The
smaller releases have their thing going
okay, while Public Enemies sets up and
pays off the quintessential crime
gangster story with Christian Bale, last
seen in Terminator Salvation, and Johnny
Depp
Peter's
Preview for the June 26th releases
A
couple of U.S. dramas – in limited
release – with a foreign flavor, look
fairly interesting: The Stoning of
Soraya M. with its human rights for
women in Iran and The Hurt Locker set in
the Iraqi war (going wide July 24), as
well as Quiet Chaos, an Italian drama
which sounds like it has more fizz than
the previous two films, those two being
more conspicuous as serious-minded fare.
Cameron Diaz is in My Sister’s Keeper,
going wide, which promises to be a
contemporary drama about cancer and
family ties directed by Nick Cassavetes.
Peter's Notes on the June 19th
-24th releases
Sandra Bullock plays girl next door
types in her movies. That’s why her
characters are relatable to younger
females who may look up to her as a role
model. Think Miss Congeniality. She’s
got will (A Time to Kill), she’s
thoughtful (Two If By Sea), smart (The
Net), unpredictable (Forces of Nature),
knows pain (Hope Floats), is meaningful
(Crash) while kicking butt with
Slyvester Stallone in Demolition Man,
using her resourcefulness in Speed,
while we get that sense she’s ultimately
kind even when being witchy (Practical
Magic).
Who else could pay off the deal in her
latest, The Proposal? It just sort of
makes sense, proposal and all. It came
in number one this week at the box
office proving a winning “formula” the
movie is. Year One, the other new entry
this week in the top ten, came in at
number four.
EN Pick of
the Week
This Week's Pick
Although there are a couple of
wide releases this week again in the
very flat Ice Age 3D and the
passable Public Enemies, we say
this is a catch up week and if you have
not seen Transformers or Star Trek now
is the time.
Release
Date: June 24, 2009 (conventional theaters and IMAX) Studio: DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount) Director: Michael Bay Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin
Dunn, Julie White, John Benjamin Hickey, Ramon Rodriguez, Isabel Lucas, John
Turturro Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence,
language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material) Official Website:
Transformersmovie.com |
MySpace.com/Transformers
Plot Summary: In the highly-anticipated "Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen," debuting June 24, 2009, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) again joins with
the Autobots® against their sworn enemies, the Decepticons®. Michael Bay directs
from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger & Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman.
EN 5 Second Review:
This movie is going to get mixed reviews out there, no
matter, it is more of the same and it is great! How can you go wrong
with more auto-bots and more Megan Fox? The answer is you cannot.
Another Perspective
By: Peter Veugelaers
The two big movies of the last two years have been about the pertinent subjects of the 21st century. The Dark Knight (2008) is about fighting violence with violence and whether or not it’s okay. Transformers (2007) show the world is driven by technology.
Lots of people are seeing these movies because it touches with the crux of 21st century life. The world can be a violent place. What’s the solution?
It’s like people are seeking answers to the big issues today. These movies reflect the issues. Their effects are potent. One stirs the issues of justice, the other the issues of technology and people and implicitly relationships with machines and how these can benefit people or be of harm in dominating us through over-reliance. In other words, RSI. The implication is military. Can people solve their differences when technology assists the divisions? Would they have the courage?
What’s Transformers (2007)? And it’s sequel (2009)? Machines on machismo? Superficially, it looks like it. It looks like machines dominating. That’s what’s happened in the 21st century. A few people complain about the attitudes of people today. We’ve become the machines. Yet, those people who complain about the 21st century like these two movies. Their attitude is just the same as the attitude they criticize. People have become so absorbed into the culture that they have lost knowing how to reflect. It’s tragic. Robots are our future, maybe our more human replacements, and is the military still the future?
Transformers and its sequel are cautionary tales, yet the world seems to be headed for more and more technology and less and less intimacy. The movie, like most movies, will reflect the culture but is powerless to change it. What we are left with is hollow effects echoing the clang of 21st century machinery.
The Transformers leaves me numb, like it’s supposed to. The world is a violent place. And it has a semblance of a solution. I didn’t like it, but it works. Maybe that’s because it’s about the struggle between the knowledge of good and evil and who wants what, going back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve took of the evil instead of the good and suffered the consequences. That
primeval set-up is what drives the Transformers story, one which pitted a battle for the Allspark, something which promises power to the beholder, and Optimus Prime is wise enough to know what to do with it. The new film continues that trace.
Long
before an unknown disease turned
ordinary people into rage-filled zombies
in 2002's
28 Days Later and created a subgenre
of its own in the process, there was
George Romero’s The Crazies.
The Crazies is a little known Romero
feature that was released in 1973 and
forgotten by most although it does have
a small cult following. It will be
interesting to see if
The Crazies retains one of the
bleakest endings ever, but Romero is
involved in the remake so we should get
to keep some of his vision. It should be
interesting to find out at the least.
Release Date: February 26, 2010 Studio: Overture Films Director: Breck Eisner Screenwriter: Ray Wright, Scott
Kosar Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha
Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, Joe
Anderson Genre: Drama, Horror MPAA Rating: Not Yet Available
Plot Summary: A reinvention
loosely based upon the George Romero
("Dawn of the Dead," "Creepshow")
classic, about the inhabitants of a
small Pennsylvania town beset by death
and insanity after a secret biological
weapon makes its way into their water
supply.
Lock,
Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Four East End lads try to get sumfin'
for nuffin' by joining a high-stakes
mobster card game, but soon find
themselves in debt to the local boss...Watch
Movie
Release
Date: June 24, 2009 (conventional theaters and IMAX) Studio: DreamWorks Pictures (Paramount) Director: Michael Bay Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Kevin
Dunn, Julie White, John Benjamin Hickey, Ramon Rodriguez, Isabel Lucas, John
Turturro Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence,
language, some crude and sexual material, and brief drug material) Official Website:
Transformersmovie.com |
MySpace.com/Transformers
EN 5 Second Review:
This movie is going to get mixed reviews out there, no
matter, it is more of the same and it is great! How can you go wrong
with more auto-bots and more Megan Fox? The answer is you cannot.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs:
Release Date: July 1,
2009 Studio: 20th Century Fox Director: Carlos Saldanha, Michael Thurmeier Screenwriter: Michael Berg, Peter Ackerman Starring: Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Simon Pegg,
Queen Latifah Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family MPAA Rating: PG (for some mild rude humor and peril) Official Website: IceAgemovie.com
Plot Summary: The sub-zero heroes from the worldwide blockbusters
"Ice Age" and "Ice Age: The Meldown" are back, on an incredible
adventure...for the ages. Scrat is still trying to nab the ever-elusive
nut (while, maybe, finding true love); Manny and Ellie await the birth
of their mini-mammoth, Sid the sloth gets into trouble when he creates
his own makeshift family by hijacking some dinosaur eggs; and Diego the
saber-toothed tiger wonders if he's growing too "soft" hanging with his
pals. On a mission to rescue the hapless Sid, the gang ventures into a
mysterious underground world, where they have some close encounters with
dinosaurs, battle flora and fauna run amuck - and meet a relentless,
one-eyed, dino-hunting weasel named Buck.
EN
5 Second Review: Like most of the third installments of Disney fare,
this strikes as just a money grab. It has lost the charm of the first
two.
Public Enemies
Release Date: July 1, 2009 Studio: Universal Pictures Director: Michael Mann Screenwriter: Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann, Ann Biderman, Mark St.
Germain Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard, Giovanni
Ribisi, Billy Crudup, Stephen Dorff, Rory Cochrane, Stephen Lang, David
Wenham, Stephen Graham, Channing Tatum, Jason Clarke Genre: Action, Thriller MPAA Rating: R (for gangster violence and some language) Official Website:
PublicEnemies.net
Plot Summary: In the action-thriller "Public Enemies," acclaimed
filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy
Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the story of legendary Depression-era
outlaw John Dillinger (Depp)—the charismatic bank robber whose lightning
raids made him the number one target of J. Edgar Hoover's fledgling FBI
and its top agent, Melvin Purvis (Bale), and a folk hero to much of the
downtrodden public.
No one could stop Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His
charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone—from his
girlfriend Billie Frechette (Cotillard) to an American public who had no
sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression.
But while the adventures of Dillinger's gang—later including the
sociopathic Baby Face Nelson (Stephen Graham) and Alvin Karpis (Giovanni
Ribisi)—thrilled many, Hoover (Billy Crudup) hit on the idea of
exploiting the outlaw's capture as a way to elevate his Bureau of
Investigation into the national police force that became the FBI. He
made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy Number One and sent in
Purvis, the dashing "Clark Gable of the FBI."
However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis' men in
wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western
ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) and orchestrating epic
betrayals—from the infamous "Lady in Red" to the Chicago crime boss
Frank Nitti—were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able
to close in on Dillinger.
EN
5 Second Review: A good adult movie that stays pretty true to the
facts, if you are tired of watching things blow up, its a nice
alternative.
Limited Releases
July 1
- The Beaches of Agnes (NY) July 3
- The Girl From Monaco (limited)
- I Hate Valentine's Day (limited)
Coming Next Week
July 10
- Blood: The Last Vampire (limited)
- Bruno
- Humpday (limited)
- I Love You, Beth Cooper
- Soul Power (NY, LA)
- Weather Girl (limited)
- Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (NY)
Previous Features
Terminator:
Salvation: The highly anticipated new installment of "The Terminator"
film franchise is set in post-apocalyptic 2018. John Connor is the man fated to
lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the
future that Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance
of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor
must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the
past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on
an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they
uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind...more
EN 5 Second Review:
Post Apocalyptic action that we love. Its a little dark
as it should be. It does miss on the
humanistic feeling the first films had,
it plays a lot darker which is not a bad
direction for the franchise.
July 15
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (conventional theaters and
IMAX)
- Somers Town (NY)
July 17
- (500) Days of Summer
- Death in Love (NY, LA)
- Homecoming (limited)
- The Square (limited)
July 24
- All Good Things
- The Answer Man (limited)
- Deadgirl (limited)
- G-Force
- In the Loop (limited)
- Orphan
- Shrink (limited)
- The Ugly Truth
July 29
- Adam (limited)
July 31
- Aliens in the Attic
- The Collector
- The Cove (limited)
- Funny People
- Gotta Dance (NY; LA release: Aug. 21)
- Lorna's Silence (NY, LA)
- Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (NY, LA)
- Thirst (NY, LA, SF)
Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony), MGM Director: Harald Zwart Screenwriter: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber, Steve Martin Starring: Steve Martin, Jean Reno, Alfred Molina, Emily Mortimer,
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Andy Garcia, Lily Tomlin, John Cleese Genre: Comedy MPAA Rating: PG (for some suggestive humor, brief mild language and
action) Official Website:
SonyPictures.com
Am I the only
reviewer who likes this film? Steve Martin has certainly been underrated
in his reprisal of the character Peter Sellers made famous. Watch Martin
in this physical comedy and you’ll reminisce about Buster Keaton.
In fact the whole Martin package since around the
early nineties has been woefully mistreated comparing his renaissance to
the so called better days between 1979’s The Jerk and about ten
years later.
It appears that critical snobbery has got the
better of us when take a closer look at this Panther sequel (after
2006’s) and the evidence is clear from the beginning that what the
audience should expect is over-the-top. Pure comedy fantasy is the order
of the day which is better than 2006’s adding much more to its
smorgasbord of humor while maintaining its pleasing thematic pulse all
put together with the best of light touches.
It comes in plenty of outlandish gags, done for a
laugh, and a more than welcome cameo performance from Lily Tomlin as an
etiquette instructor and a wonderful supporting cast – Jean Reno, Emily
Mortimer, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina and Aishwarya Rai – whom all get
what this is supposed to be about and play it with enough exaggeration
and panache to make the audience know this is a lot of fun.
The story is good as well centering on why certain
treasures are being stolen so an international elite dream team is set
up along with fumbling Inspector Clousseau played by Martin to nail it.
Along the way there’s plenty of divertive good
natured humor including tasteful excursions at a French restaurant and
the Vatican. Jeremy Irons pokes his head in with a welcome performance
as a suspect. I expected more from the final turning point however the
movie is brimming with comic attitude enough to work very well.
One Liners
If you are like us, you love movies and
with many movies, there are one liners
we catch that are either classic or are
coming soon. We find ourselves saying
these lines over and over and sometimes
in wholly inappropriate places and
times. Here we only provide the one
liner, its up to you to put it together
with the movie. Some are easy, others
not so easy. All are or will be iconic.
"I'll be back."
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”
“You talkin’ to me”,
“Schwing”
“Warning! Assholes are closer than they
appear”
"Poop in his hand. Poop in his hand."
“Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in
Kansas anymore”
“What we have here is a failure to
communicate”
“This job would be great if it wasn’t
for the fucking customers”
“Yippe-ki-yi-yay, Motherfucker”
“I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m
having an old friend for dinner”
“You can’t handle the truth”
“Show me the money”
“I love the smell of napalm in the
morning. It smells like victory”
"Have fun storming the castle"
“Say hello to my little friend”
“I have come here to chew bubblegum and
kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum.”
“My God. I haven’t been fucked like that
since grade school.”
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
"It’s nasty"
Peter Veugelaers:
EntertainmentNutz
Like brothers do, they grow apart, and
when James, who later changes his name
to Logan (Hugh Jackman) leaves Victor
Creed (Liev Schreiber) for reasons
obvious to the theme as well as plot, he
doesn’t want to arouse his passions
anymore for war and leaves the platoon
the U.S. government has hatched, with
Stryker (a good Danny Huston) in the
lead, to exert their control of invaders
and goes to the Canadian Rockies...more
The original Star Trek feature films
of 1979-1991 are stingy, claustrophobic
affairs, even when analyzed closely on
DVD. They were movies which lacked
visual scope with a few exceptional
moments or sequences and especially the
last in the series. They’re pulp-like
science fiction; sort-of throwaway if it
weren’t for their cerebral notions which
propel them...more
Taken
I liked the sound of this so much it was
a must-see. A government spy Bryan Mills
(Liam Neeson) in retirement,
recently divorced, wants to close the gap between his daughter Kim’s
growing up and his being away at the job. She goes on holiday with a
friend to Paris where she finds herself kidnapped and the father’s back
in action...more
"Its pop synthesizer ambiance and disjointedness don’t do
its meaningful ideas credit" Peter Veugelaers:
EntertainmentNutz.com
Anti-war movies, on the whole, don’t
take sides as much as they present war
as undesirable. Israeli filmmaker Ari
Folman’s background from Israel should
give him substance on the matter, a
country which has been in the grip of
war for well-over half-a-century...more
Where are all the good movies?
The sound of soda being sipped, the smell of fresh popcorn in the
air, the scream or laugh the whole room has burst into, the actor saying the
line he’ll be remembered for his entire career and a while after it – simply
put, the movies. Though we’ve always been fascinated by going to our local
multiplex or movie theater, are we getting the same chills and thrills, twists
and turns as our parents were, not 20 years ago?...more
Lucasfilm's head of fan relations, Stephen Sansweet, has reportedly shot down Fox411 columnist Roger Friedman's report that George Lucas was planning ...
Doug Jones, who reprises the role of Abe Sapien in the upcoming "Hellboy 2: The Golden Army", says filming will begin in May on location in Hungary. Jones ...
"The Mummy 3" will unwrap a new mummy and feature a character who is the grown son of Rick and Evie played in the previous films by Brendan Fraser and ...
EN 5 Second Review:
This movie is going to get mixed reviews out there, no
matter, it is more of the same and it is great! How can you go wrong
with more auto-bots and more Megan Fox? The answer is you cannot.
