[CinemaRatty] tag: film

Maquire in Spidey 4? Maybe.But Not So Fast!

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:04:47 +0000

While it might be true that actor Tobey Maguire has reportedly indicated his interest in participating in the next Spider-Man movie, which will make it number 4, we are here to squelch the rumor that he has already signed the contract and the deal is done. Sorry to report that, at least during the time I have written this, those are just rumors and not founded on any solid information.

I would bet dollars-to-donuts (a geriatric phrase the young-ones should start using again) that Tobey will be seen once again in the Spidey costume for the 4th film, but he still has to seal the deal and he hasn’t……yet. One of the sticking points is what Tobey has said from the beginning…he will only comeback to the franchise if Sam Raimi is the director. That too seems likely, but at this time also isn’t a sure thing either.

The other problem is one that many on the inside are familiar with, Maguire’s on-set unpleasant personality, according to E! Online. However, the actor is now so identified with the role it would be very difficult for Sony studio execs to replace him, at least for this film. Perhaps a few years down the road, but not now. Sony would love for Maguire to say no so they could use him as the fall-guy during the search for a new web-slinger. Of course, you will never get anyone from Sony to openly admit to that in public.

If Maguire does opt out, the bigger question is who are the actors Sony would like to see in the Spidey-suit?

Mister Foe

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:54:00 +0000

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Teen Peeping Tom Acts Out in Dysfunctional Family Drama

17 year-old Hallam Foe (Jamie Bell) hasn’t been the same since his mother was found floating in a loch on the family’s sprawling estate. While her official cause of death was deemed suicide by sleeping pills, Hallam has good reason to suspect otherwise. After all, it was only a matter of months before his father, Julius (Ciaran Hinds), a famous architect, married his considerably young secretary, Verity (Claire Forlani).
Strangely, Hallam is as much physically attracted to his step-mom as he is repulsed by her because he’s convinced that she’s a murderer. These unresolved competing tensions gradually take a toll on his tortured soul, and result in his indulging a variety of perversions.
For instance, while alone in his room, he is likely to put on his birth mother’s favorite dress, and to smear her lipstick on his face or in circles around his nipples. And if he’s in a mood for socializing, he might drape a dead badger’s hide over his head and glide on a rope from his tree house and drop on top of an unsuspecting couple in the midst of lovemaking. But Hallam is also something of a voyeur whose M.O. involves binoculars and his secretly watching women in a state of undress after strategically scaling a roof or hiding in a the belfry of a clock tower.
Anyhow, Hallam realizes it’s time to leave town after his verbal confrontation of Verity turns carnal. Next thing you know, he’s trying to survive on the streets of Glasgow until he lands in the good graces of Kate (Sophia Myles), a young woman who bears a striking resemblance to his dearly-departed mum. The head of human resources for a big a hotel, she hires Hallam as a busboy who develops an Oedipal crush he feels conflicted about consummating.
This ambivalence gives the boy a good excuse to break out his binoculars, and he starts stalking his fresh prey in a slight variation on the theme he’d just escaped from back home. A kinky character study in a difficult to diagnose personality disorder which works because of the convincing performance of a brooding Jamie Bell in his most memorable outing since Billy Elliot.

Excellent (3.5 stars)
Rated R for nudity and sexuality.
Running time: 96 minutes
Studio: Magnolia Pictures

Ping Pong Playa

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:53:00 +0000

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Aspiring Hoop Star Turns to Table Tennis in Cross-Cultural Comedy

C-Dub (Jimmy Tsai) is a teenager who has opted to put all of his eggs in one basket, namely, the pursuit of his dream of playing in the NBA. Suffering from delusions of grandeur, he’s dropped out of school and fritters away his future playing street ball against younger kids in a local park, instead of concentrating on getting a good education or on pursuing a career. He’s even quit his minimum-wage job at the mall, basically because he sees menial work as being beneath him.
The slacker’s story would probably sound unremarkable, if he were just another black kid inadvisedly trying to make it out of the ghetto via basketball alone. But C-Dub’s happens to be a Chinese-American who’s real name is Christopher Wang, and he wasn’t raised in the slums but in an upscale section of suburban Los Angeles. Consequently, his frustrated parents can’t comprehend how one of their sons could become a doctor (Roger Fan) while the other would be an irresponsible, Peter Pan with a basketball Jones.
For C-Dub is a trash-talking wannabe, who walks, talks and dresses like a hip-hop gangsta, even when he’s away from the court. The question to be answered is whether he might mature and bring honor instead of disgrace on his very embarrassed relatives.
This is the prevailing theme of Ping Pong Playa, an engaging cross-cultural comedy which milks most of its humor by taking a lighthearted look at what it’s like to be raised Asian in this country. For the picture’s protagonist is as much running away from the pressure to overachieve academically in math, music and on the SAT as he is attracted to the more mellow alternatives he perceives in the African-American community.
The plot thickens when his mother (Elizabeth Sung) sprains both of her wrists, which means she temporarily can’t give any lessons at the Wang family-owned business, the Ping Pong Palace. Chris dutifully fills in and takes to table tennis, a sport he’s long shunned. And, soon he even decides to enter the 15th Annual Golden Cock Competition.
Of equal import, he finds himself falling for Jennifer (Smith Cho), the beautiful big sister of one of his students. However, because she’s a Ph.D. student writing her dissertation on the objectification of Chinese women, he knows he’ll have to clean up his act considerably to impress her. Can you see where this is all heading?
Yes, Ping Pong Playa is a transparent romance/sports flick whose parallel strands unfold exactly as expected, yet that predictability is easily trumped by the refreshingly appealing parade of well-developed, Asian-American characters who make the movie enjoyable by turning an array of common cinematic stereotypes on their heads.

Very Good (3 stars)
Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexual dialogue and drug references.
In English and Cantonese with subtitles.
Running time: 97 minutes
Studio: IFC Films

To see a trailer of Ping Pong Playa, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjHr25hhEpg

Kam's Kapsules: Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:52:00 +0000

OPENING THIS WEEK
Kam's Kapsules:
Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
by Kam Williams
For movies opening September 12, 2008

BIG BUDGET FILMS

Burn after Reading (R for sexuality, violence and pervasive profanity) Coen Brothers crime caper about a personal trainer (Brad Pitt) and a gym owner (Frances McDormand) who try to blackmail the CIA Agent (John Malkovich) whose computer disk they find. Ensemble cast includes George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, J.K. Simmons, Richard Jenkins and Dermot Mulroney.

The Family That Preys (PG-13 for mature themes, sexual references and brief violence) Tyler Perry wrote, directed and co-stars in this skeletons-in-the-closet drama cutting across color lines about a friendship between a wealthy white woman (Kathy Bates) and a working-class black woman (Alfre Woodard) which is tested by the revelation of incestuous family secrets involving infidelity, paternity and unethical business practices. With Sanaa Lathan, Taraji P. Henson, Cole Hauser, Rockmond Dunbar and Robin Givens.

Righteous Overkill (R for violence, sexuality, drug use and pervasive profanity) Robert De Niro and Al Pacino co-star in this high-octane thriller about a pair of veteran NYPD detectives who postpone their retirement to track down the vigilante serial killer targeting criminals never brought to justice. Cast includes 50 Cent, John Leguizamo, Donnie Wahlberg, Brian Dennehy. Melissa Leo and Carla Gugino,

The Women (PG-13 for sexuality, profanity, drug use and smoking) Remake of 1939 classic based on the Claire Booth Luce play about a NYC socialite (Meg Ryan) whose crumbling marriage becomes the subject of gossip when it comes to light that her husband is cheating on her with a shop girl (Eva Mendes). Cast includes Annette Bening, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Devbra Messing.

INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

Able Danger (Unrated) International political potboiler about a 9-11 conspiracy theorist (Tom Nee) whose search for the truth about the terrorist attacks leads to a mysterious Eastern European femme fatale (Elina Lowensohn) with something to hide. (In English and German with subtitles)

Christmas on Mars (Unrated) Members of the rock group The Flaming Lips star in this sci-fi musical comedy about a compassionate Martian (Wayne Coyne) who comes to the rescue when oxygen and gravity generators fail, thereby imperiling the lives of American astronauts colonizing the Red Planet. With Fred Armisen, Adam Goldberg and Elijah Wood.

Forgiveness (Unrated) Psychological flashback flick about a 20 year-old Jewish-American (Itay Turan) who moves to the Middle East to join the Israeli Army only to end up committed to a mental institution located on the site of a Palestinian village where 100 townspeople had been slain during a battle back in 1948.

Greetings from the Shore (R for profanity) Bittersweet romantic comedy, about a college-bound teen (Kim Shaw) grieving the death of her father, who decides to spend the summer working at a posh yacht club on the Jersey Shore where she falls in love with a Cuban busboy (David Fumero).

Moving Midway (Unrated) Thumbs-up documentary about New York film critic Godfrey Cheshire’s controversial decision to research both the black and white sides of his family tree while moving the Raleigh, North Carolina mansion he’s inherited away from the site of the slave plantation on which it had been located since 1848.

Phoebe in Wonderland (PG-13 for mature themes and brief profanity) Elle Fanning stars in this modern fairy tale about a young girl with Tourette’s Syndrome who finds a constructive way to channel her destructive, obsessive-compulsive urges with the help of a drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson) who casts her in a school production as Alice in Wonderland.

Towelhead (R for profanity and for disturbing sexuality and abuse involving a young teen) Coming-of-age drama about a 13 year-old Arab-American freshman (Summer Bishil) who, after encountering racism and rejection at her new high school, finds comfort in a romantic relationship with a black upperclassman (Eugene Jones III).

The Tree of Life (Unrated) WWII-revisited documentary chronicles Hava Volterra’s trip taken with her octogenarian aunt from Los Angeles back to Europe to find their Jewish-Italian roots while retracing the family’s perilous path of survival during the Holocaust.

Stop Making Link

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:20:00 +0000

In Contention revisits Chris Nolan's first film Following. With audio Q & A!
popbytes has been going for 5 years strong today. Congratulations MK!
Hot Blog David Poland loves Rachel Getting Married. Calls Demme's artistic comeback "a minor masterpiece"
NewNowNext Alan Ball and the HBO's vampire series True Blood
The Big Picture looks at Me and Orson Welles

Scanners spreads that viral Juneau poster. hee
Design You Trust 'Emo for Obama'. also awesome
Black Book has superb photos of Tilda Swinton. [editors note: Are there any other kind?]
Getty Impossibly, Anne Hathaway gets better looking every year. Here she is @ Venice
And Your Little Blog, Too made this nifty 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' movie queen montage... Never take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world. That's like a felony in my world

* The Little Shop of Horrors "musical of the month" celebration will be up @ 6 PM EST today. Get those posts ready!

A Virgin Among the Living Dead (1973)

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:10:44 +0000

Even by the standards of Jess Franco films A Virgin Among the Living Dead is slightly odd. As you’d expect in a 1973 offering from this director there’s not much plot, but there’s a wonderfully strange moodiness to this film. It’s very much in the realm of dream and it has a very dreamlike combination of the bizarre, the disturbing and the comically grotesque. Christina is a young woman who has set out to visit the family chateau. She has never met any of the members of her family living in this chateau. Arriving at a nearby inn she encounters surprise from the locals who weren’t aware that the chateau was still inhabited, but when she reaches the chateau her family are indeed waiting for her. They turn out to be a rather disturbing lot. She finds herself plunged into a world of erotic fantasies and a series of encounters with her dead father. Is she going mad? Is there some malevolent supernatural influence at work?

Christina von Blanc made (according to the IMDb) only a handful of movies in the early 70s. She’s actually surprisingly good as the heroine. There’s the usual assortment of actors you expect to see in a Jess Franco movie, including Howard Vernon and Franco himself. Much has been made of Franco’s supposed overuse of the zoom lens. He certainly employs the technique in this picture, but I think it works pretty well. There’s also some great location photography.

The DVD includes a number of scenes, shot by other directors, that were added to various versions of the film released back in the 70s. These must have made the movie absolutely incomprehensible, as they have no relevance whatsoever to the rest of the movie. European horror movies of this era really were treated appallingly by distributors at the time, and it’s easy to see why the reputations of directors like Franco suffered.

A Virgin Among the Living Dead is a movie that, like the other films of this director I’ve seen from this era, is probably not going to please the average horror movie enthusiast. If you abandon the notion that you’re watching a horror movie and approach it with an open mind you may well find yourself getting sucked into Franco’s strange, disturbing world and you may find yourself enjoying this film as much as I did.

Toronto Dispatch. 1.

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 05:09:53 +0000

Via three films, David D'Arcy checks in on contemporary Brazil and China.

It's easy enough at a film festival to find a film commenting on another film, or in the case ofÂ Bruno Barreto's Last Stop 174, a dramatic feature inspired by a documentary film (Jose Padilha's anatomy of a spectacularly public and self-dramatizing bus highjacking, Bus 174), which in turn asks probing questions about the socio-economic and racial roots of that crime.

Continued reading Toronto Dispatch. 1....

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The Movie Blog: Uncut - September 5th 2008

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:19:21 +0000

Hey there folks! This is your 320th installment of The Movie Blog: Uncut, originally recorded Friday September 5th 2008. Doug and I are happy to be joining you on this glorious day. Listen in as we discuss:

1) The new film Bangkok Dangerous

2) Robert De Niro off movie that already started filming

3) The Dark Knight breaks Imax records

4) Ghost Busters 3 rumors

5) Michael Moore’s new film going straight to internet for free

6) TMNT Live action movie not happening?

7) A special announcement

You can WATCH the show here:

You can listen to or download the audio only version here:

Subscribe to the podcast feed with this link

Or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Watch the late Bernie Mac in 'Soul Men'

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:27:53 +0000

Yahoo! today premiered the first official trailer for the late Bernie Mac's film "Soul Men," in which he and Samuel L. Jackson play two former musicians who agree to team up for a reunion performance in honor of their late band leader. Enjoy the trailer below.

THOUGHTS ON THE NEW EBERT & ROEPER-LESS AT THE MOVIES

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 02:11:41 +0000

I'm sure you're aware that Roger Ebert has been off the show for about two years now dealing with his cancer treatment and Richard Roeper (his somewhat dubious handpicked replacement for the late Gene Siskel) has kept the show going of late with Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Philips. The show probably should have gone off the air after Ebert left, and though ratings did dip, the addition of Philips and the repartee he developed with Roeper kept the show watchable. A contract dispute erupted over the summer with Buena Vista television. Ebert severed ties with the program he and Siskel started and then Roeper announced he was out the door too, possibly to restart the program elsewhere. Word came out that Buena Vista television wanted to take the show in a new direction, a direction they hoped would lure in a young demographic of viewers.

I know it may seem kind of odd to review a movie review show but after watching the premiere episode of the new (and most definitely not improved) At The Movies I felt compelled to share a few thoughts.

If you hated Richard Roeper then wait until you get a load of the Carson Daly of the film criticism set, Ben Lyons, son of noted ~~movie critic~~ quote whore Jeffrey Lyons, who is already well on his way to being a quote whore in his own right for the E! Network. Who says nepotism only applies to the filmmaking side of cinema? Lyons is such an empty vessel Richard Roeper is Pauline Kael by comparison. I have no idea why we're supposed to be taking anything this little twerp says seriously; he certainly doesn't sound like he has any kind of real insight. There are tons of movie review bloggers on the web - myself included - who are about as qualified to spout their opinion about movies and sound about as credible as him. This is supposed to be At The Movie, not Rated K: For Kids By Kids. Despite what the producers might be thinking, Ben Lyons is not "crazy fresh".

Making matters worse is how obvious it is this grinning idiot is a slave to the teleprompter. You can follow his eyes and tell it's transfixed on the teleprompter at almost all times and his delivery is almost always that of a fast-talker reading his thoughts to you. The free-wheeling discussion has been replaced with two guys having what sounds like a highly scripted discussion with precious little spontaneity to their jib jab.

Spontaneity is reserved for when they trot out three more talking head film critics you've probably never heard of before via satellite to discuss a particular film. This wouldn't be that bad if any of the three actually had anything profound or adroit to say. It's just rabble.

It's also looking like the championing of small indie films and foreign films - something that really made the show standout amongst other review shows out there - is getting the boot in favor of longer discussions about mainstream movies. I believe this show may have had the longest on-air discussion of Vin Diesel's BABYLON A.D. you'll ever see anywhere on television.

Gone are the aisle seats. In its place is a small wall with a monitor. The set is now about the size of a cockpit from an Ed Wood movie. Sometimes they sit in chairs a foot across from another and other times they stand at a countertop beside one another - always looking very cramped. The standing segments brought to mind a home shopping channel segment.

That might be appropriate actually because while Turner Classic Movies' Ben Mankiewicz may sound more like he knows what he's talking about than his co-host his equally rushed delivery is like that of a QVC host. His attempts to be adroit also fall flat. "I wouldn't pay to see any movie playing in the same multiplex as COLLEGE". Weak, dude.

Did they also save money by not bothering to pay for clips from the movies they're reviewing to show to viewers? They seemed to only have access to the trailers; hardly any actual clips are shown.

My verdict: Skip it. They've killed the spirit of the show and replaced it with a Body Snatcher double of what it once was. I can't imagine them working out the kinks and making this show worth watching ever again, definitely not as long as Ben Lyons is on. Fitting that they turned At The Movies into an utterly vapid production and it's co-hosted by a member of the Lyons' family of film critics since daddy Jeffrey already hosts a similar syndicated movie review show that gives off the same vacuous vibe as this. The first episode of the new At The Movies was even worse than that episode when Roeper co-hosted with special guest critic Fred Willard. I predict this incarnation of At The Movies will either be cancelled within a year or Buena Vista will re-cast the hosts in an attempt to salvage it.

I miss Siskel. I miss Ebert. And, yes, I even miss Roeper.