She's Out of My League (2010)

Molly is a perfect 10. Kirk is a five. This scoring is provided by his best friends, who sadly inform him, "You can't jump more than two." Because of reasoning like that, Aristotle Onassis remains a hero to fours and fives everywhere. "She's Out of My League," which is sort of a good comedy, tells the story of a five who meets a 10 who believes there is a 10 inside of him fighting to get out. Kirk (Jay Baruchel) works as a TSA security screener at the Pittsburgh airport. He's competent enough, but the behavior of his colleagues should all by itself raise the national security level to red. Apparently unsupervised, they brighten up their jobs by trying to pick up every cute girl who comes through security. This is made more possible because there never seem to be 500 impatient passengers waiting in line. Baruchel looks as if he could indeed be a five, but he has that essential quality of turning into a 10 with his attitude alone. Here he will find what I have long observed, that everyone is beautiful when they're looking at you with love in their eyes. Kirk has recently become the victim of the sort of perfect storm that strikes the heroes of movies like this. His girlfriend Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) has broken up with him. But having lacked a warm family relationship, she latched onto Kirk's family, and now hangs out at his house with her new boyfriend, who Kirk's parents approve of. Think about that. Molly (Alice Eve) is also fresh from romantic disaster. When she loses her iPhone and Kirk finds it and returns it, she asks him out to dinner. He's stunned, because, yes, she's out of his league. But it turns out Molly is ready to play in a different league, one where being a 10 on the outside is less important than being a 10 on the inside. Kirk's innate decency melts her heart. Jay Baruchel has that quality of seeming like someone we might actually have known outside of a movie. He plays Kirk as apologetic, easily embarrassed, with low self-esteem -- plain and simple, a nice guy. Alice Eve, who is despite all evidence British, is pretty, yes, but not actually quite a 10. A 9.5, easy. Isn't that scoring system loathsome? Her best friend, Patty (Krysten Ritter), thinks that Kirk is beneath Molly, possibly because Patty likes to bask in the reflected glow of Molly's tenhood. Kirk's own three best buddies include two party animals and one nice pudgy guy, whose combined wisdom on women is a perfect two. There are some funny set pieces here, one involving guys rummaging through each other's netherlands, one involving a family trip to Branson, Mo., in matching sweatshirts. Do you ever get the feeling you're the last American alive who hasn't been to Branson? That Titanic attraction sounds great to me. Anyway, much depends on whether Kirk will actually make this journey. The movie is not a comedy classic. But in a genre where so many movies struggle to lift themselves from zero to one, it's about, oh, a six point five. From : BY ROGER EBERT review Release Date: March 12th, 2010 (wide) Distributors: DreamWorks, Paramount Pictures Actors Jay Baruchel Kirk Alice Eve Molly TJ Miller Stainer Mike Vogel Jack Nate Torrence Devon Geoff Stults Cam Lindsay Sloane Marnie Andrew Daly Jasika Nicole Wendy Sharon Maughan

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City Island (2010)

Vince Rizzo is a lifelong resident of the tiny, tradition-steeped Bronx enclave of City Island. A family man who makes his living as a corrections officer, Vince longs to become an actor. Ashamed to admit his aspirations to his family, Vince would rather let his fiery wife Joyce believe his weekly poker games are a cover for an extramarital affair than admit he's secretly taking acting classes in Manhattan When Vince is asked to reveal his biggest secret in class, he inadvertently sets off a chaotic chain of events that turns his mundane suburban life upside down. Inspired by the exercise, he decides to bring his long-lost ex-con son Tony home to meet the family, and it soon becomes clear that everyone - including his college student daughter, teenaged son Vinnie, Jr., charismatic acting partner and drama coach - has something to hide. A perfect storm of deception, half truths and confusion makes Vince and his family members realize that the truth may not set them free, but it is easier to keep track of than all their well-intentioned white lies. Release Date: March 19th, 2010 (limited) Distributors: Anchor Bay Films Actors Andy Garcia Vince Rizzo Paul Diomede Bill Julianna Margulies Joyce Rizzo Emily Mortimer Brit Molly Alan Arkin Drama Teacher Steven Strait Tony Nardella Dominik Garcia-Lorido Vivian Rizzo Ezra Miller Vinnie read more...

Green Zone

United 93 director Paul Greengrass explores the aftermath of the Iraq invasion in this feature adaptation of author Rajiv Chandrasekaran's literary exposé of the same name. A one-time Baghdad bureau chief of the Washington Post, Chandrasekaran was present as American forces attempted to set up a provisional government on the grounds surrounding former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's opulent palace. The resulting governing body, according to critics, existed in a bubble so far removed from the grim realities of the Iraq War that it failed to properly assess the needs of the people. In this fictional thriller set during the U.S.-led occupation of Baghdad, director Greengrass and screenwriter Brian Helgeland use Chandrasekaran's novel as the foundation for the story of an officer who joins forces with a senior CIA officer to unearth evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) is certain that Hussein has been stockpiling WMDs in the Iraqi desert, but in their race from one booby-trapped site to the next, they soon stumble across evidence of an elaborate cover up. As a result, the objective of their mission is inverted, and Miller realizes that operatives on both sides of the conflict are attempting to spin the story in their favor. Now, as Miller searches for answers made ever more elusive by covert and faulty intelligence, the truth becomes the most valuable weapon of all. Will those answers prove pivotal in clearing a rogue regime, or escalate the war in a region that grows increasingly unstable with each passing day? Amy Ryan co-stars as the New York Times foreign correspondent who travels to Iraq investigating the U.S. government's allegations about weapons of mass destruction, with Greg Kinnear appearing in the role of an additional CIA officer, and Antoni Corone essaying the role of a colonel. Brendan Gleeson rounds out the main cast for this Universal Pictures production. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide Releases : March 12, 2010 Director :Paul Greengrass Distributor:Universal Pictures Full Cast :Matt Damon,Amy Ryan,Greg Kinnear,Antoni Corone,Jason Isaacs,Brendan Gleeson read more...

The Crazies (2010)

Be grateful that Breck Eisner's brain-dead remake of George Romero's "The Crazies" (1973) runs a meager 101 minutes. That means less time robbed from of your life when you could be doing any number of more interesting things, like watching popcorn pop, or counting sheep. Romero's fourth film was his favorite, though it bombed with critics and audiences, mostly due to lousy marketing and the mistaken assumption that it was just another version of "Night of the Living Dead." How sad, then, that the master not only executive-produced but wrote this monumentally dumb, dull remake. Even on the level of killer-virus-gone-wild gore-fest, "The Crazies" as rejiggered by Eisner ("Sahara") is a dud. Primarily what makes it such a stinker is its simplemindedness, the packaging of any idea or location or event or character or shot into something guaranteed not to challenge viewers with complexity. Bereft of talent or vision, Eisner reduces Romero's apocalyptic juggernaut to tinker toy. (Rumored to be planning a remake of David Cronenberg's "The Brood," Eisner should be permanently barred from the director's chair.) Romero opened "The Crazies" with a bang: a farmer, inexplicably become affectless monster, butchers his wife and burns down his home, kids still inside. You're instantly immersed in horror, any sense of ordinary reality totally shattered. The remake opens with a cliché: Main Street ablaze, full of wrecked cars and debris, followed by a cut to bucolic farm country labeled "Two days earlier." This is the equivalent of horror movie advertising, a snapshot of bad stuff to come. It's an announcement, in cinematic baby talk -- the antithesis of a movie reaching out and dragging you into horrific drama. Seems a military plane has crashed near the small town of Ogden Marsh, contaminating the water supply in this pleasant little farming community with a nasty virus that drives people crazy and causes bleeding from various orifices. First sign of something gone terribly wrong occurs during a baseball game attended by half the town. Suddenly, an expressionless fellow toting a shotgun shambles purposefully out on the field. The sheriff (Timothy Olyphant of "A Perfect Getaway" and HBO's "Deadwood") tries to talk down the guy (apparently drunk, really the first of the crazies) but is forced to shoot him dead. You'd expect such a weird, unexpected invasion of everyday reality to raise a few goose bumps, but the scene plays out perfunctorily with no authentic shock, just the jaded recognition of a familiar horror-movie trope. Everything in Romero's low-budget original was raw, a visceral assault. The Pennsylvania setting felt authentic: woods, fields, farmhouses and back roads places you might glimpse on the breaking news. The remake lacks a genuine sense of place or geography, so the intrusion of fatal virus and faceless soldiers doesn't have up-close-and-personal impact. Romero filled his rural evenings with the reassuring sounds of crickets and tree frogs, further heightening the horror of the "ghosts" (men in white bio-hazard suits) who begin to haunt the night. Eisner resorts, with metronomic regularity, to "scary" music, with blasts of sound to cue you that something is about to make you jump. If it works once, keep doing it. What does it mean to be crazy in this cautionary tale about biological warfare? In Romero's version, the impulses and fears that civilized life requires us to suppress can no longer be censored, so what his "crazies" act out delivers a psychological punch. An overly protective father commits incest with his daughter; the hero's best friend can contain neither his sexual jealousy nor his envy of his Vietnam buddy's military success. In the remake the complexity of relationships and repression gets pretty literal-minded: rabid hunters take to stalking human beings; the sheriff's deputy refuses to take orders. Consider the appalling and moving death of an infected girl in the original film. Like some flower child she dances within a ring of soldiers, inviting them to play with her. Freaked out by her crazy innocence, they open fire. The remake substitutes the mechanical execution of a mother and her son at disengaging distance. Their ensuing incineration seems less an outrage than an opportunity for a prurient close-up of charred remains. That's typical. By means of a series of separate set-pieces (in funeral home, nursery, truck stop), the new "Crazies" racks up body count and buckets of blood, hoping to emulate the real shock of a town-killing movie like "30 Days of Night." Shockingly prescient about bio-terrorism, "The Crazies" No. 1 delivered a nuanced reading of the careless impotence of science and the military alike, which still rings true in light of Hurricane Katrina and our adventures overseas. Romero's downbeat ending wasn't popular, but it courageously kept faith with the tone of his film, chronicling the probable demise of civilization. Climaxing with a big bang, the new version mostly aims for easy, black-and-white targets: soldiers are mostly masked killers; and aerial surveillance screens, clicking from close-up to god's-eye views, suggest the presence of Big Brother watching from the air as well as listening in on tapped phone lines. But Eisner fails to invest these "villains" with real power. They don't inspire paranoia or hatred or terror; they're just straw men (and screens) existing only to advance the plot, not to lend weight and significance to what happens to the hapless citizens of Ogden Marsh, or any other "infected" community. Cast : Timothy Olyphant,Radha Mitchell,Joe Anderson,Christie Lynn Smith (full Credit) Released :February 26, 2010 Director :Breck Eisner Distributor:Overture Films from Kathleen Murphy, Special to MSN Movies read more...

'Alice' opens with $116.3 million, a 3-D record

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's trip down the rabbit hole drew huge crowds, as "Alice in the Wonderland" earned a whopping $116.3 million in its opening weekend — a record for a 3-D film. The surprisingly huge total easily surpassed all other films in release and gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film "Avatar." It also marked the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel. "This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this very often." The film beat forecasts that ranged between $65-$75 million, and the surprising results added some intrigue to Oscar Sunday. Before the weekend, Disney and 20th Century Fox competed over the available 3-D ready screens; screens outfitted for 3-D are rapidly rising, but still amount to fewer than 4,000 in the U.S. and Canada. Before "Alice," many of those screens were still dedicated to Fox's box-office behemoth, "Avatar," which is up for nine Academy Awards on Sunday, including best picture. In its 12th week of release, "Avatar" earned $7.7 million over the weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic total to $720.2 million. Asked whether fewer 3-D and IMAX screens hurt "Avatar," Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox, said, "No question." "Are we disappointed? Sure," said Aronson. "But there are certain market forces that are beyond anything we can do. To have an 11-week window is pretty much unheard of. It certainly allowed this movie to be discovered and witnessed by so many people." "Avatar" isn't disappearing, though, and it can be expected to regain 3-D and IMAX screens, especially if it wins best picture. "We'll have that negotiation tomorrow morning with exhibition, without a doubt," said Aronson. Review: How many stars did we give 'Alice'? | More: Go further down the rabbit hole It also seemed likely that "Alice" benefited from the "Avatar"-effect in galvanizing audiences for 3-D movies. "Alice in Wonderland" is the first film released in 3-D since James Cameron's epic. "Alice" was shot in 2-D, but transferred to 3-D in post-production. "In the wake of the impact of 'Avatar,' there's a whole new audience that's been indoctrinated to 3-D," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "That paid off big for 'Alice in Wonderland.'" The weekend's second best performer at the box-office was Overture's "Brooklyn's Finest," Antoine Fuqua's gritty police thriller, which earned $13.5 million in its first weekend, according to studio estimates. Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" for Paramount followed closely with $13.3 million in its third week of release, bringing its cumulative total to $95.8 million. Warner Bros.'s comedy "Cop Out" came in fourth, adding $9.1 million for a two-week total of $32.4 million. But "Alice" thoroughly dominated the weekend, surprising even Disney. The film was expected to open closer to $65-75 million. Worldwide, it took in $210.3 million. It was a record release for the first quarter of the year, typically a time of lower box-office expectations and critically acclaimed Oscar contenders. The previous first quarter record was Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ," which opened with $83.8 million in Feb. 2004. "We went into Friday thinking that we really had a big hit with us, and then all of a sudden the numbers started to roll in," said Viane. "Alice" went on to make $41 million on Friday alone. "We said, 'Oh my gosh. This is bigger than any of us could have anticipated," said Viane. Though reviews were mostly respectfully negative, much of the film's draw was surely in teaming director Burton and his frequent collaborator, Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter. It also presented moviegoers with a 3-D updating of Lewis Carroll's beloved classic. Though at times dark, it gained a PG rating from the MPAA (for, among other things, "a smoking caterpillar"), which meant a large number of kids could attend. But it proved once again how significant the draw of 3-D is to moviegoers. The technology repeatedly has inflated box-office grosses for everything from "Avatar" to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." "Alice" also played across 188 IMAX screens in North America and gave IMAX its best opening ever, with $11.9 million domestically. That beat the previous record of $9.5 million set by "Avatar." IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said the huge success of "Alice" was unexpected, but that "Avatar" would regain some of those IMAX screens, whether or not it wins best picture. "The momentum on 3-D is so massive right now," said Foster. "They were ready for a new movie. They were ready for a new, cool 3-D experience." Though most of the Oscar contenders weren't a big factor at the box-office Sunday, the boffo performance of "Alice" proved the good health of Hollywood, said Dergarabedian. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday. 1. "Alice in Wonderland," $116.3 million. 2. "Brookyn's Finest," $13.5 million. 3. "Shutter Island," $13.3 million. 4. "Cop Out," $9.1 million. 5. "Avatar," $7.7 million. 6. "The Crazies," $7 million. 7. "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," $5.1 million. 8. "Valentine's Day," $4.3 million. 9. "Crazy Heart," $3.4 million. 10. "Dear John," $2.9 million. From : movies.msn.com read more...

Avatar

A paraplegic ex-marine finds a new life on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a war veteran who gets called to the depths of space to pick up the job of his slain twin brother for the scientific arm of a megacorporation looking to mine the planet of Pandora for a valued ore. Unfortunately the biggest deposit of the prized substance lies underneath the home of the Na'vi, a ten-foot-tall, blue-skinned native tribe who have been at war with the security arm of the company, lead by Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Because of the planet's hostile atmosphere, humans have genetically grown half-alien/half-human bodies which they can jack their consciousnesses into and explore the world in. Since Jake's brother already had an incredibly expensive Avatar grown for him, he's able to connect with it using the same DNA code and experience first-hand the joys of Pandora while giving the scientific team, led by Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), some well-needed protection against the planet's more hostile forces. On a chance meeting after getting separated from his team, Jake's Avatar is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi princess, who brings him into her tribe in order to give the humans a second chance at relating to this new environment. When word gets out of his increasing time with the alien species, Quaritch enlists Jake to do some reconnaissance for the company, as they'd like to persuade the tribe to move their home before taking more drastic measures to harness the treasure hidden below. Yet as Jake becomes one with the tribe and begins to understand the secrets of Pandora, his conscience is torn between his new adopted world and the wheelchair-bound one awaiting him when the psychic connection to his Avatar is broken. Soon battle lines are drawn and Jake needs to decide which side he will fight on when the time comes. The film was shot on the proprietary FUSION digital 3D cameras developed by Cameron in collaboration with Vince Pace, and offers a groundbreaking mix of live-action dramatic performances and computer-generated effects. The revolutionary motion-capture system created for the film allows the facial expressions of actors to be captured as a virtual camera system enables them to see what their computer-generated counterparts will be seeing in the film, and Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning Weta Digital visual-effects house supervises Avatar's complex special effects. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide Released : Dec 18, 2009 Distributor:20th Century Fox Starring :Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Wes Studi ...more read more...

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Review 1 : Set in medieval Persia, the story of an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world. Which is why after the prince was tricked by a dying Vizier to unleash the Sands of Time that turns out to destroy a kingdom and transforms its populace into ferocious demons. In his effort to save his own kingdom and redeem his fatal mistake, it's up to the prince and the princess to return the sands to the hourglass by using the Dagger of Time, which also gives him a limited control over the flow of time. review 2 : From the team that brought the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (Gemma Arterton) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time—a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world. In Movie Theaters: May 28, 2010 Wide Directed by: Mike Newell Starring: more credits Jake Gyllenhaal Ben Kingsley Gemma Arterton Alfred Molina Steve Toussaint Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures read more...

Robin Hood

Oscar® winner Russell Crowe stars as the legendary figure known by generations as “Robin Hood,” whose exploits have endured in popular mythology and ignited the imagination of those who share his spirit of adventure and righteousness. In 13th century England, Robin and his band of marauders confront corruption in a local village and lead an uprising against the crown that will forever alter the balance of world power. And whether thief or hero, one man from humble beginnings will become an eternal symbol of freedom for his people. The Robin Hood adventure chronicles the life of an expert archer, previously interested only in self-preservation, from his service in King Richard’s army against the French. Upon Richard’s death, Robin travels to Nottingham, a town suffering from the corruption of a despotic sheriff and crippling taxation, where he falls for the spirited widow Lady Marion (Oscar® winner Cate Blanchett), a woman skeptical of the identity and motivations of this crusader from the forest. Hoping to earn the hand of Maid Marion and salvage the village, Robin assembles a gang whose lethal mercenary skills are matched only by its appetite for life. Together, they begin preying on the indulgent upper class to correct injustices under the sheriff. With their country weakened from decades of war, embattled from the ineffective rule of the new king and vulnerable to insurgencies from within and threats from afar, Robin and his men heed a call to ever greater adventure. This unlikeliest of heroes and his allies set off to protect their country from slipping into bloody civil war and return glory to England once more. In Movie Theaters: May 14, 2010 Directed by: Ridley Scott Starring: more credits Russell Crowe Cate Blanchett Vanessa Redgrave Eileen Atkins Danny Huston read more...

Iron Man 2

In "Iron Man 2," the world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the armored Super Hero Iron Man. Under pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces. In Movie Theaters : May 7, 2010 Wide Directed by : Jon Favreau Starring : more credits :Don Cheadle Gwyneth Paltrow Robert Downey Mickey Rourke Sam Rockwell Distributed by :Paramount Pictures read more...

My Name Is Khan

Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) suffers from aspergers syndrome, a kind of autism that makes him walk in a challenged manner. Loud noises make him nervous; the color yellow freaks him out and he unable to express his emotions clearly. But because of good cognitive skills, he learns facts quickly, and becomes a kind of a Mr.Fix it- repairing broken things. When his mother dies, Rizwan moves to America to live with his unsympathetic younger brother (Jimmy Shergill) and his wife (Sonya Jehan). Even as Rizwan finds it hard to adjust to the new and busy environment, he gets a job as, believe it or not, ‘a shop to shop’ beauty product salesman. Upon being disoriented by a yellow zebra crossing and almost getting killed by a ‘speeding’ tram, his life is saved by Mandira (Kajol), a single mother who works at a beauty salon. Taken by Rizwans honesty, she buys a whole range of his products and a romance ensues between the two. Rizwan's intelligent mind charms Mandira’s young son Sameer and before Rizwan can say ‘Marry me’ for the 100th time, Mandira and he are wed. But the happy Khan family portrait doesn’t last long. It is rudely turned around by the 9/11 WTC attacks and a communal bashing incident at school proves fatal for Sameer. A distraught Mandira blames Rizwan for their misfortune and regrets having the last name Khan. Madira leaves Rizwan and he embarks on a picturesque journey through America. His mission is to meet the president with the message that all Muslims are not terrorists. Unfortunately this message is repeated so many times that the awe factor is taken out of its ‘big’ climax. Infact everything is overstated, with moist eyed characters and big music swells making too many appearances in this film. Take an autistic protagonist and put him in an antagonizing post 9/11 America. Let him find love and then ruin it all instantly by crashing the twin towers. Then kill off his son because he bears his fathers Muslim name and before Khan can stammer what could very well be 'Asparagus' syndrome, get him dumped by the love of his life. My name is Khan bears all the emotionally manipulative elements that one can expect from a Karan Johar film but some somehow manages even to nosedive into the realm of the absurd. Take the sub plot of a hurricane ravaged African American town that the hero saves and top it up with the appearance of the American president. Make that two president’s. ‘Yes. We Khan!’ Shahrukh Khan has moments where he seems to have stretched himself as an actor bringing to Rizwan a certain vulnerability that is uncharacteristic of Khan in recent roles. Yet this is not enough to hold together a film where the protagonist makes no real journey. Rizwan knows right from the start where his character will end up. Kajol looks beautiful but comes accross as unnnatural and her emotional outburts are sadly shrill and screamy. Yet, there are some great moments in the film; like when Rizwan is taught by his doting mother (Zareena Wahab) ) that one's religion does not differentiate him from another. The only difference between people is that there are good people and there are bad people. The supporting cast performs well. Besides Zareena Wahab's awesome screen mother debut there is Sonya Jehan (last seen in Akbar Khans Taj Mahal) who plays the part of Rizwaan's sympathetic sister in law with grace. Jimmy Shergill as Rizwan’s jealous brother pitches in a controlled effort and Navneet Nishan brings some genuine laughs. While the subject matter seems good intentioned and the story does attempt to push the envelope, the outcome of My Name is Khan is disappointing. Packaged overtly like Forest Gump’s ‘box of chocolates’, the myriad web of characters and sub plots suffocate under too many issues (Autism, Minority, 9/11, Hurricanes). Maybe if the writers had stuck to one or two issues and fleshed them out sincerely, My Name is Khan might have struck a deeper chord. Cast : Kajol, Shah Rukh Khan Director : Karan Johar Producer : Dharma Productions, Red Chillies Entertainment & FOX Star Entertainment Genre : Drama Release Date : Febuary 12, 2010 read more...

Alice In Wonderland

(CNN) -- "Alice in Wonderland" -- with its hat-wearing madmen, anxious rabbits and disturbing, smiling cats -- would seem to have filmmaker Tim Burton's name written all over it. After all, since he started producing and directing films more than 20 years ago, Burton's name has become synonymous with everything wondrously strange. Take the delightfully weird world of Roald Dahl's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" that Burton brought to the screen in 2005 (with, it must be noted, very mixed reviews). Or the extreme spirits of "Beetlejuice." Or the gleeful aliens of "Mars Attacks!" While the reviews of "Alice" haven't been overwhelmingly positive, the expectations have been high. "He's one of the few filmmakers left where his movie release is an event," said Kristian Fraga, filmmaker and author of "Tim Burton: Interviews." Burton's rise is one that was largely quiet, Fraga said, but he's nonetheless made gothic part of the mainstream. His style of film has slowly but surely became a part of our moviegoing consciousness, Fraga said. It's taken the 51-year-old from being an unhappy Disney animator in striped socks, drawing romantic couples being shot in the skull by Cupid, to an indisputable, and at times indefinable, brand unto himself. "It's clear that he's a real visionary. He's one of the few directors out there that has a style that is unmistakably his own," Entertainment Weekly's Adam Markovitz said. "He's in a select group of directors that is his own brand. Burton is right up there with Hitchcock, the kind of director that is really identifiable in a single frame. You look at one frame, and you know who made it." Burton's twist on what can be classified as frightening was culled from a steady diet of monster movies consumed when he was a kid growing up in Burbank, California. "The word 'normal' always scared me, because that indicated something that was subversively terrifying," Burton said in the Museum of Modern Art's "Behind the Scenes" video for an exhibit displaying his art, most of which had never been seen before. Those movies, "where the monster was the outcast and the people were the villainous element," were always important to him, Burton said. On top of horror, he was a studious observer of humor, often clipping items from Mad magazine and creating his own jokes, said Ron Magliozzi, assistant curator of the Burton exhibit. After wading through Burton's archives, Magliozzi had something of an epiphany about what makes Burton "a rock star" with the fan base to match. "I went into it thinking of Tim as a dark, gothic artist, with these themes of dismemberment and the grotesque," Magliozzi said, "and I came out of it seeing him as something of an optimistic artist, and I think that's one of the keys to his popularity. He takes you to all these disturbing places, but there's always this note of optimism in it." Indeed, though Burton has been associated with the frightful and the odd, there's a quiet, unsuspecting layer of whimsy and sentiment that, when combined with the headless monsters and stitched-together characters, appeals to the audience's desire to see human stories on screen. "I was really taken as a kid with Burton's combination of horror, otherworldly and underworld sentiments with the real sense of whimsy," Variety film critic Justin Chang said. "Even when his movies aren't great, he offers this interesting combination of darkness and reassurance. It's a darkness that's made safe in a way." As a result, Markovitz said, Burton now has a name that can draw crowds in the same way a movie star can. In fact, he often draws in the movie stars themselves. In 1991, a 19-year-old Winona Ryder, who worked with Burton on "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands," told Newsweek that she'd "do anything for Tim Burton," including bringing him water or being the coffee girl on one of his sets, just to be with him. More than a decade later, another of Burton's actresses, Anne Hathaway, who plays the White Queen in Burton's "Alice," said nearly the same thing. As she told InStyle for its March issue, as soon as she heard Burton was leading the troops into "Underland," as it's called in the film, she had to find a way to get on board. iReport: A virtual "Wonderland" Fraga said part of that affection is because with Burton, "it's not about 'how do I look?' ... Michelle Pfeiffer [who played Catwoman in 'Batman Returns'] said at the time, 'there are not many directors I'm going to dress up like that and swallow a bird for.' You're talking about some of the best actors in the world who get to work with this guy, and part of the fun is trying to figure out how you're going to pull this movie off." But Burton is not without his critics, with the chief complaint being that he's all show and no story. "Burton's only as good as some of his material," Chang said. "He gets so into the world and so into creating this immersive environment that the story eludes him. When he finds the right material, yes, he's a sublime storyteller. But I don't think that happens with every film. More like every fourth or fifth." For Chang, "Alice" is one of Burton's off moments. " 'Alice' is not exactly a glowing addition to the canon (or, for that matter, a boon to the rediscovered art of 3D)," Chang added. "The film confirmed for me that Burton, while clearly adept at creating fantasy worlds, is only as strong as his material." iReport: B+ for "Alice" Still, though "there are definitely people who feel that his visual style can overwhelm the story," Markovitz said, "what he does have is a great knack for connecting with the weirdos and the anti-heroes." He can take these outcasts and transform them into universally appealing characters, Markovitz said. And that, devotees observe, is the real wonder of Tim Burton. read more...

Cop Out

Despite having written and directed eight feature-length movies, including, chasing amy,which won two Independent Spirit Awards and helped launch the careers of Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams, and Ben Affleck, Kevin Smith still considers himself very much a man of the people, a Hollywood outsider. So, when Warner Bros. offered him the opportunity to direct his new movie, Cop Out, Smith told Moviehole that he was apprehensive about alienating his loyal fans.

I thought about it going in to it, in terms of trying to make the movie, because I'm like, "Well, I'm gonna take a bunch of sh*t from people that love Chasing Amy and don't see why I would make a movie like this." I don't know what to tell cats like that anymore, it's just like, "I can't make Chasing Amy every time, and you wouldn't want me to because I would be a very unhappy person." And I'm a very happy cat now, you know? I'm married, I've got a kid and if you want me to make another Chasing Amy, start getting my wife to try and cheat on me or something, so I have unrest in my life.

In a previous interview, Smith said that it took him a while to figure out how to work with Bruce Willis on Cop Out because Willis wouldn't take direction and was "very much the author of his own performance." In the Moviehole interview, Smith admitted that part of the difficulty was the fact that he was more than a little starstruck by Willis.

I went in directing [Willis' character] David Addison from Moonlighting, and I wasn't the adult, the 38-year-old Kevin Smith who had made a bunch of movies, I was the 12-year-old who would lay on my parents couch and watch David Addison on Moonlighting on Tuesdays. And Bruce was smart enough and had dealt with that personality before to be like, "If you're like this the whole movie, we're not going to get anything worthwhile accomplished."

Cop Out was written by Mark and Robb Cullen and also stars Tracy Morgan, Seann William Scott, Kevin Pollack, Adam Brody, Michelle Trachtenberg, Jason Lee, and Ana de la Reguera. read more...

SHUTTER ISLAND

In any good twist-and-turn thriller, there needs to be something for the audience to grasp onto other than said twists and turns. If the story and characters are merely clotheslines on which to hang periodic plot twists or a climactic reveal, the film basically descends into a waiting game. Why bother becoming emotionally invested or even paying attention to the onscreen events when anything and everything is just a series of clues or red herrings to a mystery that will be explained in the third act anyway? Shutter Island is a film that fails to exist outside of its puzzles. From the opening frame onward, you can sense that it's all about a lead up to a big reveal of some kind. Worse yet, it telegraphs its twists (big and small) so early that you immediately realize that, regardless of your theories, you really can't trust your own lying eyes. A token amount of plot - It's 1954, and Federal Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) have been sent to a mysterious mental hospital located on a remote island in Boston, Massachusetts. It seems that a deluded child-murderer named Rachel Solando has escaped from her locked cell and Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) is eager to get her back. So the investigation begins, as the hard-boiled detective interviews various colorful characters (played by various colorful character actors whom I won't reveal) in pursuit of the truth. But as Teddy and Chuck investigate deeper, they discover that this asylum for the criminally insane may have some dark secrets, and that the disappearance of Solando may be part of a bigger conspiracy. As Teddy deals with his own past traumas, the mystery behind Dr. Cawley's seemingly benevolent treatment methods are slowly revealed, and the larger story at play begins to take shape. That's all you need. The majority of the film unfolds in a manner befitting any number of haunted house genre pictures. Teddy is forced to deal with his own personal demons, and his time in the scary old hospital conjures of terrible memories of past trauma as well as questions as to what separates him from those locked away. Fair enough, I generally relish directors like Martin Scorsese playing around in the B-movie sandbox. Goodness knows it did wonders for Spike Lee, who scored his biggest hit (and made one of his very best films) with Inside Man. But the picture is hamstrung by its very premise. You know from the very beginning that all is not what it seems. And the film is presented is such an over-the-top, melodramatic manner, and every performance and every moment seems bathed in intentional artifice, that we quickly realize that nothing can be taken at face value. If we never know when we're being lied to, it's impossible to get involved on any real visceral or emotional level. Since the big twist is telegraphed so early on, and several minor reveals are all-but noted with a yellow highlighter, not only do we know where the story is likely heading, we quickly realize that they cannot even believe our eyes or ears for much of the picture. When you know you're being duped in one way or another in nearly every scene, it's impossible to stay involved in the narrative. Why bother to pay attention if can't even trust that the story that's being told will even matter by the time the credits role? And since every moment and every character beat is either a clue or a false lead, there is no emotional hook in which to invest in the characters and the story. We also don't care because absolutely nothing makes sense leading up to the finale. When anything can happen and nothing is what it seems, then nothing is of consequence. While the film has solid technical credits and a fine pedigree (aside from the director and fine cast, the film is based on a book by Dennis Lehane), the film fails as entertainment because we never know what's true and what's false, so we have no choice to presume that everything is fraudulent. Like an improv comedy that feels entirely staged or action sequences that are rendered in inadequate computer-generated effects, Shutter Island is a film that fails to entertain because it refuses to give the audience a reason to believe what they're seeing. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley Director: Martin Scorsese Screenwriter: Laeta Kalogridis Script: Novel Adaptation Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Drama read more...