“The Iron Lady”: First Screening.

Posted on November 15, 2011 by jlmicek

Meryl Streep, in "Iron Lady"

Writing in The Guardian this morning, critic Xan Brooks takes a look at “Iron Lady,” the Meryl Streep-starring biopic of longtime U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Here’s the nut graf:

“While one doubts whether Baroness Thatcher would wholeheartedly approve of any large screen biopic, it seems likely that she’d have a certain, sneaking affection for The Iron Lady, which prints the legend and keeps the dissent on spartan rations. Yes, the film provides glimpses of a blustering Michael Foot, and archive footage from the poll tax riots. At one stage angry protesters slap on the window of the heroine’s limo to tell her she’s “a monster”. Yet there’s little sense of the outside world, the human cost, or the ripple effect of divisive government policies. It is a movie that gives us Thatcher without Thatcherism.

The Iron Lady, directed by Phyllida Lloyd from an Abi Morgan script, opts for a breezy, whistle-stop tour through the unstable nitroglycerin of Thatcher’s life and times. The tone is jaunty and affectionate, a blend of Yes Minister and The King’s Speech, fuelled by flashbacks that bob us back through authorised history.”

Read the full story here.

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A Sneak Peek At Milla Jovovich On New “Resident Evil” Set.

Posted on November 15, 2011 by jlmicek

Here’s a look at the gear actress Milla Jovovich is sporting on the set of the latest “Resident Evil” flick.

The movie hits theaters in September 2012. (h/t to ComicBookMovie)

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New “Underworld” Poster Online.

Posted on November 14, 2011 by jlmicek

Here’s one for the fanboys: It’s Kate Beckinsale, replete in black leather, in the upcoming “Underworld: Awakening.”

The movie hits U.S. theaters in January.

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Brad Pitt To Quit Acting In Three Years?

Posted on November 14, 2011 by jlmicek

Actor Brad Pitt, Guardian Photo

In An Interview With The Guardian …
… the last of Hollywood’s actual leading men says he’d like to stop making films in the near future. The story hints that Pitt’s interest in the production side of the business and family concerns may be driving his decision.

“Brad Pitt has said that he sees himself quitting acting in three years, when he turns 50. The actor made the admission during an interview for Australian chat show 60 Minutes to promote his Oscar-tipped new film Moneyball.

Asked what he would do afterwards Pitt, 47, said: “Hell if I know,” adding: “I’m really enjoying the producorial (sic) side … and getting stories to the plate that may have had a harder time otherwise. I’ve gotten away with a few things and I’ve been pissed off by a few things.”

Read the full story here.

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Weekend Box Office And The Monday Must-Read.

Posted on November 14, 2011 by jlmicek

So You Know What Audiences Like?

That’s right, you guessed it, movies about Greek gods and Adam Sandler in drag.

Director Tarsem Singh’s “Immortals” with soon-to-be Superman Henry Cavil in the lead role as the mythic hero Theseus ruled the box office this weekend. Meanwhile, Sandler’s holiday comedy “Jack & Jill” with Katie Holmes clearly fulfilling some kind of obligation to the Church of Scientology, finished second.

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo, here’s the weekend by the numbers:

TW LW Title (click to view) Studio Weekend Gross % Change Theater Count /Change Average Total Gross Budget* Week #
1 N Immortals Rela. $32,000,000 – 3,112 – $10,283 $32,000,000 $75 1
2 N Jack and Jill Sony $26,000,000 – 3,438 – $7,563 $26,000,000 – 1
3 1 Puss in Boots P/DW $25,500,000 -22.9% 3,903 -60 $6,533 $108,809,000 $130 3
4 2 Tower Heist Uni. $13,200,000 -45.1% 3,370 +3 $3,917 $43,900,000 $75 2
5 N J. Edgar WB $11,470,000 – 1,910 – $6,005 $11,569,000 – 1
6 3 A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas WB (NL) $5,900,000 -54.5% 2,875 – $2,052 $23,222,000 $19 2
7 5 In Time Fox $4,150,000 -44.5% 2,591 -536 $1,602 $30,667,000 $40 3
8 4 Paranormal Activity 3 Par. $3,625,000 -56.5% 2,776 -510 $1,306 $100,823,000 $5 4
9 6 Footloose (2011) Par. $2,735,000 -38.8% 2,215 -596 $1,235 $48,876,000 $24 5
10 7 Real Steel BV $2,000,000 -41.8% 1,758 -680 $1,138 $81,748,000 – 6

With “My Week with Marilyn” set to hit theaters soon, New York Times film writer Pat Ryan recalls a 1956 press conference in which Marilyn Monroe’s dress strap broke. And, yes, kids, that sparked a furor.

Here’s the nut graf:

“The Plaza news conference was Monroe’s first major appearance since she left Hollywood to study theater in New York and find more challenging roles. By 1956 she was seriously immersed in Method acting with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and making plans to wed the playwright Arthur Miller. She was also serious about business. She negotiated a new contract with 20th Century Fox and started Marilyn Monroe Productions to engage in all forms of theatrical enterprise. “The Prince and the Showgirl” was the first (and only) independent film for the new company, of which she was president, and the vice president was the photographer Milton H. Greene. Her Fox contract had given her the freedom to develop her own projects. For “The Prince and the Showgirl” she negotiated a deal with the Warner Brothers chief Jack Warner and Olivier. Greene became the executive producer, Olivier the director and producer, Warner Brothers put up the money and served as distributor. “Last week there was persuasive evidence that Marilyn Monroe is a shrewd businesswoman,” Time reported in January, “apparent when Marilyn Monroe Productions bought a property to serve as a starring vehicle for its president, M. Monroe.”

Read the full story here.

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“The Princess Bride” Two Decades On.

Posted on November 9, 2011 by jlmicek

Unbelievably, Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride” is now old enough to have entertained at least three generations of filmgoers.

Writing in The Guardian this morning, critic Jonathan Haynes explains why the cinematic adventure of Wesley, Princess Buttercup and the inimitable Inigo Montoya ranks as his favorite movie of all time.

Here’s the nut graf:

“William Goldman’s screenplay does most of the heavy lifting (his other work includes All The President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) while director Rob Reiner (of This Is Spinal Tap) gleefully throws out any attempt at realism. The sets are shoddy – rocks have rarely looked more like polystyrene than the rocks at the top of the Cliffs of Insanity, the stunts ludicrously executed – for Westley’s gymnastics while fighting Inigo the stunt double would have looked no less incongruous if dressed in a pink leotard, and the overall continuity seems wilfully absent. Never has the sky changed so much as in the short distance from the Cliffs to the Swamp. Between filming in County Clare and Derbyshire we’ve gone from summer sunshine to fake studio skies to a cold and greying autumn.”

There are so many reasons to love this movie. Among them is its pure, fairy-tale heart which is underlined with a heaping portion of Borscht Belt kitsch. If you’re an aging Xer (as I am) and you saw this in the theaters at the time of its original 1987 release, I’ll bet you dimes to donuts that there are whole sections of this movie that you can recite from memory.

To this day, my wife and I still swap lines back and forth. And any time someone utters the word “Inconceivable!” I have to suppress the urge to channel Mandy Patinkin and ask, “You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” And when one of us gets a little too lippy for the other, my bride or I will inevitably slip into the late Peter Falk’s rasp and say, “Yes, yes, you’re very clever. Now shut up.”

Ask anyone, and I’ll defy you to find someone who doesn’t think the scene in Miracle Max’s cottage isn’t one of Billy Crystal’s and Carol Kane’s finest moments on film.

And it’s still a great date movie — I don’t care how old you are. There’s just something about watching this movie with your best girl or a girl you’re hoping to impress. And that is equally true if you’re 41, with a kid and a mortgage or a dewy-eyed high- schooler on the cusp of your first love.

Read the full story here.

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New Jennifer Lawrence “Hunger Games” Image Released.

Posted on November 9, 2011 by jlmicek

Here’s a fresh look at “Hunger Games” star Jennifer Lawrence. She plays “Katniss Everdeen” the lead character in the hugely successfull YA fiction series in which kids duel to the death to the delight of a viewing audience.

"Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence

Here’s the trailer:

The film hits theaters next March.

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“Man of Steel’s” Henry Cavil Talks About Becoming Superman.

Posted on November 8, 2011 by jlmicek

In An Interview …
… with the film news site Collider, “Man of Steel” actor Henry Cavil discusses how he prepared for his role and the source material he consulted (or did not, as the case may be):

“I avoided watching anything which was someone else’s interpretation of the source material. I didn’t go back to the movies and watch them. I didn’t go back to the TV series and watch them. I didn’t want to take that and have that influence my interpretation and my performance of the character. Where the character truly belongs and where the character truly comes from is not from the movies or the TV shows; it’s from the comic books. So I went straight to the comic books and had stacks of them and just read and read and read and read and read. I enjoyed so much learning about the character in such a dense manner. The comic books were my source of material; the TV shows and movies were someone else’s interpretation and so I left that to them.”

Cavil stars this month in “Immortals,” a new film adaptation of the Theseus story of Greek myth.

Read the full interview here.

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Robbed Of His Voice, Roger Ebert Finds A New One.

Posted on November 8, 2011 by jlmicek

Film critic Roger Ebert (right) with the late Gene Siskel. The two hosted the long-running "At the Movies."

The chances are good that if you know anything about the film critic Roger Ebert, then you know him as the opinionated host of “At The Movies,” a show he hosted for years and years with the late Gene Siskel.

But what you may not know is that a bout with cancer a few years back cost Ebert, the veteran film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times part of his jawbone, leaving him unable to speak, eat or drink. A tragedy like that would be enough to crush a lesser man.

But Ebert is still going strong and he’s found a new voice as a blogger and writer. His productivity has skyrocketed and he now Tweets and blogs madly. In an excerpt from his new book “Life Itself” (courtesy of The Guardian), the critic says he’s “happy I don’t look worse.” He also discusses how he’s changed his approach to doing his job.

“Losing the ability to speak ended my freedom to interview. There are new stars and directors coming up now whom I will never get to know that way. Tilda Swinton, Sofia Coppola, Ellen Page, David Fincher, Colin Firth, Jennifer Lawrence. I’ve never even had a proper conversation with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Edward Norton, Darren Aronofsky, Catherine Keener or George Clooney. I tried a few interviews using the voice in my computer while tape-recording the answers. I got some good answers, but you couldn’t call these conversations.

I’ve felt better about another approach: I ask prepared questions and take digital video of the response, finding that being on camera inspires more conversational frankness. During those interviews, I pause to type up follow-through questions. All the same, my last real interview was at Cannes in May 2006, when I talked with William Friedkin, Tracy Letts and Michael Shannon, the director, writer and star of Bug. That was a movie I was eager to discuss. Now that is all in the past.”

Read the full piece here.

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Twenty-Five Must-See Films For The End Of 2011.

Posted on November 8, 2011 by jlmicek

Courtesy Of The Good Folks …
… at Filmbalaya, here’s a list of the 25 movies that could “blow you away” in the couple of months remaining in the year.

They include Kevin Smith’s “Red State,” the new Johnny Depp adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson’s “The Rum Diary” and the newest installment of “The Muppets,” which is set to hit theaters at Thanksgiving.

Of the list, the writer notes: “This is not a list for those of you who think that Transformers, The Green Lantern, Harry Potter, or Twilight are going to be the best films of the year. If you made a funny face and almost spewed just from thinking about the aforementioned films, this is your list. Maybe.”

Read the full post here.

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