face is one of the most distinctive in the movies. Almost as distinctive as his voice, dripping with honey and acid, often at the same time. Look, he admits, there might well be a reason for his »
How Paranormal Activity became a frightening success
6 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Social networking sends $15,000 shocker inspired by Fawlty Towers into box-office hall of fame
There is nothing remotely scary about the beige library in the Soho Hotel. It's calm, quiet, bland. Yet towards the end of a low-key interview with Oren Peli, who's in London for less than 24 hours to promote his smash-hit low-budget horror flick Paranormal Activity, there's a loud creak in the corner of the room and I find myself leaping out of the armchair. Peli sits deep in the sofa. He doesn't move. I think I've been hearing things. Peli simply smiles. He nods; he heard it too.
Weeks after watching Paranormal Activity it's easy to be spooked by every creak, even in the middle of the day. Filmed over seven days and nights in Peli's suburban San Diego house in 2006, Paranormal Activity is a mock documentary in the style of The Blair Witch Project; we watch a »
- Amy Raphael
This week's DVD and Blu-ray releases
6 hours ago | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »
Terminator – The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Terminator Salvation
DVD & Blu-ray, Warner, Sony
If nothing else, watching McG's Terminator Salvation at least puts Christian Bale's infamous on-set meltdown into perspective; if you had to pretend to be angry for so long in front of the camera then you'd probably end up angry in real life. Bale's angry John Connor is a one-note performance, the problem being it's the wrong note. That's not the only drawback: McG has a similar one-dimensional take on the material. He seems to think the Terminator films are about robots and explosions and nothing else. And Bale has to share the narrative with Sam Worthington's turn as an unwilling cyborg, the result being the film plays as if it has two competing co-stars and no real direction. Far more Terminator-ish is the now-cancelled TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles, led by Lena Headey. Science-fiction television shows, »
- Phelim O'Neill
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