New “Rampart” Poster Kicks It Old School.

Posted on February 23, 2012 by jlmicek

Here’s a nifty, retro-looking poster for “Rampart,” the L.A.-based police drama starring Woody Harrelson, Ned Beatty, Ben Foster, Anne Heche, Ice Cube, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, and Steve Buscemi. Oren Moverman directs.

Here’s a synopsis:

“From a screenplay by James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”) and director Oren Moverman (Oscar-nominated “The Messenger”), comes Rampart. Veteran police officer Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson), dedicated to doing “the people’s dirty work” and asserting his own code of justice, is the last of the renegade cops in the LAPD. When he gets caught on tape beating a suspect, he finds himself in a personal and emotional downward spiral as he struggles to take care of his family, and fight for his own survival. With an all star cast including Robin Wright, Sigourney Weaver, Ben Foster and Steve Buscemi, this high octane cop thriller has been labelled “a film to file alongside the great LA noir masterpieces of the 1970s – dazzling, stunning and unique”.

(Via HeyUGuys)

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A Brief Housekeeping Note.

Posted on February 23, 2012 by jlmicek

Good Thursday Morning, Everyone.
If you’re a regular visitor to the site, nice to have you here. If you’re a new visitor, welcome. I hope you’ll spend some time looking around. Every weekday and most weekends, I try to bring you the freshest mix of film news and criticism that my little fingers can crank out.

If you’re a regular, you may notice that things look a little different. Like, y’know, the banner ad across the top of the page and the square ad in the right-hand column over there. A word of explanation: WordPress has launched a new advertising feature called WordAds and some lucky blogs, like this one fr’instance, have been asked to participate in the Beta run of the initiative.

So here’s the deal, every time you click through on one of the ads, I get a little, teeny tiny piece of the action. Don’t worry, it’s not like I’m financing Caribbean vacations off the proceeds. No, it’s mostly enough to help make sure that The Family Cineaste makes a bit of extra coin so that, tonight, at least, we eat.

If you’d be kind enough to click through so that we can keep the lights on around here and keep bringing you all the news and videos and posters and eye-candy you’ve come to expect, that’d be totally awesome. All right … let’s get on with the rest of the day’s film news.

Thanks!
John
The Cineaste

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Superheroines Get Their Due At SXSW

Posted on February 22, 2012 by jlmicek

Big-screen versions of Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Ms. Marvel and other butt-kicking superheroines of the comics may never find their way to multiplexes, but a new documentary bowing at SXSW makes sure these fierce women get their due. 

Here’s the trailer for “Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines.”  

Posted in action, Comic Book movies, Film News, Superhero Cinema | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New “John Carter” Poster Hits,

Posted on February 22, 2012 by jlmicek

With marketers jumpy about the fate of the big-budget Sci-Fi epic, Hollywood is leaving no stone unturned to get audiences into the theaters for the big-screen adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ little-known pulp hero. In fact, here’s a new poster (which will be handed out free to midnight iMax attendees on opening night):

Pretty epic, right? Nearly as epic as the efforts to build hype around the movie.

(h/t SlashFilm)

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First “Skyfall” Videoblog Arrives Online.

Posted on February 22, 2012 by jlmicek

Ever wonder what’s going through director Sam Mendes’ head as he works on the new James Bond movie “Skyfall?”

Now’s your big chance to find out. Here’s the first-ever video-blog for the 23rd installment of the long-running spy franchise starring Daniel Craig.

(via TotalFilm)

Posted in action, Film News, James Bond, Spoiler-itis, Trailer Trash | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Is Anybody Hungry? Two New “Hunger Games” Spots Debut.

Posted on February 22, 2012 by jlmicek

Hear that? It’s the sound of the hype for the upcoming film adaptations of Suzanne Collins’ dystopic YA novels cranking up to unprecedented highs.

Courtesy of the good folks at HeyUGuys, here’s two new TV spots for the flick starring Jennifer Lawrence, Elizabeth Banks, Lenny Kravitz and Woody Harrelson, among others.

http://comingsoon.springboardplatform.com/mediaplayer/springboard/video/cs006/71/444349/

And here’s the other one:

http://comingsoon.springboardplatform.com/mediaplayer/springboard/video/cs006/71/444355/

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New Jeremy Renner Image from “The Bourne Legacy.”

Posted on February 21, 2012 by jlmicek

Via HeyUGuys, here’s a shot of Bourne Legacy star Jeremy Renner getting into/out of trouble and/or running away from/ toward something in the upcoming sequel to the long-running spy movie franchise.

Renner replaces Matt Damon, who’s stepping aside as Jason Bourne, the most perpetually harried spy in all of filmdom.

Actor Jeremy Renner in "The Bourne Legacy."

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Antonio Banderas To Play Picasso In “Guernica” Film.

Posted on February 21, 2012 by jlmicek

The Guardian reports this morning that Spanish actor Antonio Banderas will play famed modernist painter Pablo Picasso in director Carlos Saura’s upcoming “33 Dias,” a drama about the creation of Picasso’s famed Guernica painting.

Here’s the nut graf:

“Guernica, a black and white mural that Picasso completed in 1937, was painted in response to the bombing of the Basque town by German and Italian forces supporting the nationalists during the Spanish civil war. It’s unveiling at the World’s Fair in Paris in the same year helped to bring attention to the conflict. The tally of civilian deaths as a result of the bombings is still disputed. The Basque government reported 1,654 dead after the attack, but modern estimates put the number between 300-400.

“Picasso’s a character that has pursued me for a long time and I always rejected,” Banderas told El País. “He deserves a lot of respect because I am from Malaga, and I was born four blocks from where he was born”. Banderas, 51, is of a similar age to that of the artist (54) when he finished the painting.”

Read the full story here.

Posted in drama, Film News | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The 50 Hottest Movie Posters Ever.

Posted on February 21, 2012 by jlmicek

Bless the folks at TotalFilm and their passion for lists. This morning, they’re out with a countdown of the Top 50 sexiest movie posters of all time. Just the sort of thing to get your mind racing on the morning after a bank holiday Tuesday.

Here’s one of them, 2005’s “Into the Blue,” which starred Jessica Alba doing something that involved her spending most of the movie in a bikini. Something about treasure hunting as I recall.


Read the full story here.

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How The Oscars Might Still Surprise Us.

Posted on February 21, 2012 by jlmicek

Writing in The Wrap This Morning …
… film critic Steve Pond offers some prescriptions on how the 94th annual Academy Awards might still surprise us.
For instance, when it comes to Best Actor, Pond writes that George Clooney was considered a lock for his turn in “The Descendants.”

Yet …

“Then ‘The Artist’ juggernaut began to pick up momentum, and Jean Dujardin won one award after another: the Golden Globe, SAG Award, BAFTA Award …

Now Dujardin is the clear favorite, picked to win by all but two of the 12 pundits on Movie City News’ Gurus of Gold. And Clooney will have to console himself with the one Oscar he already has, and those two People magazine Sexiest Man Alive awards that he loves to talk about.

Or will he?

One of the reasons that “The Artist” has become a near-prohibitive favorite in the Best Picture race is that no other film established itself as the clear-cut alternative, the movie to vote for if you don’t want the silent movie to win.

In the Best Actor category, though, Clooney is that alternative. He’s one way to slow the “Artist” train, one way to say that black-and-white charm only goes so far

Read the full story here.

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