Mark At The Movies!

Sonogram pictures!!

2009-03-05T15:08:00.001-08:00

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 10/17/08

2008-10-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

W.- Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, Richard Dreyfuss, James Cromwell
A chronicle on the life and presidency of George W. Bush (Brolin)

Sexdrive- Josh Zuckerman, James Marsden
A high school senior drives cross-country with his best friends to hook up with a babe he met online.

Max Payne- Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis,
Coming together to solve a series of murders in New York City are a DEA agent (Wahlberg) whose family was slain as part of a conspiracy and an assassin (Kunis) out to avenge her sister's death. The duo will be hunted by the police, the mob, and a ruthless corporation

The Secret Life of Bees- Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifa, Jennifer Hudson
Set in South Carolina in 1964, the film is the moving tale of Lily Owens a 14 year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother...

What Just Happened- Robert De Niro, Stanley Tucci
Two weeks in the life of a fading Hollywood producer who's having a rough time trying to get his new picture made.

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 10/10/08

2008-10-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

Quarantine- Jennifer Carpenter, Jay Hernandez
On March 11 2008, the government sealed off an apartment complex in Los Angeles. The residents were never seen again. No details. No witnesses. No evidence. Until now.

Body of Lies- Leonardo Dicaprio, Russell Crowe
Based on Washington Post columnist David Ignatius's 2007 novel about a CIA operative, Roger Ferris, who uncovers a lead on a major terrorist leader suspected to be operating out of Jordan.

City of Ember- Bill Murray
For generations, the people of the City of Ember have flourished in an amazing world of glittering lights. But Ember's once powerful generator is failing ... and the great lamps that illuminate the city are starting to flicker

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 09/26/08

2008-09-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Miracle at Santa Anna- Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Turturro
Set in 1944 Italy, the story of four black American soldiers who get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII.

Choke- Anjelica Huston
A sex-addicted con-man pays for his mother's hospital bills by playing on the sympathies of those who rescue him from choking to death.

Eagle Eye- Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson, Michael Chiklis, Billy Bob Thorton
Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) and Rachel Holloman (Monaghan) are two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situation, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. As the situation escalates, these two ordinary people become the country's most wanted fugitives, who must work together to discover what is really happening -– and more importantly, why.

Nights in Rodanthe- Diane Lane, Richard Gere, James Franco
A doctor (Gere) who is traveling to see his estranged son sparks with an unhappily married woman (Lane) at a North Carolina inn.

The Lucky Ones- Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, Michael Pena
The story revolves around three soldiers -- Colee, TK and Cheever -- who return from the Iraq War after...

Mark's pick....go see Eagle Eye, Shia LaBeouf is one of Hollywood's next big actors...he will no doubt deliver a blockbuster. Should be a good time all around.

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 09/19/08

2008-09-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Lake View Terrace- Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson
An LAPD officer (Jackson) will stop at nothing to force out the interracial couple who just moved in next door.

The Duchess- Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes
A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.

Blindness- Juliaane Moore, Mark Ruffalo
A city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant "white blindness". Those first afflicted are quarantined...

Appaloosa- Jeremy Irons, Ed Harris
Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow.

Igor- John Cusack, John Cleese
"Igor" is a playfully irreverent comedy that brings a new twist to the classic monster genre. In a world...

My Best Friend's Girl- Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs
Tank (Cook) faces the ultimate test of friendship when his best friend hires him to take his ex-girlfriend (Hudson) out on a lousy date in order to make her realize how great her former boyfriend is.

Ghost Town- Greg Kinnear, Tea Leoni, Ricky Geravis
Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), is a man whose people skills leave much to be desired. When Pincus dies unexpectedly, but is miraculously revived after seven minutes, he wakes up to discover that he now has the annoying ability to see ghosts. Even worse, they all want something from him, particularly Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear) who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Téa Leoni). That puts Pincus squarely in the middle of a triangle with spirited results.

New DVD releases!

2008-09-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

September 16th, 2008

88 Minutes- Al Pacino

Speed Racer- Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci

The Love Guru- Mike Meyers, Jessica Alba

Made of Honor- Patrick Dempsy, Michelle Monaghan

Burn After Reading Movie Review

2008-09-10T13:29:00.001-07:00

After watching the Coen Brothers spend years mowing their way through genres and upending conventions, one question comes to mind: Is there anything these guys can't do. Common wisdom suggests "no" and, after winning Oscars early this year for No Country for Old Men, expectations have gone from modest to high. However, those anticipating another searing drama/thriller with Burn After Reading may be disappointed. The Coens, as is often their style, have elected to go in another direction. This is a thriller with a high quotient of comedic elements or, if you prefer, a comedy with a high quotient of thriller elements. As is always the case with a production of Joel & Ethan, it's difficult to classify, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable.

The movie's plot involves so many threads and contains so many intertwined layers that it effectively defeats any summary with fewer than about 1000 words. So I'll set the stage and let the movie unveil its own secrets. To the thudding bass of resonant Carter Burwell score, the film opens by swooping down from above into Langley and introducing us to C.I.A. agent Osborne Cox (John Malkovich), who is about to quit in lieu of being demoted. This displeases his wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton), to no end. Meanwhile, her lover, ex-secret service agent Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), is trying to decide whether to request a divorce from his wife to be with Katie. Harry also has a penchant for trolling the Internet for dates. That's how he meets a gym worker named Linda Litzke (France McDormand), who needs money for some cosmetic surgical procedures. With her accomplice, Chad (Brad Pitt), she figures out a way to get it: sell leaked C.I.A. secrets to the Russians – secrets that come from a copy of Osborne's unpublished memoirs.

The Coens, as is their way, keep piling it on, deepening the plot and tossing in some shocks that are all the more effective because of the matter-of-fact manner in which they are delivered. (Remember Josh Brolin's death in No Country? It's that sort of thing.) The screenplay never takes itself seriously, with comedic moments strewn about haphazardly. Some are merely amusing, some are clever, and some are downright hilarious. Perhaps the three funniest scenes are a pair of conversations between C.I.A. honchos played by David Rasche and J.K. Simmons, and a scene where George Clooney's paranoia has him bug-eyed and primed to flee.

By employing members of their extended acting family as well as talented "newcomers" to the Coen universe, Joel & Ethan ensure there's not a weak performance to be found. George Clooney, who does his best work for the Coens and Soderbergh, turns down the charm and enhances the sleeze in a role that certainly fits the clichéd "cast against type" description. Brad Pitt primps and poses as a personal trainer who likely would be less interested in Angelina Jolie than her brother. Frances McDormand gets to do a little screwball work alongside Clooney, Pitt, and Richard Jenkins. Tilda Swinton acts all ice bitchy, like she's still under the influence of her role in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And John Malkovich does what John Malkovich does best - act weird before eventually losing it. All that's missing from Act III is the wood chipper, and one suspects Malkovich's character might have one somewhere on the premises.

The tone is a little like Fargo, although Burn After Reading isn't as nuanced. As comedies go, it's a definite notch below Raising Arizona, The Hudsucker Proxy, and even Intolerable Cruelty. So, in the Brothers' oeuvre, this would have to be considered a minor work, and it may look even more insignificant in the wake of No Country for Old Men. But if there's one rule that must be applied here, it's that lesser Coen works are often the equal to superior films by other directors. Burn After Reading likely won't be a major Oscar contender for 2009, but that doesn't mean it won't offer a hell of a good time in theaters toward the end of 2008.

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 09/12/08

2008-09-10T13:12:00.000-07:00

The Women- Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Debra Messing
A wealthy New Yorker leaves her cheating husband and bonds with other society women at a resort. A remake of George Cukor's 1939 film "The Women."

Burn After Reading- Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton
A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to sell it.

The Family that Preys-
Two families from different walks of life learn to work together.

Righteous Kill- Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino
Two veteran New York City detectives (De Niro and Pacino) work to identify the possible connection between a recent murder and a case they believe they solved years ago; is there a serial killer on the loose, and did they perhaps put the wrong person behind bars?

Nothing is Private- Aaron Eckhart
A young Arab-American girl struggles with her sexual obsession, a bigoted Army reservist and her strict father during the Gulf War. Based on Alicia Erian's novel "Towelhead"

Bangkok Dangerous Review

2008-09-05T08:23:00.000-07:00

Review by: Elliot Noble of Sky.movies.net

Perhaps unmoved by the Hollywood remake of their supernatural chiller The Eye (and who wasn’t?), the Hong Kong-born, Thailand-based Pang twins take personal responsibility for the English-language reload of the action thriller that made their name.

Unfortunately, they’ve omitted two key elements: action and thrills.

With a barnet to make a Spanish footballer wince and all the enthusiasm of a businessman with a Thai food allergy, Nicolas Cage mooches around the streets of Bangkok as Joe, a hitman who lives by his own strict set of rules.

These he drones on about in one of those voiceovers that nobody pays any attention to. Not even himself apparently, because he promptly breaks the lot.

After landing a four-hit contract with a shady kingpin, Joe hires unsuspecting street hustler Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) to act as his errand boy with the intention of killing the poor sap as soon as the job’s done.

But after plugging one mark in his limo and drowning another in his pool, Joe has a change of heart and spuriously agrees to make Kong his apprentice.

Cue a training montage involving press-ups and shooting at watermelons which is as uninspired as it is pointless because, come the final showdown, Kong is as much use as a chocolate wok.

The credibility of Joe’s credo dwindles further when he falls for the first deaf-mute pharmacist he comes across (Charlie Young)… even more so when he covers her in the blood of a couple of hapless muggers.

Kong has better luck with the slinky nightclub dancer who works for Mr Big, but with one hit to go, everyone loses that loving feeling.

Not only is the last mark a much-loved politician, sending Joe into a moral tailspin, but it seems that Mr Big is also a believer in leaving no loose ends.

The 18 certificate – presumably sought and earned for two gory bits - suggests action with a violent edge. But, plotted like one of The Equaliser’s duller episodes and shot in grainy, pallid green hues, this is a depressing experience.

Ludicrous? Occasionally. Ponderous? Frequently. But dangerous? Only for the careers of Cage and his stylist.

Elliott Noble

Opening Today in Theaters 9/5/2008

2008-09-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

Bangkok Dangerous- Nicolas Cage
A hitman who's in Bangkok to pull off a series of jobs falls for a local woman and bonds with his errand boy.

Everybody Wants To Be Italian
It's a case of mistaken ethnicity, where two non-Italians pretend to be Italian to win each others hearts in Boston's North End.

Babylon A.D. Movie Review!

2008-08-27T14:24:00.000-07:00

Babylon A.D.

(France)

By JORDAN MINTZER

Read other reviews about this film

Vin Diesel is a gun for hire in a war-torn future dystopia in 20th Century Fox's sci-fi actioner 'Babylon A.D.'

A 20th Century Fox (in U.S.)/StudioCanal (in France) release of a Babylon A.D. SAS, Babylon Films, StudioCanal, M6 Films production, with participation of M6, Canal Plus, CineCinema. Produced by Ilan Goldman. Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Screenplay, Kassovitz, Eric Besnard, based on the novel "Babylon Babies" by Maurice G. Dantec.

Toorop - Vin Diesel
Aurora - Melanie Thierry
Sister Rebecca - Michelle Yeoh
Darquandier - Lambert Wilson
Finn - Mark Strong
Killa - Jerome Le Banner
Neolite Priestess - Charlotte Rampling
Gorsky - Gerard Depardieu

Looking less like he's trying to save the planet than like he's fighting off a really bad hangover, Vin Diesel punches, shoots but ultimately dozes his way through the sloppy sci-fi actioner "Babylon A.D." A noisier, costlier version of "Children of Men," yet lacking that film's social-political significance and jaw-dropping direction, scribe-helmer Mathieu Kassovitz's heftiest production to date may also be his least successful effort to breach Hollywood's walls as a high-budget filmmaker. Released in France before it opens Aug. 29 Stateside in a version trimmed by about 10 minutes, "Babylon" will require plenty of prayers to reach B.O. paradise.

Adapted from French writer Maurice G. Dantec's 700-plus-page "Babylon Babies," pic strips the book of its weightier material -- which includes an analysis of post-Soviet conflict strategy and a philosophical take on cybernetic bio-engineering -- and leaves only the threadbare plot.

After a (literally) eye-catching sequence that shows early signs of the CGI action to come, pic flashes back a week earlier to war-rattled "New Serbia," where gun-for-hire Toorop (Diesel) sits out the fighting in a boarded-up apartment. Dressed like a frat boy heading for an early morning class and showing just as much conviction, he barely reacts when a SWAT team busts in to bring him to Gorsky (Gerard Depardieu, sporting an unnecessary prosthetic nose), a Russian mafioso offering a sizeable payoff if Toorop delivers a special package to New York.

The package in question is a mysterious blonde nymph, Aurora (Melanie Thierry), who's been hidden away in a convent under the protection of Sister Rebecca (Michelle Yeoh). Instead of inquiring why Aurora is worth the hefty price of border smuggling, Toorop shrugs off any serious questioning, unsuccessfully tries to light a cigarette (a gag repeated throughout), and the three set off.

First destination is a train station in Kazakhstan, which occasions one of the pic's more convincing set pieces when a bomb detonates. A second stop at a Vladivostok nightclub (whose featured entertainment is Ultimate Fighting Championship-style death matches) introduces Toorop's war buddy Finn (Mark Strong) to the team, and the four barely escape a run-in with some jumpy henchman.

Lengthy middle action sequence has them crossing the Bering Strait on snowmobiles (actually shot in Sweden), and here Kassovitz revisits the kinds of snow-filled scenes that marked his French suspenser "The Crimson Rivers." Yet as with most of this pic's fighting and effects, the reliance on extreme closeups, frenzied handheld camerawork and rapid editing leaves little room to enjoy the breathtaking views, let alone fully grasp Toorop's heroic abilities.

When they finally reach New York -- which, in this futuristic version, has a few more skyscrapers and a lot more electronic billboards -- they prepare to hand Aurora over to the pale Neolite Priestess (Charlotte Rampling, convincing but short-lived), who heads up the powerful sect/corporation that commanded the transaction. But, as previewed by the pic's initial flash-forward, the exchange does not go according to plan.

Comparisons to "The Fifth Element" -- another French-produced and -helmed blockbuster featuring a bankable Hollywood actor -- are likely, and both films suffer from the same lightweight characterization and misfired attempts to render a future society both credible and meaningful.

Whereas Kassovitz's earlier features, from his breakout "La Haine" to his last U.S. effort, "Gothika," revealed a strong sense of style and directorial wit, such qualities seem absent from "Babylon A.D.," which takes itself far too seriously yet fails to deliver its muddled message.

Fans of "Pitch Black" hoping Diesel would reprise the stone-faced Richard Riddick role here will be disappointed, and he seems to be half-smirking through much of the film's risible dialogue (co-written by Gallic scriber Eric Besnard). Yeoh and promising young thesp Thierry manage to extract a few bits of emotion, mostly when they're not talking.

While the novel is set in 2013, the film does not specify its time period, although the production design by Sonja Klaus and Paul Cross feels "near-future." Darkish lensing by longtime Luc Besson collaborator Thierry Arbogast befits the film's somber tone, but doesn't make the action, which includes stunts by parkour founder David Belle, easy to follow. For all its continent-hopping, pic was largely shot at Prague's Barrandov Studio.

Print viewed in Paris ran 100 minutes, while U.S. version purportedly runs 90 minutes.

More than one option

(Co) Canal Plus
Filmography, Year, Role
(Co) StudioCanal

More than one option

(Film) Babylon
Brinsley Forde, Franco Rosso
(Film) Babylon
Bill Sage, Guido Chiesa
(Tv) Hollywood Confidential

More than one option

(Person) David Belle
Cinematographer, Director, Production Assistant
(Person) David Belle
Actor, Stunt Player

Camera (color, Panavision widescreen), Thierry Arbogast; editor, Benjamin Weill; music, Atli Orvarsson; production designers, Sonja Klaus, Paul Cross; supervising art director, John King; set decorators, Francesca Cross, Michel Pages; costume designers, Chattoune, Fab; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital), John Rodda; sound designer, Nicolas Becker; supervising sound editor, Ken Yasumoto; re-recording mixers, Yasumoto, Francois-Joseph Hors; visual effects supervisor, Stephane Ceretti; visual effects, Buf Compagnie; stunt coordinator, Bob Brown; fight choreographer, Alain Figlarz; associate producer, Benoit Jaubert; assistant directors, Charlie Watson, Kieron Phipps; casting, Jina Jay. Reviewed at UGC Cine Cite Les Halles 6, Paris, Aug 20, 2008. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 100 MIN.

With: Joel Kirby, Souleymane Dicko, David Belle, Radek Bruna, Jan Unger, Abraham Belaga, Gary Cowan, David Gasman, Lemmy Constantine.
(English dialogue)

Variety is striving to present the most thorough review database. To report inaccuracies in review credits, please click here. We do not currently list below-the-line credits, although we hope to include them in the future. Please note we may not respond to every suggestion. Your assistance is appreciated.

New in the Theaters for 8/29/2008

2008-08-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

Disaster Movie- Over the course of one evening, an unsuspecting group of twenty-somethings find themselves bombarded by a series of natural disasters and catastrophic events.

Babylon A.D.- Veteran-turned-mercenary Thoorop takes the high-risk job of escorting a woman from Russia to America. Little does he know that she is host to an organism that a cult wants to harvest in order to produce a genetically modified Messiah.

Hamlet 2- In this irreverent comedy, a failed actor-turned-worse-high-school-drama-teacher rallies his Tucson, AZ students as he conceives and stages politically incorrect musical sequel to Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Traitor- A special operative working with a terrorist group becomes the target of the CIA.

College- A wild weekend is in store for three high school seniors who visit a local college campus as prospective freshmen.

Box Office Numbers for the weekend of August 22nd 2008!

2008-08-25T02:55:00.000-07:00

1) Tropic Thunder- $16 Million

2) House Bunny- $15 Million

3) Death Race- $12 Million

4) The Dark Knight- $10 Million

5) Star Wars: The Clone Wars- $6 Million

Just Missed- Pineapple Express- $5 Million

New DVD Releases for 8/18

2008-08-23T08:41:00.000-07:00

Prom Night- Donna's senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life, though a sadistic killer from her past has different plans for her and her friends.

Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both World's- A 3-D concert film of the 2007 Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus tour.

Death Race review!

2008-08-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

Posted by Todd Brown at 11:24am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Cult, Action, USA & Canada.

Ladies and gentlemen, the race is over. The competition is won. The arrival of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Death Race - even though it comes so very early in the year - has put a conclusive end to the race for the 2008 Razzie Awards. Worst film? Worst director? Worst screenplay? Worst actress? Not only will Death Race take all of these categories but the competition won’t even be close. There is quite simply no chance whatsoever that any other film will arrive on the scene to rival this - the latest in a long, ling line of very, very bad films from Anderson - for if anyone should even attempt to create another film at this level of ineptitude within the rest of the calendar year I have no doubt that the universe would spontaneously implode in protest of having to play host to such an indignity. This, people, is a Very Bad Film.

On the surface, a remake of the Roger Corman-produced cult flick would seem apropos, even timely right now. Death Race is a title primed to both exploit and comment upon the current craze for ‘extreme’ - read, ‘hyper violent’ - sport and the society that consumes it but there is neither the will nor the brain at work here to offer any sort of commentary whatsoever, nor the skill to properly exploit it. What do we have? Jason Statham is Jensen Aimes, a near future steel worker and former race car driver thrown out of work when the mill he works at shuts down, leaving him unable to provide for his wife and infant daughter. It’s not like he has long to worry about that, though, because the very same day Aimes is thrown out of work masked men invade his home, kill his wife, and leave Aimes unconscious with a bloody knife in his hand. Six months later he has a life term in prison.

But prisons are different in the future. They have become privately run, for-profit organizations. Rehabilitation? What’s that? The prisoners are fodder for extreme sports, corpses-in-waiting destined to battle it out for massive pay-per-view online audiences with potential release dangled in front of their eyes as a prize should they succeed multiple times in the gladiatorial combats. And the most successful of these games, the highest rated sport, is the Death Race - a three day, multi stage race run by prisoners in cars heavily modified to include steel armor and heavy weaponry. Hmm ... new guy in prison happnes to be a driver, and the next Death Race is just days away, there couldn’t be a conspiracy at play here, could there? Of course there is! The prison warden orchestrated the killing of Aimes’ wife and his subsequent conviction, needing him to replace Frankenstein, a popular masked driver killed (though nobody knows that) in the last race. Bloodshed ensues.

For a brief, shining moment I actually though Death Race may end up being a servicable B-flick on the strength of it’s cast - arguably the best Anderson has ever had to work with. Sure, Statham aint a great actor, and he never has been, but he’s a charismatic guy, easily able to chew his way through this stuff. Throw the dependable Joan Allen and brilliant Deadwood baddie Ian McShane into the key support roles and this could actually work, right? Oh, hell no. The film fails on so many levels it’s hard to keep count.

The blame, first of all, should rest at the feet of Paul W.S. Anderson. His direction is horrible, with the exception of a couple of admittedly stellar shots the car race scenes are actually kind of cluttered and boring, several normally solid bit players turn in career worst performances and the Anderson-written script is laughably, horribly bad. We like to joke about plot holes big enough to drive a truck through but this film has plot holes that people LITERALLY drive actual trucks through with nobody so much as batting an eyelash. And the dialog ... oh, the dialog ... but more on that later ... Anderson wears a LOT of hats on this film and, without belaboring the point, it is very safe to say that the work he turns in for every single role he is supposed to fill is appallingly below standard.

The blame, second of all, should rest at the feet of the cast. Not Statham so much - he’ll brush this one off easily enough - or McShane, who is absolutely the only performer to rise above the level of the script he’s given to turn in something approaching a compelling performance, but all the rest are horrible. Tyrese Gibson hits an all time low as the primary on-track villain. Natalie Martinez as Statham’s navigator / love interest? Utterly abysmal every time she opens her mouth, but honestly she was cast for her cleavage not her ability to deliver a line and the cleavage is just fine, thanks, so it’s hard to fault her too much. But Joan Allen? Oh, Joan, what were you thinking? Did you not read the script when they sent it to you? When we get to hear Morgan Freeman cuss in Wanted it ends up being a high point of the film because Freeman so clearly is having a blast playing so far against type, he delivers the line so incredibly well, and it fits within the world Wanted has created. But when Allen cautions Statham, “Fuck with me and we’ll find out who shits on the sidewalk.” the response is just, WHAT? What the hell? What does that even MEAN? Never mind that the delivery’s clumsy, that’s just NONSENSE! And nonsense is never, ever bad-ass. Oh, Joan, I know I can’t blame you for writing it, but you agreed to say it and you really, really should have known better.

So, the film’s horrible. That leaves the question of whether this is a so-bad-its-good sort of film. Well, once the first openly mocking laugh burst out about half way through the screening I attended the crowd loosened up noticeably and got into the jeering spirit. Did we have a good time? Yes, yes we did. But, importantly, none of us had paid to be there. And, honestly, I can’t imagine any paying, sober audience being happy about having to sit through this.

2008-08-18T07:47:00.000-07:00

1) Tropic Thunder- $26 million

2) The Dark Knight- $16.8 million

3) Star Wars: The Clone Wars- $15.5 million

4) Mirrors- $11 million

5) Pineapple Express- $10 million

Just missed- The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- $8.6 million

Star Wars: The Clone Wars review!

2008-08-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Does the new animated movie bring justice to one of the best series of films of all time?

I'll say this before I begin...I'm a FAN of the Star Wars franchise...not a FAN BOY of them by any means. I'll be the first person (among many, I'm sure) to tell you that the Phantom Menace completely sucked, I'm talking probably as bad as Spider Man 3 sucked. So this review is not biased at all, nor will I attempt to promote the movie because of my fan-ism.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is not must see material by any means and is probably only reserved for the hardest of die hard fans. The movie didn't even start out with the usual "Star Wars" theme and scrolling dialogue, which was pretty disappointing...but it makes sense because Warner Bros. instead of 20th Century Fox, produced the film.

The film is not all bad, it just lacks material that makes a movie a "Star Wars" movie. There are no really great lightsaber battles, no amazement that anything can pop off at any given moment like the previous 6 films...if you're like me and don't count the Phantom Menace into the trilogies...previous 5 movies had going for them.

I blame George Lucas mainly for this lack of material problem he put himself in...there is a bunch of space between "Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" that he could have created a new epic (an animated epic, but an epic no less), but he came out flat. The animated series (short lived) the Clone Wars was done brilliantly following "The Clone Wars" live action movie and bringing it up to the very beginning of "Revenge of the Sith". They really try to cover a new story in this chapter with this movie but fail in doing so as the movie pretty much clashes with the animated TV show that was on for a brief bit...but mind you, 75% of the Star Wars fan base probably never saw an episode of the TV series so Lucas gets a mulligan for trying to hash out the same story line as before. He tried to pull a fast one and probably succeeded.

So right off the bat we know that nothing bad can happen to Obi-Wan (played by, James Arnold Taylor) or Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Matt Latner).

This animated feature is done in almost complete cartoonish-computer animation (which gives it the made for TV feel). The writers also try to strike gold by giving Anakin an apprentice, Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), whose attitude and respect...or lack there of...make her feel like she should be on the Mellinium Falcon with Solo than apart of Jedi.

Anakin and Ahsoka are set off on an official outing to find the missing/kidnapped son of Jabba the Hutt. If they do not find Hutt Jr. in time the Trade Federation will seize control of an important trade route in space. In case you're lost in the completely mind bending and diabolical plot...do not fret because the movie repeats this about a dozen times throughout it's course. You're bound to catch on the fourth or fifth time.

So there you have it...that's the movie...loop after loop...Star Wars: The Clone Wars. It just seems the writers didn't know what type of animated movie they wanted to make...whether it was for the "fan boys"of the franchise to tie them over until, maybe...maybe, they make another movie. Or was it for the younger audience, trying to recruit more "fan boys" to the cause? Either way, it's a failure to what "Star Wars" is.

I will mention a few positives though...the voicing done by the character sound very close to the real characters who played Obi-Wan and Anakin in the trilogies.

I realize what Lucas is trying to do with this movie...lead it up to a new animated series that will be on TV but....why make your loyal fans pay to see what you're going to be putting on television for free?

1.5 out of 5 stars...

Bark Marley Reviews Tropic Thunder!

2008-08-14T19:24:00.001-07:00

I'll just preface this review with....

If you are easily offended, don't enjoy gore, or don't enjoy racial jokes....don't go see this movie...

with that said, let's get started...

The opening scenes of Tropic Thunder are probably some of the funniest I've seen in a long time in a movie...but there in lies the problem...the rest of the movie, while still being hilarious doesn't really live up to the opening statement. It leaves you thinking that the next scene is going to bust your gut...but it just never really happens like it does in the first 10 minutes of the film.

The film opens up introducing us to the Actors....and I don't mean Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downey Jr....I'm talking about the actors they portray in the movie...Tugg Speedman (Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Black), and Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.).

There are fake trailers to the different movies each "actor" has coming out in the near future...they open like Entertainment Style news clips. There's even an advertisement/commercial for an energy called "Booty Sweat" promoted by Alpa Cino (Brandon T. Jackson). Tugg Speedman is an action star who acted his way to an oscar win by playing a mentally retarded boy in a movie called "Simple Jack". Kirk Lazarus, who makes a career out of winning oscars for his different acting portrayals, the guy who is the more serious about his acting than the other two. Jeff Portnoy, who's character must have been based off of Jack Black in real life, is an out of control comedy actor who has made some movies that would make Eddie Murphy look like a comedic genius (the trailers are quite hilarious though).

We learn, very quickly, that all of the actors involved are spoiled beyond belief by their fans, media, and people that work with them. They are all signed on to do a movie called "Tropic Thunder" (yes, the film within the film is titled the same)...a Vietnam movie being shot in, you guessed it, Vietnam. The director is hard pressed to get all of his "A" List actors to Vietnam on time because they are already behind schedule even though they really haven't begun shooting...perhaps a plot hole?

In steps Nick Nolte, who the movie's experience is really based off of...he's been brought to the set as an adviser for the actors. He has the bright idea to drop the actors in the middle of the Jungle and leave them there, sort of an experience builder. What Nolte and the rest of the film's crew doesn't know is that they just dropped the actors into an area of Vietnam controlled by a violent drug lord who doesn't really like people dropping into his country unannounced.

The actors (if you don't know by now who I'm talking about, just stop reading) soon realize that this is not just another scene shoot, and that they are fighting for their lives and have to start shooting real bullets.

Right, so I'm not a huge fan of the "stupid-comedies" ala Will Ferrell movies, and this movie, while it has it's share of "silly" moments...it never gets down to the stupid level, which makes it a real success in my eyes. Perhaps the funniest thing about the movie is that the actors (the real ones, not the ones in the movie) are pretty much making fun of themselves...the exception being Ben Stiller who is pretty much making fun of Action Movie stars...because Ben Stiller has never done an action movie in his life.

This movies has some pretty heavy gore in spots, it will take you aback if you're not ready for it (see one scene where Stiller is holding a head). Ben Stiller is pretty funny, while Jack Black plays his annoying self he gets better as the movie carries on, and eventually he became my favorite comedian in the movie. Without a doubt though, Robert Downey Jr...who has seemed to resurrect his career this summer into one of the premier actors today, steals the show (just as he did Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang and Ironman). He's the white guy who undergoes a surgical operation to darken his skin so he can play a black man in the movie....comedic genius at it's finest.

Some of the funniest scenes come when Downey Jr's character, playing the black man, thinking he really IS black interacting with a real black man...hilarious. Other actors who make appearances are Tom Cruise (who is genuinely funny), Matthew McConaughey (really funny), and Toby Macguire (pretty funny). Cruise and McConaughey play rivaling agents for the actors. They don't have huge amounts of screen time but they make every second worth the money they were payed.

With the FAIL comedies of this summer...Tropic Thunder easily takes the cake of best comedy of the year. It will even likely knock The Dark Knight off of it's perch as the #1 movie in the nation.

Go see it.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Tropic Thunder Review!

2008-08-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

Review by Steve Rhodes who writes for Internet Reviews

Uneven and needlessly gross, TROPIC THUNDER still manages to elicit enough really big laughs to make it an easy film to recommend. Directed by Ben Stiller, it is a movie that is happiest when it is way, way, way over the top, which is where it operates most of the time.

The movie starts with a commercial for Booty Sweat energy drink followed by three great trailers: Scorcher VI, starring Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), The Fatties Part 2, starring Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), and Satan's Alley, starring Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.).

TROPIC THUNDER, with an Escher print of a plot, is about the making of a Vietnam War movie. This movie-within-a-movie is directed by Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) and stars the three actors from the above opening trailers.

Director Cockburn is losing control of his cast and crew as they film the movie on location in Vietnam. After a four million dollar explosion is set off without the cameras rolling, the director is called on the carpet by a take-no-prisoners studio exec named Les Grossman. In one of his best performances in years, Tom Cruise is absolutely hilarious as Grossman. Every time Cruise is on the screen, he is electric.

Matthew McConaughey is almost as good as Cruise. Playing Rick Peck, Speedman's tenacious agent, McConaughey does a spoof of Cruise's part in JERRY MAGUIRE. While everyone in the jungle is trying to stay alive, Peck, back in Hollywood, is the only man willing to go up against the vicious Grossman. Peck has discovered that Speedman has not gotten the TiVo that is specifically called for in his contract, so Peck is ready to move heaven and earth to ensure that Speedman has his own digital video recorder in the jungle.

The movie's big twist is that the director and the studio are so unhappy with the cast that they redesign the project so that it is a reality-based picture with hidden cameras all over the jungle. The jungle turns out to be infested with gun-toting opium farmers who don't realize that anyone is trying to make a movie. It all gets wackier and wackier as the story progresses.

Downey is terrific as Lazarus, but he gets so much into his character as a jive-talking black soldier that much of his dialog is indecipherable. What you can hear is quite funny. The best line comes when he explains to another actor that he stays completely in character until he has finished the commentary track for the DVD release. He also talks at length about the repression he has suffered as a black man, much to the annoyance of a fellow actor who is actually black, rather than just playing one.

One of Speedman's best episodes comes when he accidentally kills a panda. When he tries to explain it over the cell phone to his agent, his agent assumes that Speedman must have killed a prostitute called Amanda. Ah, what trouble a bad cell connection can get you into.

All of the actors are good. Only Black, who never does much other than fart, is something of a disappointment.

What the story does best is to ridicule actors and their methods. "My body may be shackled, but my mind wanders free," Speedman tells the heavily armed drug lords when they capture him. They think he's nuts, which he is.

But it falls to Cruise's character to really "explain" things to us. Speaking of Speedman, he tells his agent that Speedman is "a white knight heading for a black hole. That's physics. The universe is like that. You've got to get used to it."

TROPIC THUNDER runs 1:47. It is rated R for "pervasive language including sexual references, violent content and drug material" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.

My son Jeffrey, age 19, gave the film just **, although he admitted he laughed hard in parts and might like it better the second time he saw it. He said it was too disgusting, too profane and too hard to understand, especially Downey's dialog. He liked Cruise's character best. Jeffrey's girlfriend Yasmin, also 19, gave it ** 1/2. She thought Stiller was awesome as usual, and she liked Black's performance. But she thought the film was too gross and gruesome, and, overall, she just didn't like it much.

The film opens nationwide in the United States on Wednesday, August 13, 2008. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.

Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com

New Theater Releases 8/15/2008

2008-08-13T08:16:00.000-07:00

Tropic Thunder- Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black
Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Animated)
As the Clone Wars sweep through the galaxy, the heroic Jedi Knights struggle to maintain order and restore peace.

Mirrors- Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton
An ex-cop and his family are the target of an evil force that is using mirrors as a gateway into their home.

Vicky Christina Barcelona- Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz
Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Fly Me To The Moon (Animated)-
Three young houseflies stow away aboard the Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

The Dark Knight Still on Top!

2008-08-10T17:46:00.001-07:00

`Dark Knight' stays on top with $26M

By DAVID GERMAIN – 7 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Batman was higher than Hollywood's newest pot heads.

"The Dark Knight" took in $26 million to finish as the No. 1 movie for the fourth straight weekend, beating the stoner comedy "Pineapple Express," which opened in second place with $22.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The weekend haul lifted the Warner Bros. Batman sequel to No. 3 on the all-time domestic box-office charts with $441.5 million, behind only "Titanic" ($600.8 million) and the original "Star Wars" ($461 million).

The last movie to remain No. 1 for four consecutive weekends was "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" in late 2003 and 2004, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers. That movie did it during a much slower time of year, with nowhere near the competition "The Dark Knight" has faced during Hollywood's busy summer season.

"It's almost unheard of. Summer doesn't usually afford films that much of a wide-open playing field," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"The Dark Knight" should surpass "Star Wars" to become No. 2 on the revenue chart by this coming weekend.

However, the numbers reflect today's higher admission prices, and "The Dark Knight" will not approach "Star Wars" or "Titanic" in terms of actual number of tickets sold. Taking inflation into account, "The Dark Knight" would need to pull in about $900 million to match the number of tickets sold for "Titanic" and about $1.2 billion to equal "Star Wars."

Even so, "The Dark Knight" has far outdone even its studio's expectations. Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., said he would have been happy if the movie simply exceeded the $205 million domestic total of its predecessor, "Batman Begins."

It should top out at $510 million to $520 million, Fellman said.

"It has taken on a life of its own, and in doing so got so much positive press and word of mouth that older audiences who normally don't rush out to see movies or maybe only see two, three movies a year are coming out in large numbers," Fellman said. "It's a question of `We've been reading about this for three, four weeks now. Let's go see what it's all about.'"

Since opening Wednesday, Sony's "Pineapple Express" had taken in $40.5 million. The action comedy stars Seth Rogen as a pot smoker on the run from crooks after he witnesses a murder, with his lovably clueless dealer (James Franco) in tow.

While "Pineapple Express" was unable to dislodge "The Dark Knight," Sony executives were happy with a strong No. 2 finish given the juggernaut the Batman flick has become.

"Quite frankly, it's nice to know that everything else is still kind of doing some business," said Rory Bruer, Sony head of distribution. "We're so very satisfied to be at $40 million-plus after five days. You couldn't ask for more."

The weekend's other wide release, the Warner Bros. sequel "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," opened at No. 4 with $10.8 million, raising its total to $19.7 million since debuting Wednesday.

The movie reunites gal pals America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively as the foursome whose friendship is reinforced by the worn pair of pants they share.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Dark Knight," $26 million.

2. "Pineapple Express," $22.4 million.

3. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," $16.1 million.

4. "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," $10.8 million.

5. "Step Brothers," $8.9 million.

6. "Mamma Mia!", $8.1 million.

7. "Journey to the Center of the Earth," $4.9 million.

8. "Hancock," $3.3 million.

9. "Swing Vote," $3.1 million.

10. "WALL-E," $3 million.

Box Office Results for the weekend of 8/8/08

2008-08-10T17:42:00.000-07:00

1) The Dark Knight- $26 Million

2) Pineapple Express- $22 Million

3) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- $16 Million

4) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2- $10 Million

5) Step Brothers- $9 Million

Just Missed It- Mamma Mia $8 Million

Pineapple Express Review!

2008-08-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

Review by Michael Phillips who writes for the Chicago Tribune.

In its gleefully befogged first hour, " Pineapple Express" seems to be onto something new: It's a marijuana comedy that keeps shuffling genres, like a stoned blackjack dealer. James Franco is blissfully funny as Saul, the supplier who finds himself running for his barely cognizant life with steady customer Dale, played by Seth Rogen. Dale's a 25-year-old dating a high school senior. (He proudly sports a high school girl's wristwatch.) They're running because Dale witnessed a drug-related murder and then dropped a precious joint at the scene of the crime. Unsure whether they're in a comedy or a drama, Gary Cole and Rosie Perez play the ruthless criminals who want the witness dead. The film's title refers to a particularly rare and exquisite brand of weed.

At its sharpest, the script by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, who co-wrote "Superbad," recalls what made "Superbad" worth seeing: the sidewinding conversational riffs, the why-am-I-laughing? wordplay. When Dale explains to his dealer that he's a process server, he replies, "You're a servant? Like, a butler?" As written, that line could go either way, but Franco—fully invested in this doper's doper—makes it sing. It's tempting to say Franco knocks such stupid retorts out of the park, but that would imply a certain degree of focus and drive utterly lacking in Saul. Not since the cinematic cannabis heyday of Jeff Spicoli ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High," 1982) and "Withnail & I" (1987) has a fully baked stoner come to such worthy comic life on-screen.

Then, around the midpoint, "Pineapple Express" falls apart and keeps falling, and the comedy, spiced with considerable, unevenly effective violence in that first hour, goes out the window, and in comes all the gore and the bone-crunching. The director is David Gordon Green, who made one of my favorite films this year, "Snow Angels." His work (which includes the poetic "George Washington") has never been easily confined to one category or mood. But there's probably not a director alive who could make sense of this script's queasy blend of jokes and slaughter. Green shoots the fight sequences with rough edges and hand-held realism intact, and the realism is ... well, real. An early smackdown between Rogen and Danny McBride's belligerent idiot Red ends with the trashing of a perfectly good apartment; the scene grinds on well past its usefulness, and the injuries grow more wince-inducing, and before long you're thinking back on "Freebie and the Bean," another comedy that kept morphing into an accidental and deliberately acrid action picture.

For all that, Franco's on-screen rapport with Rogen is a fine thing. Certain lines keep coming back to me, lines that could've come only from truly talented writers. "Hey! I can see through my leg hole!" is one; Franco says it after he kicks through his own windshield during a vehicular chase sequence. Also, there's a throwaway bit with Franco attempting to buzz Rogen into his apartment that approaches perfection—the quintessence of pot humor, honoring the tradition of the "Dave's not here" routine (Cheech & Chong, for the uninitiated). "Pineapple Express" could care less about perfection; its mood swings and genre change-ups are deliberately messy. Few comedies recently have started so well and ended so poorly. Whether that first half is enough is entirely up to your receptivity to another pair of jolly Judd Apatow-sanctioned boy-men,taking time to smell the roses even as people are trying to kill them.

New Theater Releases for August 8th

2008-08-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

Pineapple Express- Seth Rogen, James Franco
A stoner and his dealer are forced to go on the run from the police after the pothead witnesses a cop commit a murder.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2-

Hell Ride- Larry Bishop, Dennis Hopper Michael Madsen
The story deals with the characters Pistolero, the Gent and Comanche and the deadly, unfinished business among them.

New DVD's Week of Aug. 4

2008-08-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

Nims Island- Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerald Butler

Starship Troopers 3: Marauder

Box Office Results for Aug. 1st Weekend

2008-08-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

#1) The Dark Knight- $43 million

#2) The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- $42 million

#3) Step Brothers- $16 million

#4) Mamma Mia- $12 Million

#5) Journey To The Center Of The Earth- $6 Million

Just Missed...Swing Vote- $5.9 million

2008-08-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6879377322869584784
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JboQmDIdKWs
Max Payne movie trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XikFVRSsSlk
High School Musical 3: Senior Year movie trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRw3AkbtJhQ
Terminator Salvation trailer

The Mummy: TOTDE Review!

2008-08-02T04:41:00.000-07:00

Review By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine-

The new Mummy is, how can I put it? Just freakin' awful. The computerized action travels beyond cheese to the realm of the tackiest Velveeta. The first two Mummy movies were awful as well, but they were hits and rode on the unfakable charm of Brendan Fraser as Indiana Jones-in-training Rick O'Connell. The 2008 Mummy, directed by Rob Cohen, still has Fraser, though he looks understandably baffled. It's 1946 and suddenly he has a college-age son. Rick is still married to the feisty Evelyn, but now she's played by Maria Bello instead of Oscar winner Rachel Weisz. No one says a word. The location now is China, how timely given the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Listen, I can't go on. The plot is idiotic and everyone acts like major tools. The one star I plopped on this clunky bore-athon is due to the presence of the great Jet Li as the evil Dragon Emperor of the subtitle and the gorgeous Michelle Yeoh as Zi Yuan, a witch who's been on the Emperor¹s ass for over 2000 years. I could explain, but you wouldn't believe me. Nor should you. This Mummy belongs in a tomb with a stake in its heart or whatever it takes to make sure it won't rise again.

PETER TRAVERS

(Posted: Jul 31, 2008)

New Theater Releases 8/1

2008-07-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor- Brendan Frasier, Jet Li
In the Far East, trouble-seeking father-and-son duo Rick and Alex O'Connell unearth the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin -- a shape-shifting entity who was cursed by a wizard centuries ago.

Swing Vote- Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer
In a remarkable turn-of-events, the result of the presidential election comes down to one man's vote.

The Midnight Meat Train- Brooke Shields, Vinnie Jones
A New York photographer hunts down a serial killer. Based on Clive Barker's short story "Midnight Meat Train"

Box Office Update.....

2008-07-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

#1) The Dark Knight- $75 Million

#2) Step Brothers- $31 Million

#3) Mamma Mia- $17.5 Million

#4) The X-Files: I Want to Believe- $10 Million

#5) Journey To the Center of the Earth- $9.5 Million

Out of the top 5- Hancock

X-Files: I Want to Believe Review

2008-07-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

Review by Peter Travers
Rolling Stone Magazine

Being suitably paranoid about the paranormal, I wanted to believe that X-Files creator Chris Carter, having had six years since the TV show went off the air to craft a humdinger of a plot, could conjure up something with more ding and less (ho) hum than The X-Files: I Want To Believe. What I believe, hell, what I know is that if I toss spoilers into this review, X-Philes will come to haunt me. So I'll say three things and no more.

1. David Duchovny is back as Fox Mulder and Gillian Anderson joins him as Dana Scully. That is the best news about this movie. No screen lovers have ever gotten more sizzle out of withholding. Forget carnality. Any Internet porn flick can show you penetration. Mulder and Scully get inside each other's heads. Now that's sexy. Duchovny, bless him, is also a master of deadpan wit. Let's not go into the activities room, he quips before visiting a pedophile priest.

2. If Seasons 1 to Season 6 of the TV show, represent the best of the series that ran from 1994 to 2002, then this second X-Files movie, following 1998's impenetrable The X-Files: Fight the Future, plays like an also-ran from Season 7 to Season 9. That's not good news. You may be excited that Mulder and Scully are back at the F.B.I, after being tossed for their beliefs. But the old spark is missing.

3. The true fans who love the show's mythology won¹t have much to chew on. Russian scientists with a thing for internal organs can't stand up against the complex network of government conspiracies on the TV series. The filmmakers insist this movie is a stand-alone, meaning you don't need to have watched a single episode of The X-Files to get it. Ha! Do the names Samantha, William and Skinner mean anything to do? If they don't ring a bell, expect a struggle. In not knowing who it needs to please, I Want to Believe pleases no one.

The Dark Knight...Best Ever?

2008-07-24T19:01:00.001-07:00

We're talking MOVIE here not just COMIC BOOK MOVIE. It's a serious question that needs to be asked in order to validate or discount all the hype and hysteria that it has received in the seven days it's been out for public consumption.

Let's take a look at the factors that would put it into the top 5 category, all time of course. It's the top opening film ever after a five day release, with over $200 million by Tuesday. The damn thing hasn't even been out for a week yet and already it's the top opening movie of all time. This could be due to the droves of people that have already seen it more than twice or it could be because it's just that great of a movie. Either way, it's an amazing feat that tells me that it's a great movie that's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Another factor that would launch it into all time status would be the reviews and ratings it's been getting around the world, in the U.S. and on the internet. IMDB.com (a site that I recommend heavily) has it as their top movie on the Top 250 List, which is no easy accomplishment. The top spot was recently held forever and a day by The Godfather, well that was until the Dark Knight had a few days of mass appeal. This could also be due to the "Batman fanboys" who would want to launch TDK to the top of the charts by repeatedly voting for it, giving it 10 stars. But wait! IMDB.com says this can't be done and one account can only vote once per movie. So now we know that it's not just the same group of people voting over and over again. It's doing something right, wouldn't you say? I personally, have not seen a bad review written on the movie...but that might be because I'm trying to avoid the first one. LOL.

The Dark Knight had one of the biggest Viral campaigns ever for a movie. One that rivaled Cloverfield, and that's not done easily. TDK was made popular in different parts, one reason it was so heavily sought after as the next big thing to see was due to Heath Ledger's death earlier in the year. Yes, it was his last full role, and yes, people do want to see Heath's last performance on the big screen, and yes, he portrayed one of the best characters on screen EVER. But this is not the only reason TDK has achieved TOPS OF ALL TIME status. TDK has a cast that rivals that of the original Godfather movies. Bale, Oldman, Caine, Freeman, Ledger, Eckhart, Gyllenhal compared to Brando, Pacino, Duvall, Caan, Keaton...it's eerily similar. Now, before anyone has a hernia, don't get me wrong, I don't think Christian Bale is Marlon Brando nor do I think that Gary Oldman or Heath Ledger are Al Pacino...the star power and acting prowess is favorably similar. This is another factor why the movie is so good...it's got great actors and actresses behind it, those people know how to make and sell a movie. In the entire cast as a collective they have four Golden Globe wins and nominations...NINE Academy Award nominations and THREE Academy Award winners. That's some heavy artillery when you're talking about a comic book movie.

Only time will tell if this movie will stand up to the testaments of time but I think we'll still be talking about this one, years from now. It's that good. I just can't wait for the third installment.

Step Brothers Review!

2008-07-24T17:22:00.000-07:00

Step Brothers Movie Review

By Prairie Miller

Bratty boy gross-out comedies may have been done to death, but Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly bring something new and different, and decidedly wacked out with Step Brothers, by adding hairy chests and whiskers into the suburban preteen angst mix. Tossing together perpetual coming of age issues with radically stunted mental maturity and weird slacker midlife crisis, this Adam McKay (Talladega Nights) directed nutty fare grabs attention through sheer ballsy kid impersonation by these overgrown instant sibling geeks and maladjusted mini-morons.

Ferrell is Brennan, a blissfully unemployed thirty-nine year old still living at home with his overly indulgent divorced mom, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen). When Nancy gets it on with Robert (Richard Jenkins), a widowed doctor she meets at a public lecture of his after she catches him checking out her anatomy, the two aging lonely lovebirds decide to get married. Robert also has a permanent live-in kid at home, fortyish Dale (John C. Reilly), and when newlywed Nancy moves in with Robert, the two brand new siblings are acutely distressed and anything but ready to engage in brotherly love, to say the least.

Mutual silent sulking soon turns into outright territorial warfare for these spoiled baby-men not used to sharing their parents, toys and secret stash of porn magazines, let alone the same childhood bedroom. While whining Brennan blames his maternal neediness on the perpetual post-traumatic stress of a grade school play in which he performed in drag and was accused of possessing a 'mangina,' spoiled rotten Dale has no patience for this intruder. Especially when Brennan does a get-even by wiping his private parts all over his super-hated stepbrother's beloved drum set.

There is a temporary time-out truce, when their parents read them the riot act and demand that the two lazies go out and find work, or else. And not ever having been particularly in tune with the real world, the two goofy guys show up in tuxedos to apply for jobs cleaning toilets. Then the plot decidedly sickens when Brennan is sent off to therapy and makes lewd advances towards his female shrink, while Dale gets raped and deflowered in a john by his horny sister-in-law, who also has a preference for relieving herself in male urinals, don't ask.

While Step Brothers, produced by Judd Apatow, who else, tends towards repetitious and over the top crude antics, there's enough inventive pretend kid malice to sustain the laughs for the duration. Think Superbad with ample doses of talking dirty sibling revelry.

Sony Pictures
Rated R
2 /12 stars

Prairie Miller is a multimedia journalist online, in print and on radio. Contact her through NewsBlaze.

Currents Leaders at the Box Office

2008-07-22T03:21:00.000-07:00

#1- The Dark Knight- $155 Million

#2- Mamma Mia- $27 Million

#3- Hancock- $14 Million

#4- Journey to the Center of the Earth- $12 Million

#5- Hellboy II: The Golden Army- $10 Million

G.O.A.T. movie of the week- Space Chimps- $7 Million

New Releases week of 7/21

2008-07-22T03:07:00.000-07:00

In Theaters

Step Brothers- John C. Rielly, Will Ferrell
Two spoiled guys become competitive stepbrothers after their single parents get hitched.

X Files: I Want To Believe
Mulder and Skully team up once again to fight the paranormal.

Brideshead Revisited-
The memoirs of Captain Charles Ryder who is stationed at Brideshead Castle during WWII and remembers...

The Dark Knight Breaks Records!

2008-07-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

Dark Knight' Makes Record $155.3 Million at Theaters (Update1)

By Andy Fixmer and Meg Tirrell

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Time Warner Inc.'s ``The Dark Knight,'' the sequel to 2005's ``Batman Begins,'' made a record $155.3 million in its opening weekend for Warner Bros., while setting at least five other box-office records.

They include the biggest single-day gross for a movie ($67.9 million), the largest midnight preview ($18.5 million) and the most opening theaters (4,366), box-office tracker Media By Numbers LLC said today in a statement. Sony Corp.'s ``Spider- Man 3'' held the previous record for the largest weekend gross, making $151.1 million last year.

``Mamma Mia!,'' based on the Broadway musical, brought in $27.6 million for General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures for a second-place finish, Media By Numbers said. That was the biggest opening ever for a movie-musical.

In some U.S. cities, theaters sold out of ``Dark Knight'' tickets days in advance of show times. Warner Bros., last among the six biggest Hollywood studios this year by U.S. ticket sales, may rise to third place behind Viacom Inc.'s Paramount and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox when final results are released tomorrow.

``This isn't just the movie of the weekend, it could be the movie of the next several weekends or even the next several months,'' Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers, said in an interview. ``It's a cultural event and the people who go this weekend will likely return with their friends.''

The Joker

The film stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, who fights crime disguised as Batman, and Heath Ledger, who died in January from an accidental prescription-drug overdose, as the Joker. Maggie Gyllenhaal plays Rachel Dawes, Wayne's love interest, while Morgan Freeman returns as Lucius Fox and Michael Caine reprises the role of Alfred, the butler.

Critics praised ``The Dark Knight,'' with 175 positive write-ups out of the 186 reviews tracked on RottenTomatoes.com as of July 18.

``Mamma Mia!,'' set to the music of Abba, follows the Broadway musical story about a daughter who invites to her wedding three men from her mother's past, one of whom who may be her father. The movie stars Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth.

The film was projected by Box Office Mojo to collect U.S. ticket sales of $24.2 million this weekend. It edged out ``Hairspray'' for best movie-musical opener, which made $27.5 million for Time Warner's New Line Cinema when it debuted.

To contact the reporter on this story: Meg Tirrell in New York at mtirrell@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 20, 2008 12:50 EDT

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark's The Dark Knight Review!

2008-07-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Let me just say this...."WOW!"

This movie was simply amazing...and nothing short of a masterpiece. Clearly one of the best movies of all time, in my opinion of course. There are no flaws in this movie. None. Not the acting, not the suspense, action, or dialog. Everything is there.

I'll start with the acting....and with Christian Bale, our caped crusader. The character he plays, Bruce Wayne, is so flawed it's a miracle he doesn't shoot himself midway through the movie. He gets faced with every moral dilemma known to man in this movie, and Bale handles it with ease. It's his finest career achievement to date and that's saying a lot...he's done great works such as American Psycho and High Times...both show his acting prowess. He takes it beyond in this film...he goes the extra mile to make sure that people know him as BATMAN!

Next up is Heath Ledger. Now I know everyone has read early reviews on how great he portrayed the Joker and how engulfed he became, that he literally transformed himself into this mass murdering psycho. Well, he did better than that. He gave us one film's greatest characters. He brought the Joker so much to life that I really could not recognize that it was Ledger acting as the Joker. It's almost surreal to think that Ledger's last performance was one of the greatest ever created on screen. One person can not become someone else...if I didn't know any better I would have thought that Ledger had schizophrenia, he was THAT GOOD!
Way to go out on top Heath.

Then we have Mr. Aaron Eckhart, who played district attorney Harvey Dent. Without a doubt it was Eckhart's best performance of his career, and rightfully so. He played the part with passion and he held his own as far as screen time. Let me just clarify, Christian Bale as Batman was the star of the movie, but it wasn't about that. It was about Ledger and Eckhart bringing their villains to life. Making Tommy Lee Jone's Two-Face and Jack Nicholson's Joker to shame...and that pains me to say that about Nicholson's Joker, who I thought was spot on and should have gotten an oscar for. Eckhart doesn't stop at just giving a great performance...he to becomes his character. He became Harvey Dent, and I found myself having compasion for his character. The fact that he loves Rachel Dawes so much and doesn't know that Bruce Wayne/Batman love her as well just adds to the great acting that is portrayed.

Maggie Gyllenhal is simply superb as well...even though...and I won't spoil it...she doesn't have as big of a role as you might think. She replaces Katie Holmes character, Rachel Dawes in the movie, and she's ten times the actress that Holmes is...I even think she's more attractive but in a subtle way. She convinced me that she loved both men...Bruce and Harvey...and truly didn't know what to do about it.

Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are excellent in this movie, even though they both play a very small role. Morgan Freeman's screen time is cut down much more than in Batman Begins...but it's necessary. Two of Hollywood's best actors with limited screen time giving some of the best performances of the movie...is simply amazing.

I forgot to mention Gary Oldman who engulfed his character, Police Commissioner Jim Gordon. He plays the hard nosed cop who is out for all the evil that is lurking in Gotham and he needs the help of Harvey Dent and Batman. Oldman plays a very significant role in the movie as he steals scenes away from Bale and Eckhart at times.

The plot and the story were spot on...and it's not exactly a sequel to Batman Begins, but more of a continuation...kindof like the Lord of the Rings triology just ended, except BB and TDK had endings. If that made sense...lol.

This is one of the best film's of all time...and that's saying a lot because there are A LOT of great movies out there. This one is different though. It's Godfather II great...maybe even better. It's actually eerily similar.

Go see this movie now....like right this minute...you will not want to be the one to say that you didn't go see this movie on it's opening weekend. By the time you do go see it finally, everyone will have already talked about how GREAT it was.

Box Office Results for the week of 7/14

2008-07-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

#1) HellBoy II: The Golden Army- $35.9 million

#2) Hancock- $33 million

#3) Journey to the Center of the Earth- $20.6 million

#4) WALL-E- $18.5 million

#5) Wanted- $11.6 million

Eddie Murphy's second worst opening for a movie ever came this past weekend with "Meet Dave" which grossed only $5 million dollars this past weekend. His previous worst opening was the "Adventures of Pluto Nash" which opened at $4.4 million.

The Dark Knight Opens at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (7/18)

2008-07-17T16:49:00.000-07:00

IF YOU DON'T HAVE TICKETS...REALLY, DON'T PLAN ON GOING AND BEING ABLE TO GET TICKETS. WORD IS THAT THEY ARE SOLD OUT FOR THE MIDNIGHT SHOWINGS EVERYWHERE. IMAX SHOWINGS FOR THE WEEKENDS HAVE BEEN SOLD OUT FOR QUITE SOME TIME NOW.

THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO BE HUGE. LOOK FOR IT TO BREAK ALL THE MAJOR BOX OFFICE RECORDS. WHICH WOULD BE AN AMAZING FEAT FOR A "COMIC BOOK" MOVIE.

IT'S BEING COMPARED TO THE GODFATHER II....WHICH IS AWESOME.

I'LL BE SEEING IT TOMORROW AFTER WORK, AT THE 7:30PM SHOWING AT THE REGAL THEATERS ON 34TH STREET. COME JOIN ME FOR THE YEAR'S BEST MOVIE!

In the Theaters- 7/18/2008

2008-07-17T12:07:00.000-07:00

NEW RELEASES THIS WEEK

Batman- The Dark Knight- Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman
Batman and James Gordon join forces with Gotham's new District Attorney, Harvey Dent, to take on a psychotic bank robber known as The Joker, whilst other forces plot against them, and Joker's crimes grow more and more deadly.

Mamma Mia- Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard
The story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular '70s group ABBA.

Space Chimps- voices by: Andy Samberg, Jeff Daniels
Ham III, the grandson of the first chimp astronaut, is blasted off into space by an opportunity-seeking senator..

DVD Releases for the week of July 13th!

2008-07-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Step Up 2: The Streets- Movie about a young woman and a dance crew she creates to compete at a local club.

College Road Trip- Starring Martin Lawrence and Raven Simone, a Disney film.

The Bank Job- A very well done film about a group of petty thieves caught up in a bigger Bank Heist than they thought. Starring Jason Statham.

Shutter- Horror Film.

Penelope- Fantasy story about a girl with a pig nose and her struggle to accept herself. Starring Christina Ricci and James McAvoy.

21- True story about a MIT group of Students who take Vegas for millions of dollars only to lose it all. Starring Kevin Spacey.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Review

2008-07-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Review by: Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times Movie Critic

THE TROUBLE with the current spate of comic-book movies is that their numbing conventionality can make it easy to forget why you loved the original comics back in the day. "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" will help you remember.

With movies such as “The Incredible Hulk” and “Iron Man” falling off the Hollywood assembly line like so many identical toaster ovens, it's refreshing to see what happens when a visionary filmmaker such as Guillermo del Toro falls in love with a superhero who was described in the first "Hellboy" film as "6-foot-5, bright red, has a tail and is government funded."

Starting with characters created by Mike Mignola for Dark Horse Comics, writer-director Del Toro, whose one-of-a-kind "Pan's Labyrinth" won a trio of Oscars in 2007, is almost alone in his ability to re-create on screen the wide-eyed exhilaration and disturbing grotesqueness that is the legacy of reading comics on the page.

Ten effects house combined forces and used both computers and practical effects to animate the widest possible range of strange creatures, allowing "Hellboy II" to come alive with fantasy and invention. To see this film, beautifully shot by Guillermo Navarro, is to truly feel you've entered another world, filled with nightmarish things both unimaginable and indescribable.

Like the comic book it proudly is, "Hellboy II" reintroduces us to the trio of superheroes from the first film, individuals who, like the "Men in Black" of a few years back, are humanity's only defense against unspeakable evil perpetrated by disturbing creatures who walk among us hidden or in disguise.

First among equals at the Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense (B.P.R.D. for short) is hot-tempered Hellboy (Ron Perlman), a reluctant hero always angry because the public never believes he's one of the good guys. Hellboy's on-and-off girlfriend is Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), capable of bursting into flames if she's not treated right. The role of sidekick is filled by the all-knowing aquatic Abe Sapien (Doug Jones), who has the kind of ageless wisdom apparently only being half-fish and half-mammal can provide.

After a brief moment recapping Hellboy's origins (he was brought to Earth by Nazi occultists and then liberated by the Allied Forces), the film offers a prologue set in 1955. The young Hellboy is living with his surrogate father, Professor Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm (a cameo by John Hurt, one of the stars of the first film), a scientist who tells the young superhero a bedtime story that conveniently provides the back story for the sequel.

Sometime in the dark past, we're told, elves and humans fought for control of the Earth. The elf king Balor created a golden mechanical army of huge warriors who "never knew hunger and could not be stopped." At the last minute, much to the disgust of his confrontational son, Prince Nuada, the king had second thoughts and locked the fierce army away. Anyone who thinks it will stay locked up doesn't go to a lot of movies.

Cut to the present day, where the prince (a 1970s Johnny Winter look-alike played by Luke Goss) returns from exile as a man with a plan. Accompanied by the massive troll Mr. Wink, he shows up at a posh Manhattan auction house not to bid, but to rip and run. Irked at the way humans have destroyed the Earth -- I warned you about buying that Hummer -- he goes against the wishes of his father and his twin sister, Princess Nuala (Anna Walton), and makes plans to wake that sleeping army and take over the planet.

Though their personal relationship is anything but calm, Hellboy and Liz are still evil-fighting stalwarts. With Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) returning as FBI liaison, B.P.R.D. welcomes the unusual Professor Johann Kraus, a protoplasmic mystic, whatever that is, to the team and sets up trying to stop the prince.

The parade of creatures Del Toro and his team have come up with as this scenario unfolds, starting with a tour of the legendary Troll Market that one-ups the Mos Eisley cantina scene in "Star Wars," will make you want to tip your hat in wonder.

There is also a giant beanstalk that resembles something out of "Lord of the Rings" and ends up like a creature Japanese animator Hiyao Miyazaki might have dreamed up. And the film's Angel of Death, also acted by Doug Jones (who was Pan in "Pan's Labyrinth"), is everything a creature with that name ought to be.

Though "Hellboy II" is finally a film taken from a comic book, the passion of Del Toro, who was so involved with the story he did the creature vocals, helps us forget that.

More than anything, this film makes us eager for Del Toro's next announced project, J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit," in which the director's prodigious gifts will be combined with one of the great fantasy franchises of modern times. That should really be something to see.

kenneth.turan@latimes.com

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army." MPAA rating: PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi action and violence and some language. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. In general release.

New Theater Releases- 7/11/08

2008-07-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hellboy II- The Golden Army
The mythical world starts a rebellion against humanity in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy and his team must save the world from the rebellious creatures.

Journey to the Center of the Earth
Starring- Brendan Frasier
On a quest to find out what happened to his missing brother, a scientist, his nephew and their mountain guide discover a fantastic and dangerous lost world in the center of the earth.

Meet Dave
Starring- Eddie Murphy
A crew of miniature aliens operate a spaceship that has a human form. While trying to save their planet, the aliens encounter a new problem, as their ship becomes smitten with an Earth woman (Banks).

Harold
Starring- Cuba Gooding Jr.
A teenager with an early onset of male-pattern baldness befriends his high school's janitor.

August
Starring- Josh Hartnett
August centers on two brothers fighting to keep their start-up company afloat on Wall Street during August 2001, a month before the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Top Movies at the Box Office week 7/2-7/6

2008-07-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

Box office results via Boxofficemojo.com

#5- Kung Fu Panda ($7,500,000)

#4- Get Smart ($11,125,000)

#3- Wanted ($20,607,000)

#2- WALL-E ($33,417,000)

#1- Hancock ($66,000,000)

Dropped out- The Incredible Hulk (#5 Last Week)

Wanted/Get Smart Review Double Header!

2008-07-06T16:30:00.000-07:00

I recently saw both Wanted and Get Smart, two recently released movies out in theaters.

First of all, both were good movies in their respective genres, Action (Wanted) and Comedy (Get Smart). I'll start with Wanted. An action movie starring James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland, Atonement), Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider, Gone in 60 Seconds), and Morgan Freeman (Kiss the Girls, The Bucket List). It's about a guy, Wesley Gibson (McAvoy), who is stuck in a rut at a dead in job, and has nothing going for him. The movie revolves around a secret fraternity of assassins (ironically, titled The Fraternity) who convince Gibson that he is destined to be the world's greatest assassin after his father, whom he never knew and WAS the world's greatest assassin was killed in cold blood. The movie is non-stop action, fancy car driving, ridiculous stunts, ridiculous premises (firing a gun around a corner, curving a bullet, shooting the wings off a fly, a bullet hitting another bullet head on) but it was all great fun. From the opening scene where we have an assassin shoot off with a guy jumping off of the side of a building, pulling a gigantic revolver from his coat while in mid air and shooting 3 men and then falling into an adjacent building's windows...to the ending sequence where rats commit mass murder. This movie is truly a Summer Blockbuster filled with just about everything you can think of while not taking itself too seriously. It's definitely a must see as far as summer movies go.

4 stars out of 5- Definitely worth the $10 admission price.

Now we'll move on to "Get Smart" an James Bond-ish comedy about a wanna be secret agent who gets caught up in a terrorist plot against the likes of everything good in the world. It stars Steve Carrell (40 Year Old Virgin, Dan in Real Life) as Maxwell Smart/Agent 86, Anne Hathaway (The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada) as Agent 99, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (Walking Tall, Doom) as Agent 23, and Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) as The Chief. It starts out with Maxwell Smart, who is analyst for CONTROL, a secret US organization who thwarts evil, not to be compared with the CIA. He has always had ambitions for becoming an agent himself but when he finally has a passing score on the Agent Exam he gets denied to become an agent. So after feeling down on himself he stumbles back into CONTROL headquarters only to find it in pieces from an attack...meanwhile, CONTROL lost agents in the attack on the headquarters so The Chief makes Smart in an agent...Agent 86 and teams him up with the sexy and competent Agent 99. They establish a bond with each other, some would even say a romantic bond, but both Hathaway and Carrell have an on screen connection that few could have in such a comedy.

Get Smart is Steve Carrell's best movie to date, it's also one of his funniest. He actually has to act in this movie as well as carry the funny moments, which really make the movie great. I'd call it the Comedy of the year. As well as a must see.

4.5 stars out of 5- Steve Carrell, Anne Hathaway in sexy clothes, Alan Arkin and The Rock...can't go wrong...Go See It!

WALL-E Review

2008-07-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

I went with my daughter to see Disney/Pixar's new animated movie, WALL-E, last weekend. I must say, Pixar strikes gold every time they put something together. I don't think they have ever done a "bad" movie. Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles are all some of Pixar's masterpieces, but Wall-E takes the cake. It has almost a Fantasia aura to it. The little to no dialog for most of the movie is not a problem, it wasn't for me or my daughter (who is 8 years old). The visuals, sound effects, and zaniness that is WALL-E.

Wall-E is a trash collecting/compacting robot who is left on Earth after the planet becomes inhabitable due to so much trash collecting from Humans. He is lonely as the only "thing" left on Earth, an example of this is his friendship with a cockroach. He longs to interact with someone other than the bug he has befriended, as evidenced by his watching old movies on his ipod. As he is entranced in his daily routine of collecting and compacting trash, a space craft lands and out comes this robot...a very sleek and stylish robot named EVE who is responsible for finding any sign of life left on Earth. The trials and tribulations that WALL-E encounters with his new found friend take him on a journey through space and his first encounter ever with Humans.

This is a must see for adults and kids alike, for it will likely be the best animated movie you've ever seen. I'd put it in the top 3 for animated movies of all time, right behind the Lion King and Toy Story.

5 out of 5 stars- Go see it in the theaters, rent it again when it comes out on DVD, then buy the DVD. That's how good it is.

Batman: The Dark Knight First View

2008-07-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

On July 18th, 2008 your experience at the movies may get a little darker. Not just dark, but sadistically dark...meaning, you'll have a joke of a time. Alright, that was a corny joke but it's the truth. The mentioned date is the day that Batman: The Dark Knight is released in the US, and by all first reviews, it's everything short of amazing...well, perhaps it is amazing. It stars Christian Bale (The Machinist, Batman Begins, 3:10 To Yuma) as the Caped Crusader himself, Bruce Wayne. Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain, Four Feather's, A Knight's Tale) gives the performance of his career as the Joker, he actually brings a new level of villain to the big screen. If you thought Jack Nicholson's portrayal as the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman (1989) was great wait until you get aload of Ledger's character. It's almost fitting that Ledger's last roll was his best...he will undoubtedly go out on top with an Oscar for either Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor in next year's Academy Awards. Aaron Eckhart (Black Dahlia, No Reservations) plays Harvey Dent, Gotham's District Attorney who is a close friend with Bruce Wayne, but also has a thing for Wayne's girlfriend, Rachel Dawes (played by Maggie Gyllenhal).

Director Christopher Nolan has brought the Batman Franchise back to respectability with Batman Begins and looks to take it into "Godfather" territory with The Dark Knight.

It has become this summer's Must See movie...it could perhaps be the movie of the year. If I could choose to see any movie this year, it would definitely be TDK. Remember, July 18th...be there.

Hancock Review!

2008-07-04T14:02:00.000-07:00

July 4th, 2008

Let me preface this review with a statement...I am a huge, HUGE, Will Smith fan. I would go see a movie of his if it was entitled "This Movie is absolute GARBAGE, my worst effort EVER!" starring Smith and Madonna. That's how big a fan I am of his work.

Hancock is a good movie gone wrong 3/4th's of the way home. Will Smith is his usual charming self even when he is playing an asshole (ironically he hates being called that in the movie). He plays dysfunctional Superhero, John Hancock...Hancock for short, who has fallen out of favor with the public and city of Los Angeles. Often times he begrudgingly saves the day so he can go back to sleeping off his alcohol induced coma that he has endured from days of boozing. We see this in the films opening scene in which a little boy wakes Hancock from his slumber on a city bench on the side of the road to tell him that there is peril on the loose on the highways of LA. Hancock's response..."What do you want? A cookie? Get the hell out of my face!" in which the little boy (who can only be the ripe old age of 6 or 7...maybe) labels Hancock an Asshole, in which Hancock responds, "What did you say?" to which the boy tells him "You heard me," as he walks away with the helpless face he first approached Hancock with. We then see Hancock flying through the air with a bottle of alcohol in his hand, five oclock shadow and all to the tune of "Move, Bitch" by Ludacris. He joins the high speed car chase taking place only to leave more damage than before he got there. The scene ends with him barreling into the back of the SUV being pursued occupied by a group of Asian gang bangers and Hancock drops the SUV onto the antenna of the Capitol Records building.

Now, the acting is spot on in this movie by just about everyone but the bad guys, and surprisingly Charlize Theron. She just seemed too caught up into trying to be vindictive and scornful that she forgot how to act. It's a shame too, she had a very large role in the movie.

Jason Bateman's character, Ray Embrey, a struggling Public Relations guy gets saved by Hancock before a Train made him meat drivel. Bateman is a rising star in the acting game, with recent Home Run performances such as The Kingdom and Juno. He should start getting calls to star in a movie here shortly...not share screen time.

There are plenty of plot holes in this movie but in what Will Smith summer blockbuster has there not been plot holes? Smith is the one last true "Movie Star" out there that can draw people to see his movie by just his name recognition alone. He succeeds with "Hancock" as well, it will no doubtedly gross $100 million by it's first month domestically. The bad guys in Hancock seemed childish to me, the movie itself also lost steam at about the "Bank Robbery" scene 3/4ths of the way to the end. Much like the maligned "I Am Legend" did. I'll blame lack of story on this one...the acting was there, just no plot.

I got to see it on a free pass, but I would have gone to see it sooner or later, at some point. I'd recommend it before Batman: The Dark Knight comes out 7/18 (later this month) due to it being the only big release from this week until then. If you wait past the 18th, you might as well see one hell of a movie in Batman: TDK.

HANCOCK: 2.5 out of 5- see it if you absolutely have to go to the movie theaters and waste $10, otherwise just wait a few weeks and see a real movie.

Top Movies Currently at the Box Office

2008-07-04T13:53:00.000-07:00

per IMDB.com

TOP 5 MOVIES IN THE THEATERS
#5- The Incredible Hulk

#4- Kung Fu Panda

#3- Get Smart

#2- Wanted

#1- WALL-E

New Releases for the week of 6/30-7/5

2008-07-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

IN THEATERS!

Hancock- Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman
Not your everyday Superhero, Hancock has lost the public's trust in him and must win it back...but at what cost?

The Wackness- Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Olivia Thirbly
New York City, 1994: College-bound pot dealer Luke Shapiro (Peck) trades weed for therapy sessions with Dr. Jeffrey Squires (Kingsley) while developing a crush on his psychiatrist's step-daughter (Thirlby).

Kabluey- Scott Prendergast, Lisa Kudrow, Teri Garr
Despite being somewhat inept in most every way imaginable, Salman (Pendergrast) looks to help his sister-in-law (Kudrow) raise her two sons while her husband is fighting in Iraq. To do so, he takes a humiliating job with a failing Internet company as their mascot -- a giant, blue, cartoon-like character who has to hand out fliers all day.

Diminished Capacity- Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen, Alan Alda
A Chicago journalist (Broderick) suffering from memory loss takes leaves from his job and returns to his rural hometown, where he bonds with his Alzheimer's-impaired uncle Rollie (Alda) and his old flame (Madsen). Quickly a plan is hatched for the trio to head to a memorabilia convention in the city, where Rollie hopes to sell a rare baseball card that has gained the attention of local ne'er-do-wells intent on scheming the old man out of a potential fortune.

Welcome!

2008-07-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it's official...I've started blogging! I decided I would blog about what my favorite hobby...Movie Watching, LOL. I am going to try to update this thing once a week, more times than that if I'm dedicated, which I will try my hardest to be!

Movies are our escape from reality, they make us laugh, they make us cry, hell, they may even make us hate something. Don't take them too seriously and you will come away at least feeling a sense of enjoyment. Escape to Movie Land (aka Mark at the Movies)!

Enjoy,

Mark C. Barley

Mark At The Movies!

Sonogram pictures!!

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 10/17/08

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 10/10/08

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 09/26/08

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 09/19/08

New DVD releases!

Burn After Reading Movie Review

New Openings in the Theater for Friday 09/12/08

Bangkok Dangerous Review

Opening Today in Theaters 9/5/2008

Babylon A.D. Movie Review!

Babylon A.D.

(France)

By JORDAN MINTZER

New in the Theaters for 8/29/2008

Box Office Numbers for the weekend of August 22nd 2008!

New DVD Releases for 8/18

Death Race review!

Posted by Todd Brown at 11:24am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Cult, Action, USA & Canada.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars review!

Bark Marley Reviews Tropic Thunder!

Tropic Thunder Review!

New Theater Releases 8/15/2008

The Dark Knight Still on Top!

`Dark Knight' stays on top with $26M

Box Office Results for the weekend of 8/8/08

Pineapple Express Review!

New Theater Releases for August 8th

New DVD's Week of Aug. 4

Box Office Results for Aug. 1st Weekend

The Mummy: TOTDE Review!

New Theater Releases 8/1

Box Office Update.....

X-Files: I Want to Believe Review

The Dark Knight...Best Ever?

Step Brothers Review!

Step Brothers Movie Review

Currents Leaders at the Box Office

New Releases week of 7/21

The Dark Knight Breaks Records!

Mark's The Dark Knight Review!

Box Office Results for the week of 7/14

The Dark Knight Opens at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (7/18)

In the Theaters- 7/18/2008

DVD Releases for the week of July 13th!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army Review

Loving with 'Hellboy'

Hollywood A-Z: Hellboy 2: The Golden...

Photos: Big screen bouts: 'Hellboy II' vs. 'Meet Dave'

Hellboy's 'lovable' side may give him an edge at the box office

New Theater Releases- 7/11/08

Top Movies at the Box Office week 7/2-7/6

Wanted/Get Smart Review Double Header!

WALL-E Review

Batman: The Dark Knight First View

Hancock Review!

Top Movies Currently at the Box Office

New Releases for the week of 6/30-7/5

Welcome!