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Saturday, January 5, 2008

Review: Subtle Scares in `Orphanage'


The Orphanage
The Orphanage


Floors creak and doors slam. Hidden passages lead to secret compartments. Ratty old dolls show up out of nowhere.

Are these playful signs from the children who lived in "The Orphanage" long ago, or a harbinger of something more sinister? That's the mystery in this well-crafted if familiar haunted house story, the first feature from young Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona.

Guillermo del Toro serves as one of the film's producers and Bayona, working from a script by Sergio Sanchez, seems to be aiming for the same mix of the real and the supernatural that del Toro himself achieved last year with his excellent "Pan's Labyrinth." It's a tough balance to strike, and it's even tougher to live up to comparisons to such a cinematic original. ("The Orphanage" is actually more reminiscent of Alejandro Amenabar's super-creepy "The Others," starring Nicole Kidman.)

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Persepolis' Is Wildly Inventive


Persepolis
Persepolis


"Persepolis" is a true original in the eclectic world of animation, one that's full of fascinating contradictions.

It's a colorful autobiography rendered in crisp black-and-white; it's about Iran's Islamic revolution, but it's a comedy. You won't see another film like this anytime soon, if ever, which is precisely why you should seek it out.

Marjane Satrapi adapted her own graphic novels (with the help of best friend and fellow comic book artist Vincent Paronnaud, who co-wrote and co-directed) and she did it with great humor, honesty and heart. Except for a chunk of the midsection where "Persepolis" gets a bit draggy, especially after wowing us with its inventiveness early on, you'd never know you're in the hands of a first-time filmmaker.

The animation style may seem overly simplistic at first, but on the contrary there's so much going on, it's impossible for the eye to take it all in at once. Clearly inspired by German expressionism, Satrapi and Paronnaud make especially stunning use of severe angles, silhouettes and shadows.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Blood' Is Anderson's Epic


There Will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood


Someday, we're probably going to look back at "There Will Be Blood," Paul Thomas Anderson's epic about greed, lies, manipulation and insanity, and call it his masterpiece.

Which is incredible because, except for the inescapable intensity, it's nothing like his previous films; if Anderson's name weren't on it, you'd never know it was his. It's thrilling to see him reinvent himself this way, applying his formidable directing talents in a totally different fashion.

Gone are the film-school tricks he made his name with in "Boogie Nights" and "Magnolia" (and this critic loved those movies). Anderson has moved out of contemporary L.A. and away from the histrionics of the carefully orchestrated ensembles he set there. He now seems more interested in storytelling and character development.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Denzel Steers 'Great Debaters'


The Great Debaters
The Great Debaters


It could have been overly sentimental and feel-good, this movie about a pioneering black debate team in the segregated South. But Denzel Washington, as director and star, manages to find the right tone much of the time in "The Great Debaters."

It certainly doesn't hurt that he has an inspiring true story to work from Oprah Winfrey liked it so much, her Harpo Films company produced it.

Washington stars as professor Melvin B. Tolson, a future poet who serves as debate coach at the tiny, all-black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. In 1935, Wiley's debaters did something unprecedented: They competed against several predominantly white schools and won, including Harvard (in real life Wiley beat USC, but you get the idea).

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Water Horse' a Touching Story

The fantasy family film "The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep" was directed by Jay Russell, who previously directed "My Dog Skip." And the script was based on the book by Dick King-Smith, who also wrote "Babe: The Gallant Pig."

In other words, bring tissues that means you, moms and dads.

This extremely sweet tale of a lonely boy named Angus MacMorrow (Alex Etel) who finds an egg on the shore and befriends its contents once it hatches a slimy, mischievous but irresistibly cute creature that can only be described as a baby water horse will tug at anyone. In era when pop-culture onslaughts are more fashionable, family movies of this quality are hard to find.

Sure, it borrows more than a little from "E.T."

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Bucket List' Survives Gimmicks


The Bucket List
The Bucket List


Facing terminal illness, we all should get to experience a no-costs-barred world tour to do everything we ever wanted.

Most of us don't have the convenient bottomless wallet that allows Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman to do just that in "The Bucket List," a comic drama that puts director Rob Reiner back in commercial if not artistic form.

Unlike Reiner's string of duds the last 10 years or so, the movie is easily accessible, with Nicholson and Freeman elevating a story overloaded with cliched life lessons and self-help slogans into a tolerable, relatively painless way to go.

Nicholson and Freeman are so lovably companionable, they almost make you forget the glaring contrivances screenwriter Justin Zackham concocts to bring these two mismatched cancer patients together, making steadfast buddies out of men who never would have met and connected in real life.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Treasure' Finds Fool's Gold


Book of Secrets
National Treasure: Book of Secrets


The founding fathers of the "National Treasure" franchise wisely know not to tinker with a formula that inexplicably works.

Nicolas Cage, Jon Turteltaub and Jerry Bruckheimer discovered the secret of alchemy with the first movie three years ago, turning mediocre action spiced with American lore into box-office gold, and the same is likely to hold for the second chapter in their history text.

"National Treasure: Book of Secrets" is another romp through the past that flits from one disjointed action sequence to another, gussying it all up with crowd-pleasing morsels of fact and rivers of crazy legends that turn out to be true.

Knuckle-headed as the movies are in historical context, they sure know how to reel in great casts. Joining Academy Award winners Cage and Jon Voight and fellow "Treasure" veteran Harvey Keitel is Helen Mirren, fresh off her Oscar win for "The Queen," along with Ed Harris.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `P.S. I Love You' Is Treacly


P.S. I Love You
P.S. I Love You


You can sort of see the allure "P.S. I Love You" might have held for Hilary Swank.

It offers her a rare opportunity to play a romantic comedy heroine, though it also has its heavy moments to demonstrate her dramatic range. After making her name (and winning Academy Awards) for tough-girl roles in "Boys Don't Cry" and "Million Dollar Baby," here she gets to show off her lean, toned body in bras, panties and bustiers, and the clotheshorse in Swank gets to revel in a wardrobe of stylish, Jackie-O inspired outfits.

Instead, "P.S. I Love You" is as treacly as the title would suggest.

This totally contrived pile of uberschmaltz, directed by Richard LaGravenese and based on a novel by Irish writer Cecelia Ahern, finds Swank's Holly Kennedy widowed at 29 when her husband dies of a brain tumor. But somehow in his waning state, Gerry (Gerard Butler) was lucid enough to construct for her an elaborate spiritual scavenger hunt, arranging to have letters sent to her for a year after his death, each signed you guessed it "P.S. I Love You."

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Charlie' Is a Crisp Satire


Charlie Wilson's War
Charlie Wilson's War


"Charlie Wilson's War," a crisp, biting satire that confidently mixes sex and politics, glides along so smartly and smoothly, it makes you wonder how it's possible that director Mike Nichols and writer Aaron Sorkin have never teamed up before.

Based on the true story of a congressman (Tom Hanks), a Houston socialite (Julia Roberts) and a CIA operative (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who conspired to arm Afghanistan's mujahedeen against Soviet invaders in the early 1980s, "Charlie Wilson's War" represents comfortable territory for both men, despite the complexity of its subject matter. (Sorkin's script is based on the book by George Crile, who profiled Wilson as a producer on "60 Minutes.")

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Walk Hard' Hilariously Familiar


The Dewey Cox Story
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story


Judd Apatow can do no wrong, apparently.

Even in taking on a genre parody, an endeavor that would seem painfully hackneyed by now following "Scary Movie," "Epic Movie" and the like, the comic mastermind behind "Knocked Up" and "Superbad" manages to find fresh laughs again and again.

"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story," a take-off on the music biopic, hits all the familiar conventions we've seen in overly earnest movies like "Ray," "Walk the Line" and even "La Vie en Rose," with its ballyhooed portrayal of Edith Piaf by Marion Cotillard. (This time, longtime Apatow friend and collaborator Jake Kasdan directs, and the two co-wrote the script.)

The marginally talented country rocker Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) comes from humble, Southern beginnings and experiences tragedy early his brother's death, which haunts him long into adulthood. He marries his childhood sweetheart and eventually fulfills his dreams of music stardom through sheer heart and grit, even though the ones closest to him never quite believed in him.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Sweeney,' Burton a Perfect Fit


The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street


"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is the quintessential Tim Burton movie, even though it springs from somebody else's celebrated mind.

Everything about Stephen Sondheim's revered musical, which provided the inspiration for the film, seems tailor-made for the director's sensibilities. Truly, what other filmmaker could tell the story of a vengeful barber (Johnny Depp) who slits his customers' throats and the lovesick baker (Helena Bonham Carter) who grinds up the dead bodies for her meat pies?

It's strangely beautiful and beautifully strange, with horrific subject matter that produces plenty of wicked humor and characters who initially seem ghoulish but ultimately reveal themselves as sympathetic and deeply sad.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Golden Compass' Is Lackluster


Dakota Blue Richards
Dakota Blue Richards


Nicole Kidman's presence in the elaborate fantasy flick "The Golden Compass" is emblematic of the movie itself: aesthetically lush but ultimately cold to the touch.

This adaptation of the first novel in British writer Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy has some fanciful moments but never achieves the sense of awe-inspiring wonder of the "Lord of the Rings" films, to which comparisons will be inevitable. It's also probably too scary for a lot of kids, with its themes of totalitarianism and mind control; adults, meanwhile, may find it hard to take seriously, despite how seriously it takes itself.

Writer-director Chris Weitz ("About a Boy") takes on the biggest project of his life with this CGI-filled spectacle, which he also had to cram with tons of exposition to set up a potential series. The visual highlight is supposed to be the battle between two powerful, armored polar bears, voiced with ire and gravitas by Ian McKellen and Ian McShane; since this is the film's signature sequence and we know it's coming, much of "The Golden Compass" feels like a waiting game until it arrives.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Cusack Wrings Tears With `Grace'


Grace is Gone
Grace is Gone


Previous war-on-terror dramas this year have fallen short by putting their heads before their hearts. Not "Grace Is Gone."

It's stirring, even gut-wrenching, on the strength of John Cusack's terrifically restrained performance as a husband in denial over the death of his wife in Iraq.

This is a film that provoked a full-on case of the weepies among crowds at its Sundance Film Festival premiere last January, so unless you've had your tear ducts removed, bring along some tissue.

The debut film from writer-director James C. Strouse, "Grace Is Gone" might be shamefully manipulative if not for the naturalistic interplay and awkward empathy Cusack creates with the two young actresses playing his daughters.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Atonement' a Dazzling Romance


Keira Knightley, left, and James McAvoy
Keira Knightley, left, and James McAvoy


Those ruby-red lips puffing away at a delicately hand-rolled cigarette, those shoulder blades jutting like weapons from a knockout of a backless, emerald-green gown Keira Knightley would seem to be starring in an elegant period drama, one that's predictably and self-consciously reserved.

"Atonement" is anything but. It changes again and again, lulling us in with its glamorous trappings before turning sexy, suspenseful, richly romantic and achingly sad. And if you haven't read the Ian McEwan best-selling novel that inspired it, you'll be dazzled by its twist of an ending.

Joe Wright, who directed Knightley to an Academy Award nomination for 2005's "Pride & Prejudice," rejoins most of his technical team from that film for this decades-spanning story of jealousy, betrayal, damage and repentance. Where his Jane Austen adaptation reveled in the gritty reality of the time, here he luxuriates in high style everything has a shimmering, dreamlike sheen about it, perhaps as an homage to the sweeping, historical romances of long ago but without lapsing into parody. It's just exceptionally well-crafted.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

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Review: Guy Ritchie's `Revolver'


Jason Statham
Jason Statham


If a spoiler alert is needed for a panel of real-life psychiatrists, consider yourself forewarned.

That's how Guy Ritchie's "Revolver" ends: with a series of brief clips of psychiatrists explaining the difference between the id and ego. Not exactly the Death Star exploding, is it?

Our experts have nothing directly to do with the plot, but they're there to help explain the mess of a movie that has preceded them. "Revolver" is a hard-boiled crime flick with its mayhem aimed at the inner workings of the mind.

It's filled with constant inner monologues, Machiavelli quotes and enough chess theory to make Bobby Fischer blush. All of this makes up the subtext to "Revolver," which is otherwise the usual style-over-substance theatrics of Richie, whose films include "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch" but who is best known as Mr. Material Girl.

Jake Green (Jason Statham) is a con man who has been released from prison after seven years of solitary confinement. Somehow during this period, through some kind of prison-wall osmosis, he's been schooled by his jailed neighbors on the art of war, deception and chess.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

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Review: `Juno' a Small Comic Charmer


ennifer Garner, left, Jason Bateman, center, and Ellen Page
ennifer Garner, left, Jason Bateman, center, and Ellen Page


Juno MacGuff is the kind of teenager we all wish we could have been: quick-witted, frighteningly intelligent beyond her years and comfortable enough in her own skin to resist those incessant high-school pressures to conform, even as her body expands with an unplanned pregnancy.

And "Juno" is the kind of movie all indie comedies wish they could be: light and lovable, perhaps a bit too pleased with the cleverness of its dialogue, but a small charmer nonetheless.

It's also sure to make a star of the appealing Ellen Page, who had already proven she could be a tiny force of nature in the tense but little-seen "Hard Candy." Page absolutely shines in this second feature from director Jason Reitman, who once again shows a deft touch with tone following his 2006 debut, "Thank You for Smoking." There's a lovely openness to her face, an accessibility to her demeanor, even when she's being smart-alecky and cynical.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `August Rush'


August Rush
August Rush


There are precious movies and then there are movies about 11-year-old orphans following "the music."

In this respect, "August Rush" is on another level. We need to break out a whole new definition of cheesiness for a film like this, augmented by fake tears and vomit gestures.

"August Rush" begins with a boy (Freddie Highmore) standing in an open field where the surrounding sounds the wind, the trees, the grass swirl like a symphony in his head. In a whispering voice-over, he says: "I believe in music the way that some people believe in fairy tales."

"August Rush" thus proceeds in fairy-tale fashion, though it's more unrealistic than surrealistic. Without any tangible evidence, our protagonist senses his parents are still alive and that he just needs to make music loud enough so they can hear him (sort of like the ethos behind a Coldplay album).

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Tension Builds in `The Mist'


The Mist
The Mist


The first two times Frank Darabont adapted and directed a story by Stephen King "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile" the results were dramatically compelling and duly acclaimed, but they didn't leave you tensed up and terrified in your seat.

They weren't trying to. "The Mist" is, and it succeeds beautifully.

It's a reflection of both men's horror roots in the late '80s, Darabont wrote the remake of "The Blob," the third "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie and "The Fly II" and King ... well, you know who he is but it's also a welcome return to the kind of subtle, slowly building scares we don't see anymore in this overly graphic age of torture porn.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Say `I Don't' to `Margot'


Jennifer Jason Leigh, left, and Jack Black
Jennifer Jason Leigh, left, and Jack Black


With 2005's "The Squid and the Whale," writer-director Noah Baumbach created characters who were smart, witty, sad, vulnerable and, above all else, laceratingly verbal.

With "Margot at the Wedding," he's got the laceratingly verbal part down, but he left out all the rest.

In this claustrophobic homage to the French New Wave (the title seems to be an allusion to Eric Rohmer's "Pauline at the Beach"), Baumbach depicts sibling rivalry not as something fragile and evolving but as blood sport.

Nicole Kidman stars as Margot, an accomplished Manhattan short-story writer who travels with her adolescent son, Claude (Zane Pais), to the East Coast island where she grew up for the wedding of her estranged hippie-chick sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Beowulf' Sexes Up Epic Poem


Beowulf
Beowulf


The name "Beowulf" alone surely will inspire painful memories of high-school English class and pangs of dread.

Never fear. This 3-D animated "Beowulf" is more like "300," only with more violence, if that's possible. And nudity lots and lots of nudity.

Director Robert Zemeckis, using the same performance-capture technology he introduced with 2004's "The Polar Express," takes on the epic Old English poem by sexing it up. It's the cinematic equivalent of slipping pureed spinach into your kids' brownies.

Adapted by Neil Gaiman (the "Sandman" comics) and Roger Avary (who co-wrote "Pulp Fiction"), the film follows the mythic Viking hero who emerges from the sea to rid a Danish kingdom of the bloody, raging, pus-covered monster Grendel (played with pathos and twisted physicality by Crispin Glover). Only then can there be much merrymaking and mead-drinking and wench-bedding.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: `Magorium' Forces the Magic


Dustin Hoffman, left, and Natalie Portman
Dustin Hoffman, left, and Natalie Portman


You'd have to be a really little kid we're talking young enough to be enthralled by colorful, shiny objects and oblivious to the necessity of character development to want to hang out at "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium."

With wild hair and an annoying accent, Dustin Hoffman looks completely uncomfortable as the titular impresario, a childlike eccentric who doesn't just sell toys but whose store is a living being with feelings.

Now, at age 243, he decides it's time to leave (read: die, inexplicably) and hand the keys over to store manager Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman in full-on pixie mode), a former piano prodigy who's stuck creatively. (Ah, the irony she works at a place that encourages creativity!) Only Mahoney doesn't feel ready for the challenge, and the store throws a temper tantrum to keep Magorium from going.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

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Review: Emotion Deficient In Cholera

Giovanna Mezzogiorno, left, and Benjamin Bratt
Giovanna Mezzogiorno, left, and Benjamin Bratt


A lot of the great delight of reading an writer like Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the truth that you're reading him that you're granting yourself to turn absorbed in his flamboyant phraseology and bright descriptions, that he's taking you to a amply realized lieu, and that you're knuckling under, gladly.

When a author phonation is as distinguishing as the Colombian Nobel Prize winner's, it's hard to duplicate it on-screen, even though director Mike Newell and screenwriter Ronald Harwood remain for the most part loyal to "Love in the Time of Cholera" in their wildly blemished version of Garcia Marquez' brooming 1985 novel about a decades-old loving fixation.

Harwood won an Academy Award for his version of "The Pianist"; here, he conserves much of the master copy dialogue, but the signification and emotion behind it is often oddly deficient. So when the graceful Dr. Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt) guarantees his pure bride (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) on their honeymoon, "This is going to be a example in love," a line that might have looked palatable on the page clangs on the ear alternatively.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Review: Southland Tales Spin Meaningless

Southland Tales
Southland Tales


"Southland Tales" writer-director Richard Kelly set out to say a impressive funny adventure about an apocalypse close at hand. With boundless aspiration far exceeding his power to narrate a logical story, Kelly manages only an artistic apocalypse.

Irksomely self-important, by choice cryptic and littered, "Southland Tales" may strain the patience even of the cult crowd that adopted Kelly's 1st movie, "Donnie Darko," a cinematic riddle that looks positively mainstream side by side to this fiasco.

There are ingenious moments here and there. But taken altogether, you're left enquiring if the eclectic cast which lets in Sarah Michelle Gellar, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson," Seann William Scott, Mandy Moore and Justin Timberlake had any hint what the story was about.

Read the entire article at: www.cinema-pedia.com

Friday, January 4, 2008

The Hobbit Movies Are Coming, But Will They Be Any Good?

Image


Like most sentient beings, I loved the Lord of the Rings films. I didn't convert my parents' basement into the Shire or shave hair off the dog and glue it to my feet or write my diary in an elfin language or anything like that -- but upon leaving the screening for Fellowship of the Ring I did call a friend and say, "I want to drive my car off a bridge so that I can die with Lord of the Rings having been the last movie I saw." Which, OK, might have been overstating it slightly. But still.Remember those three glorious years when we got a new LOTR every Christmas? It was so sad when 2004 rolled around and all we got was Lemony Snicket and National Treasure.

But then we remembered: There's another Lord of the Rings book that Peter Jackson could adapt! It's The Hobbit, and it's a prequel! Ian Holm couldn't play Bilbo (he's young in the book), but Ian McKellen could still play Gandalf! As long as Peter Jackson was directing and someone named Ian was in the cast, it would be just like getting another LOTR movie!

Read the entire article at : www.cinema-pedia.com

Michael Bay Promises a Passel of New and Unique 'Bots for Transformers 2

Transformers
Transformers


Directing a movie that has rolled up over $706 million in worldwide grosses can leave a guy feeling festive on New Year's Eve -- as Michael Bay's fans found out when they visited his official site in the waning moments of 2007.

In a post titled "Happy New Year," Bay thanked his webmaster, wished "EVERYONE" -- presumably even the critics who sniffed at Transformers, sending it to 57 percent on the Tomatometer -- a happy New Year, and shared the tiniest of tidbits about the forthcoming Transformers 2. To wit:

For the millions of viewers that logged on this year I want to thank you for the support. Transformers 2 will be coming soon. The new robots are really really unique and there are a lot of them this time.

Read the entire article at : www.cinema-pedia.com

Michael Stahl-David Talks Cloverfield

Cloverfield
Cloverfield


It's been somewhat lost in all the excitement surrounding January releases such as One Missed Call and Mad Money, but there's a little monster flick called Cloverfield coming out this month -- and one of the movie's stars, Michael Stahl-David, is here with a new interview to help us remember where to spend our ticket money on the 18th!

Stahl-David sat down with ShockTillYouDrop's Ryan Rotten to talk about his experiences behind the scenes of the J.J. Abrams-produced Cloverfield, admitting he "thought it was something I was going to be completely embarrassed of" before discussing the way director Matt Reeves used handheld cameras and improv to bring his vision to life:

"It felt like we were on a search for truth together...[Reeves] wasn't going to make me do something I didn't feel was real. If there was something on the script I didn't feel quite like it would happen in that moment, we wouldn't do it. I would say something else, do something else. It wasn't about trying to be clever and come up with your own stuff. It's not a very talky movie, it was more about questioning what would you do in this situation? What would I do?

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David Cross Defends Alvin and the Chipmunks Role

Critics, bloggers, movie website readers -- pretty much anybody who knows their way around a keyboard have voiced their "concern" for Alvin and the Chipmunks. (Though with $150 million in the bank after only three weeks, the rodents are doing well with the average man on the street and his family.) But enough is enough, says David Cross, and he's countering with a lengthy tirade of his own.

Cross, who plays a sleazeball record exec in the movie, writes on the Bob and David site:


"I am not stupid nor unobservant. I knew going into this movie that I would be eating a lot of delicious s--t for it. Usually I wouldn't give a s--t about what everyone's feelings are about it, but I wasn't prepared for the level, or amount I should say, of vitriol that's been flung about like so much monkey poo."




Goaded into action after remarks from fellow comedian Patton Oswalt, Cross presents four-and-a-half reasons why he took the role and why some criticisms are out of place:


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Extradition Sought in DiCaprio Attack


Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio


Police will seek the extradition of a woman accused of fleeing to Canada after slashing Leonardo DiCaprio with a broken beer bottle at a party in 2005, authorities said.

Aretha Wilson, 37, has been in custody for several months in Toronto in connection with an aggravated assault case there and is a suspect in other assault cases, Los Angeles police Detective Steve Ramirez said Thursday.

Prosecutors are awaiting a formal communication from police before they launch an inquiry into whether the charge against Wilson is an extraditable offense, district attorney's office spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said.

Read the entire article at : www.cinema-pedia.com

Lawyer: Lohan Is Back on Sobriety Track


Lindsay Lohan
Lindsay Lohan


Lindsay Lohan rang in the New Year drinking champagne in Italy, her lawyer says, but is "back on track" in terms of sobriety.

A video obtained by The Associated Press shows Lohan, who spent much of 2007 in and out of rehab, taking a swig from a champagne bottle while in Capri, Italy.

"After being handed a champagne bottle while on a dance floor in Italy on New Year's Eve and drinking from it, the good news is that Lindsay immediately stopped, called her sponsor, and got herself back on track," her attorney, Blair Berk, said Thursday in a statement. "There is no magic cure here."

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Survey: Depp Remains No. 1 at Box Office


Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp


Johnny Depp pillaged the most money for theaters in 2007, in a survey of movie exhibitors.

Depp star of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" has nabbed the No. 1 spot for the second year in a row in an annual survey by Quigley Publishing Co.

The survey, conducted every year since 1932, asks movie exhibitors to vote for the 10 stars who generated the most box-office revenue for their theaters.

Will Smith, now starring in "I Am Legend," placed second on the list, followed by George Clooney, Matt Damon, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise, Nicolas Cage, Will Ferrell and Tom Hanks.

Read the entire article at : www.cinema-pedia.com

`Harry Potter' Star Donates Eyeglasses


Spectacles donated by Harry Potter


Daniel Radcliffe, who has captivated moviegoers as the bespectacled schoolboy wizard in the Harry Potter films, has donated the first pair of glasses he wore as a child to an exhibition marking the horrors of the Holocaust.

The British actor joins Yoko Ono, talk show host Jerry Springer, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other celebrities and members of the public whose spectacles will be linked together in the shape of a railway track recalling the trains that carried many of the Nazis' victims to concentration camps throughout Europe. An estimated 6 million Jews died.

The exhibition in Liverpool will open Jan. 21. The port city in northwest England will host Britain's Holocaust Day commemorative service on Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Muslim leaders are to attend the multicultural service, which is the culmination of a series of lectures, exhibitions, stage shows and musical events recalling the Nazi atrocities and more recent genocides. Jason Isaacs, who stars as the sinister Lucius Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" films, will also take part in the service.

The 18-year-old Radcliffe, whose mother is Jewish, sent the oval, gray metal-framed pair of glasses he wore as a 6-year-old.

Read the entire article at : www.cinema-pedia.com

`Blood' Is a Breakthrough for Anderson


Bill Germanakos
Bill Germanakos


In the last conversation Paul Thomas Anderson had with Robert Altman, his friend and mentor told him: "I think this film is something different for you."

"It was so sweet," Anderson recently recalled. "He had no reason to base it on anything except just a feeling."

Altman died in November 2006, a month before Anderson planned to show him a rough cut of "There Will Be Blood."

But Altman's hunch turned out to be accurate.

Anderson's new movie stands apart from his first four films "Sydney" (aka "Hard Eight"), "Boogie Nights," "Magnolia" and "Punch-Drunk Love." And it's been hailed as one of the best films of the year and a remarkable advancement for a maturing auteur.

"Your paranoia becomes `What ... does that mean? Does that mean at the expense of the other films this is something else?'" the 37-year-old writer-director said. "But I'd be lying if I didn't say that every time you go to make a film, you're desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself."

The scruffy Anderson speaks passionately about film and can discuss movie history with authority. When he began directing in his early 20s, he was seen as an L.A.-bred cinematic phenom who quickly became a star in the '90s independent film scene, specializing in movies set in his native San Fernando Valley.

With large ensemble casts, ever-moving cameras, memorable music and lengthy running times, Anderson established a bold style. This, combined with realistically flawed, often desperate characters, made Anderson not just a film-geek hero, but a sought-after talent.

Anderson's previous films all had notable autobiographical elements, but for "There Will Be Blood," he sought to expand outside of himself and began the script as a loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair's 1927 novel "Oil!"

The director used roughly the first 100 pages of Sinclair's book and drew on other sources, particularly Margaret Leslie Davis' 1998 biography of oil tycoon Edward Doheny, "The Dark Side of Fortune."

"The benefits of the adaptation was that it helped me do things that my natural instincts wouldn't lead me to do," said Anderson, who acknowledged that, if left to his own devices, he's more liable to "spin off the rails a bit more."

"It was like collaborating with somebody," he said.

The result is a film about the fictional Daniel Plainview, an obsessed turn-of-the-century oil man, brought to life by Daniel Day-Lewis in a titanic performance.

"It was a fully imagined, fully understood world that Paul had already created on the page for me, therefore it was that world, in its entirety, that unleashed a curiosity that can take you, you don't know where," said Day-Lewis.

For a film that's winning raves, it had inauspicious beginnings. Production was postponed for two years to raise financing, and only after shooting began was Paul Dano cast in the supporting role.

"Quite honestly, after all that time, Daniel and I were like caged animals in the starting gate," said Anderson. "And the gate opened and we just fell flat on our faces."

Shooting in the desert of Marfa, Texas, they had to recover quickly.

"We built these sets and we were out there in costumes with cameras and everybody was standing around," Anderson said. "It's a little like, `What else are you going to do?'"

The themes in "There Will Be Blood" aren't what fans of Anderson are accustomed to. It largely deals with the heartless, indomitable will of big business in America.

Anderson, who watched John Huston's "The Treasure of Sierra Madre" (1948) repeatedly while writing "There Will Be Blood," acknowledged those ideas came out of negative thoughts about what he called the "boys network" of business today.

"It's fun thinking about that stuff: shadowy organizations, underhanded deals, investment banking I don't know," laughed Anderson. "I like Daniel Plainview a lot, and that makes it personal. He's mad and I know it and I don't want to really be hanging out with him a lot. He's great. I understand what he's going through; I understand where he's coming from."

What Anderson recognizes in Plainview is his single-mindedness in pursuit. Anderson has a reputation for fighting passionately for his films and has previously battled with studios.

His first film "Sydney" (1996) was taken away from him by the production company, Rysher Entertainment. The company changed the title to "Hard Eight" and cut it considerably. It was submitted to the Cannes Film Festival, but Anderson also sent his own cut, titled "Sydney," which the festival selected.

There were also disputes over the length of 1997's "Boogie Nights" (156 minutes) and 1999's "Magnolia" (188 minutes). But Anderson, who received a screenwriting Oscar nomination for both movies, says he now can see the point about their length.

"`Magnolia' needed it, and I certainly wish I could take 15 or 20 minutes out of that film," he said. "I don't miss scenes at all the way that I used to miss them when I was younger making a film. It's actually quite fun to get rid of them now."

"There Will Be Blood" still clocks in at 158 minutes, but Anderson said there was no friction with the studios (Paramount Vantage and Miramax Films) except for what he called "the YouTube Incident of 2007."

While editing the movie last summer, Anderson decided to enliven things by cutting a trailer, which he posted on YouTube. The simplicity of the process not dealing with the studio or the Motion Picture Association of America was "like a filmmaker's fantasy."

"And the studio went nuts," he said, smiling about his mischief. "We put it up on Friday and I remember they called on Saturday morning at 6 a.m.: `Do you know there's this thing on YouTube?' I said, `Yeah, we put it there.' They were like, `What the hell are you doing? Are you mad?'"

The trailer's warm reception pacified the executives, Anderson said, and ever since "There Will Be Blood" has rode a wave of good publicity and honors, including a Golden Globe nomination for best drama.

The whole experience reminds Anderson who has a child with his partner, "Saturday Night Live" cast member Maya Rudolph of the crazed mining of Daniel Plainview.

"You feel like a bottom feeder at the bottom of this dark tunnel, chipping away at something that you're not quite sure is there and even if it is there, you're not quite sure what it's worth," he said. "I can completely relate to that fever and insanity that happens and takes over."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Jessica Alba Engaged to Baby's Father


Jessica Alba, right, and her boyfriend Cash Warren
Jessica Alba, right, and Cash Warren


Pregnancy has been an engaging experience for Jessica Alba.

The 26-year-old actress, who announced earlier this month that she's expecting, is now engaged to her boyfriend and the baby's father, producer Cash Warren.

"I can confirm that they are engaged," Alba's publicist, Brad Cafarelli, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press on Thursday.

The couple is expecting their first child in late spring or early summer, Cafarelli said.

Alba stars in the thriller "Awake," and recently appeared in "Good Luck Chuck" and "The Ten." The sex symbol first gained fame as an action star on TV's "Dark Angel," then in films including "Fantastic Four" and "Sin City."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Madonna Directorial Debut at Berlin Fest


Madonna
Madonna


Madonna's debut movie as a director will have its world premiere at the annual Berlin film festival in February.

"Filth and Wisdom," starring Eugene Hutz, Richard E. Grant and Stephen Graham, will screen in the Panorama section, outside the main competition, a festival statement said Thursday.

Organizers didn't specify whether the 49-year-old singer will come to Berlin to present the movie.

The event, which runs from Feb. 7-17, is the first of the year's major European film festivals.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Judge to Connery, Neighbors: Stop Suing


Sean Connery
Sean Connery


The legal dispute between Sean Connery and his downstairs neighbors has a fed-up judge telling both sides to cool it.

In court papers, Burton Sultan calls his neighbor Connery, 77, the antithesis of the suave secret agent he played in numerous James Bond films, branding him "a bully who ignores norms of neighborliness and decency" in the town house they share.

Connery and his wife claim the Sultan family's complaints have delayed needed repairs to the roof, imperiling the Connerys and raising the repair costs.

In a decision made public Wednesday, State Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman tossed out many of the Sultans' claims but slammed the Connerys for what she called their "blunderbuss" legal salvos.

She barred both sides from filing any more lawsuits without her permission, saying they "have engaged in a 'slash and burn' litigation strategy."

Connery's lawyer and publicist and Sultan's lawyer did not immediately return telephone messages Thursday.

The sides have clashed repeatedly over the Connerys' years-long renovations to their part of the six-story, landmarked 1869 town house. The Sultans claim the renovations have subjected them to noise, fumes, leaks and rats, ruining their collection of antique wicker furniture.

Connery played the British secret agent known as 007 in 1962's "Dr. No." He reprised the role in such Bond classics as "From Russia With Love," "Goldfinger" and "You Only Live Twice."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Despite Buzz, Amy Adams Has Doubts


Amy Adams
Amy Adams


For all the buzz Amy Adams has earned with her performance as a princess in Disney's "Enchanted," she still has doubts about her career path.

"Am I doing it right?" she said. "I don't think all success and failure is judged by a career. I'm not married. I don't have children. Sometimes I wish I read more books than scripts. Did I choose the right road?"

Adams, 33, told Newsweek in its edition that hits newsstands Monday that she's even having trouble sleeping.

"I drew a picture of myself in the third grade of what I would be when I grew up. I had red hair, and oddly enough, I was in a very nice gown. Oh no! I've got red hair and wear nice gowns. I've fulfilled all my childhood dreams. Now what?"

Now what for Adams will be appearances in "Doubt," a story about two nuns wrestling with allegations of sexual abuse in their parish, and "Sunshine Cleaning," a dark comedy about two sisters who open a crime scene cleanup business.

"I love doing stuff that you haven't seen before," she told the magazine. "I'm bound to fail. But as painful as it would be in the moment, I'll be looking forward to it. It'll be a relief to get it over with."

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Johnny Depp vs. Tom Hanks: Who Ya Got?

Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp


Once again, it’s a weekend battle of head-to-head stars and this week is positively titanic in scope. We've got two monumental talents whose genius and charisma have propelled them both to the very top of the Hollywood food chain. In this corner, we have funnyman-turned-producer, writer, director and, almost I forgot, back-to-back Oscar award winning actor, Mr. Tom Hanks, ladies and gentlemen! And in this corner we've got one of the most successful guys in the world, heartthrob-turned-indie-film- god-turned-heartthrob-A-Lister: Mr. Johnny Depp! You know the rules. Let’s drop the cage. Two men enter! One man leaves!In the box office this weekend: Winner = Hanks Thank god, an easy one to start off with. First of all, Hanks will win this in a walk, but mostly due to the fact that Depp's Sweeney Todd is opening limited before its wide release. Once Sweeney goes wide, however, methinks the musical starring every 17-year-old girls' favorite pirate will rapidly outpace the sharp political comedy of Charlie Wilson's War; though, both of these films will no doubt get their tails handed to them by National Treasure 2. In the critical arena: Winner = Tie This is going to be split evenly. As far as acting goes, much critical love will find its way to Depp, who stretches his chops by playing a lovesick madman bent on revenge… and who also sings. Hanks, on the other hand, does a fine, fine job with Charlie Wilson's War, but has Philip Seymour Hoffman acting circles around him, which is something every critic will be quick to note in their reviews. HOWEVER, Sweeney Todd is finding itself a bit uneven in the reviews, and there are scads of critics out there who love to lie in wait and ambush Tim Burton at every opportunity. But Charlie Wilson's War has been finding a lot of critical love over all. So yeah, a tie. In their careers: Winner = Tie Both of these guys are at the top of their games with only a few real differences between them. Hanks has two Oscars while Depp still gets to be that guy that deserves them but hasn't gotten them. Depp is still a heartthrob with a young, devoted audience while Hanks is that comfortable, safe actor that plays very well to older crowds. Both bring in huge crowds and prick up the ears of pretty much everyone when it is announced that they are in a particular movie. The winner in this category is more of a it-depends-on-who-you-ask sort of basis. So yeah, another tie. In a fight: Winner = Whoever gets to see it I don't foresee this fight as having a clear winner. It could go either way and the only real winner would be the guy whose camera phone caught the whole thing. Winner = Us Let's face it; whenever EITHER of these guys makes a movie, we win. They are the kind of actors who rarely, if ever, make bad films and even when they do, it is worth watching for them. Both of these films rock HARD, and the only real winners are the people who get to see them both. That would be us.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com

Report: Pitt Pulls Out of Universal Film

Brad PittBrad Pitt has backed out of a Universal Pictures movie set to begin filming this year, a newspaper reported.

"State of Play" was to star Pitt as a political consultant-turned-journalist who helps investigate the death of a congressman's mistress.

The actor left the production Wednesday, Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety reported on its Web site.

"Brad Pitt has left the Universal Pictures production of 'State of Play,'" the studio said in a statement. "We remain committed to this project and to the filmmakers, cast members, crew and others who are also involved in making the movie. We reserve all rights in this matter."

A message left early Friday for Pitt's publicist, Cindy Guagenti, was not immediately returned.

Source: www.cinema-pedia.com