Monday, October 5th, 2009

'Tis a slow week for blogging due to it being finals week. Despite missing the last three days, there has not been a lot of cinematic news pumping through the blogsphere. This may be due to the fact that instead of blogging or digging up some kind of casting news to bitch about, cinephiles actually have a few decent options in theaters this weekend. Taking the top of the box office was Zombieland, which was shockingly great. I expected it to be comical, but from the wonderful opening credit sequence set to Metallica's "For Whom the Bells Toll", I was hooked. Also, I don't think it is a huge spoiler to say that Bill Murray cameos in the film, as whenever I searched Zombieland on Google search, all that came back was Murray's name. Anyhow, the short amount of time may be one of Murray's best comedic performances since Groundhog Day, try to digest how awesome that compliment was.

Other than Zombieland, there was five other very watchable releases that is definitely on my must-see list. First, the Coen Brothers' most recent dark comedy A Serious Man, which showed up disappointingly outside of the top 25 on the box office charts, but still looks incredible. Pixar re-released Toy Story and Toy Story 2 as a 3-D double feature for a two-week engagement, kicking off one of the best autumn movie seasons for family films since the 80's. In addition, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It!, which is garnering what some feel surprising critical praise in a coming-of-age comedy set in the world of roller derby girls, and starring Ellen Page. Michael Moore's most recent documentary, a commentary on the current state of our country's economic woes, Capitalism: A Love Story opened up as well. Finally, the least of the big releases of the weekend, Ricky Gervais' fantasy/comedy that has been getting some undeserved criticism for being "atheist propaganda", The Invention of Lying, landed in the top five of the box office.

Not only has the blog sites not had time to bitch about casting news, or worry more on the fate of Marvel comic to film adaptation this week for raving over the decent batch of quality flicks, but another independent horror movie, Paranormal Activity, has been taking off with some good old fashioned word of mouth advertising. Apparently, Twitter has been a big help to the film, and if you visit the official site of Oren Peli's debut feature, that was originally made in 2007, you can demand that it be shown in your area. I thought, due to the mockumentary style, that it looked somewhat interesting, but with such an early fan following, who wouldn't want to see this?

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

When speaking of upcoming films, one of the most overlooked is the upcoming stop motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's book The Fantastic Mr. Fox, to be directed by Wes Anderson and getting a screenplay treatment from Anderson and Noah Baumbach. What you're looking at in the picture there is one of two images that have just been released from the film, which looks rather incredible. Aside from the nice screen grab, the voice power behind it will include George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray and many more. So put this up there with Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are as potentially two of the better family films since Jim Henson was alive.

Cashing in on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as all tabloids currently are, The Sun has ran a story that Emma Watson is rumored to be pairing up with Marilyn Manson for a gothic musical re-envisioning of Cinderella. The easy part of this to believe is that Manson would be making the film, as we are still waiting for his directorial debut with Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll. However, Watson, despite the success she has had in the Potter series, is yet to appear in a big screen role outside of Hogwarts. I am guessing she will be a little pickier, but who knows. Oh, an after thought about this story, it hurt me on the inside that people get paid to write for The Sun. What a dreadfully written article. Does their key demographic of adolescents looking for flashes of snatch not care about quality when a nip slip isn't involved? Jesus.

I Watch Stuff posted the new cover of Entertainment Weekly, which gives us a peek at Robert Downey, Jr., Mickey Rourke and Scarlett Johansson in their Iron Man 2 get up.

In the world or real news, Sean Stanley, a 19-year-old man was arrested in Nevada walking on the highway naked, and when asked by officers what he was doing, replied that he was a terminator sent from the future. The guy was on LSD. Wouldn't that be an awesome Dallas-esque ending to the series, the franchise was all just a huge Schwarzenegger LSD trip.

The New York Times reports that a boy, Kyle Shaw, that set a bomb off at a Manhattan Starbucks in May, has cited Fight Club as his motivation. The Times tried to contact director David Fincher, as well as the book's author Chuck Palahniuk for comment to no avail. So, what would have happened if this little nut job would have watched Nitrate Kisses? Would he had changed sexual preference? What if he had watched The Original Kings of Comedy at a young age? Would he go around in a sad but failed attempt at being funny? Ridiculous.

Finally, here is the new trailer for Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, Whip It. I will admit that eventually Ellen Page has to jump off the quirky comedy train while the getting is good, but this still looks like a decent film, so at the moment, all is fine. In the trailer, I also noticed Kristen Wiig, Zoe Bell of Grindhouse fame, and in a true OMG moment for me, due to thinking his career was definitely over, Daniel Stern plays Page's father. In addition to what looks like a stellar cast, I have to admit that if there was a local roller derby about, I would frequent it, so the film, even if bad, will probably be slipping in the guilty pleasure column. Enjoy.