tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46935325079380062012024-02-08T04:33:53.955-08:00Movie Online, Movie Reviews, Movie InterviewsMovie247.blogspot.com is here to provide you quality movie news, movie reviews, movie interviews and much more!Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.comBlogger382125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-18686600028058919562008-07-01T01:04:00.000-07:002008-07-01T01:06:22.440-07:00Hollywood producers want industry to keep working<p> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Hollywood producers sent the clearest sign yet on Monday that they won't lock out actors if they are unable to agree on a contract before the current pact expires early Tuesday. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Ads in trade publications argued the entertainment industry had suffered enough from previous work stoppages over contract disputes. </span></p> <p> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Let's keep working," the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in full-page ads appearing in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The ads cited figures from the Milken Institute that showed the 100-day writers strike that ended in February had put more than 37,000 people out of work and resulted in $2.3 billion in lost wages. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Enough is enough," said the ad, which also showed picketing strikers beneath the words "Harmful and Unnecessary." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The Screen Actors Guild appeared ready to keep negotiating, saying Sunday that it had not called for a strike authorization vote by members. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The exchange came as Hollywood waited nervously to see if the labor dispute would halt TV and film production. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"The producers remain committed to reaching a deal by today's deadline and do not believe there is any good reason for SAG's Hollywood leadership to stall these talks into July," alliance spokesman Jesse Hiestand said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Last week, SAG accused the studios of offering a contract worth less than an agreement already approved by leaders of the smaller American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">SAG made the claim amid demands in Hollywood that it accept the same deal. SAG did not provide details on the differences between the offers. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">SAG represents 120,000 actors in movies, TV and other media. The TV and radio federation represents 70,000 members, including actors, singers, announcers and journalists. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">SAG and AFTRA share 44,000 dual members. SAG is urging those members to vote against the AFTRA contract because its approval would handcuff ongoing talks between SAG and the studios. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Results of the AFTRA ratification vote were expected to be announced on July 8. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Studios have said film and TV production has already been disrupted because SAG leaders are dragging out the talks until the AFTRA results are announced. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The dispute has split actors. Jack Nicholson, Josh Brolin, Holly Hunter and others support SAG's tactics. Others including Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey have urged support of the AFTRA deal. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">SAG has said it can improve on the AFTRA deal, especially in the areas of residual payments for DVD sales, compensation for Internet content, minimum wages, mileage reimbursement and the issue of product integration into scripted scenes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Late Sunday, the guild reported on its Web site that thousands of actors have said they voted against the AFTRA contract. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">SAG also said more than 3,000 actors have signed a statement of solidarity supporting its negotiators. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Thousands of you from all around the country are telling us you voted no on the AFTRA contract and support our goal to raise the bar for all actors and their families," the guild said. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The guild did not immediately respond to messages left Monday seeking further details. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">AFTRA, meanwhile, continued to urge members to ratify its proposed agreement. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"The new AFTRA contract puts real money in actors' wallets," the federation said in a Sunday e-mail to members. </span></p> <p> <a href="http://treat-yeast-infection.org/" title="Yeast Infection">Yeast Infection</a> - Candidiasis, commonly called yeast infection or thrush, is a fungal infection (mycosis) of any of the Candida species, of which Candida albicans is the most common.<br /></p>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-55709312403778895222008-07-01T01:02:00.000-07:002008-07-01T01:07:52.302-07:00Dutch anti-Islam politician won't be charged<p> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Dutch legislator Geert Wilders will not be prosecuted for inciting hatred of Muslims with his film denouncing the Quran, prosecutor said Monday. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Prosecutor said his film "Fitna," or "Ordeal" in Arabic, and statements Wilders wrote in Dutch newspapers were hurtful and insulting but not criminal. </span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The film juxtaposed Quranic verses against a background of violent film clips and images of terrorism by Islamic radicals. It aroused protests around the Muslim world after it was released on the Internet in March.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Wilders also was investigated for remarks published in the newspaper De Volkskrant calling the Quran fascist. </span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"I've had enough of Islam in the Netherlands; let not one more Muslim immigrate," he wrote in the paper. "I've had enough of the Quran in the Netherlands: Forbid that fascist book." </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Prosecution spokeswoman Hanneke Festen said Wilders' statements were allowable under Dutch law, which forbids inciting hatred against groups on the basis of their race or creed but also grants leeway to freedom of speech. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"We came to the conclusion that (Wilders' statements) may be hurtful and painful for Muslims but they were made in the context of a debate in society," she said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"That doesn't mean you can say anything, but you have to really cross a line and be unnecessarily hurtful and insulting and not add anything" to the national debate in order for prosecutors to act, she said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Wilders told The Associated Press he was not surprised by the decision because he had stayed within the boundaries of Dutch law. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Wilders said that in the months since his film attacking radical Islam was broadcast on the Internet, he had received reactions from all over the world. "Most were very negative, but some were very positive," he said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Mohamed Rabbae, chairman of the moderate National Moroccan Council, said the Dutch group will go to court to ask a judge to order a prosecution of Wilders anyway. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"My reaction is one of disappointment and divergence with the point of view of the prosecutor," he said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Rabbae said the prosecutors had decided that Wilders' position did not amount to discrimination against Muslims, but that it criticized Islam. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Islam is a big part of the identity of Muslims, so if you attack Islam it is for us the same as attacking and discriminating against Muslims," he said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Wilders said he hopes prosecutors will send a copy of their decision to prosecutors in Jordan, where he faces a lawsuit. Wilders has said he is worried he could be arrested if he leaves the Netherlands because Jordan has informed Interpol he is wanted to face charges there.<br /></span></p><p><a href="http://eczema-treatment.info" title="Eczema Treatment">Eczema Treatment</a> - Eczema is a form of dermatitis, or inflammation of the upper layers of the skin.<br /></p>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-40472756544005855762008-07-01T00:53:00.000-07:002008-07-01T01:00:05.926-07:00Western extras play bit parts in new Egyptian film<p> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">A motley group of foreigners English teachers, students of Arabic, even a journalist gathered on a recent chilly night in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, brought together by a love of cinema, curiosity and a furtive hope of catching a glimpse of Omar Sharif. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Glamour, however, was in quite short supply for our band of film extras. Waiting around for hours in our 1940s period costumes, we slouched in the elegant wood paneled bar of a luxury hotel eating cold food from McDonald's, waiting to shoot a five-minute dining room scene. The lead actors had yet to even show up. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Still, it was a unique opportunity, one I had searched for off-and-on during the decade I have lived in Egypt especially since this production is being touted as a rebirth of Egyptian cinema.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"The Passenger" has a cast full of Egyptian stars, topped by Sharif in a heralded comeback to Egyptian film after a 15-year absence. The movie has been billed by Culture Minister Farouk Hosni as a "return to the golden age of cinema." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The ministry itself is footing the bill for the film, the first time it has done so in 30 years, in effort to boost the flagging reputation of what was known as the Hollywood of the Middle East. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Egypt has one of the region's oldest movie industries; 50 years ago, it was producing films on par with those of Hollywood. But in the past two decades, it has declined, throwing together slapdash comedies and over-the-top melodramas with poor production values. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"In the West, the film has a great position and it used to be the same here in the 1940s and 1950s and then something happened, it became, I don't know why, a second class economy," said Amr Waked, one of Egypt's up-and-coming actors, who also appears in "The Passenger." He is better known to international audiences as the Egyptian terror leader in George Clooney's 2006 film "Syriana." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Critics have blamed Egyptian cinema's decline on a host of factors. Rising Islamic conservatism made movies disreputable, while at the same time, the funding dried up leaving producers just trying to make a quick buck. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The Culture Ministry is hoping that by returning to its role of financing the cinema the way it's done in many countries it can produce quality features like "The Passenger." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The film is a multigenerational epic set in 1948, 1973 and 2001, and first-time director Ahmed Maher has spent a year and a half filming it. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"There was a need to capture the right stuff, no matter how long it took, no matter how many times you repeat," Waked said. "There was very little compromise on that, unlike other (Egyptian) productions where they sometimes accept certain compromises to finish quickly." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The painstaking process was certainly clear in our scene that night, as the two dozen foreigners from Britain, the U.S., France, Puerto Rico, Germany and Sweden were transformed into diners on a postwar luxury cruise. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Battered trucks parked outside the hotel where the scene was being shot served as makeshift makeup and dressing rooms. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">In the harsh glare of lights, hairdressers heated metal tongs on open gas flames to carefully straighten and then curl each woman extra's hair into elaborate coiffures, as everyone was fitted into natty suits and ball gowns. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">I was selected to be a waiter. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have the chance to act with Sharif. He was appearing only in the 2001 scenes of the movie and my brief appearance in a crisp white waiter's jacket was set half a century earlier. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The scene was shot in Alexandria at a luxury hotel that once served as a 19th century hunting lodge for Egypt's royal family. The ornate wood-paneled restaurant would stand in for the cruise ship's dining room. Maher whisked away the anachronistic no-smoking signs that had been inadvertently left on the tables. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Ahead of the shoot, Maher who spent years in Italy chatted in Italian with his director of photography, Marco Onorato, whose film "Gomorra" just won the Grand Prix at Cannes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Then, as filming finally began at 1 a.m., Maher bellowed across the set with the Egyptian version of "lights, camera, action": "Doh! Tasweer! Action!" </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The camera circled around the lead couple: Egyptian actor Khaled Nabawy, who appeared in Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven," sat across from Lebanese pop diva Cyrine Abdelnour in a tense dinner scene. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Nabawy plays a lower class postman who intercepted letters between Abdelnour and her childhood sweetheart, whom he is now impersonating in effort to win her heart. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">For my part, I the waiter was struggling with my own job: precariously balancing two plates on my arm. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Just minutes before I was to appear on camera, the restaurant's real head waiter took me aside and taught me how to carry plates and properly pour wine. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">I tottered across the dining room floor, desperately trying to remember my cue and look appropriately haughty as I served the elite clientele and delivered my sole line "excuse me," in English. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The steak slid ominously across the plate toward the two actors as my overburdened arm faltered, and I had a sudden vision of the entire movie turning into a farce as the bumbling water dumped his food onto their exquisite costumes. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Fortunately, the scene went off more or less without a hitch, despite me stuttering my line and saying it too early at first. But it was just a rehearsal and we had several more takes ahead us. At one point, Abdelnour just buried her head in her hands she'd been working since the morning. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Hours later, it was over. One more scene finished. Only a few weeks of filming left and the year-and-a-half odyssey for the actors would be over. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">We had been sitting around for 14 hours and would be paid $50. The true compensation, however, was a little taste of movie glamor, with the hope, perhaps, that it might lead to something bigger. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">For me, my sole prospects for a career change came from elsewhere. "You know, you're weren't too bad," the restaurant's head waiter told me. "If you ever need a job here, just let me know."</span></p> <p><a href="http://efibromyalgia.net/" title="Fibromyalgia">Fibromyalgia</a> - Fibromyalgia (FM) is a human disorder classified by the presence of chronic widespread pain and tactile allodynia.<br /></p>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-48462914576751495292008-07-01T00:51:00.000-07:002008-07-01T01:01:13.565-07:00Monday Movie Buzz: `WALL-E' revels in robot love<p> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Though the feeling can't yet be reciprocated, Hollywood has a crush on robots. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"WALL-E," the Pixar blockbuster that opened to ecstatic reviews and $62.5 million at the box office this weekend, is a tale of robot love. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Our hero is a little pile of metal and circuitry in the mold of R2D2, and our heroine is a sleeker but less personable model. (In male-dominated Hollywood, apparently even robots are subject to gender roles.)<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Writer-director Andrew Stanton has consistently spoken of his desire to make an emotional sci-fi movie. He clearly made his task difficult by trying to pull heartstrings with two metallic machines who can only bleep and blork. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"WALL-E" is only the latest film that seeks to humanize robots. As an audience, we are meant to sit in dark theaters looking up at the big screen and FEEL for the oppressed digital beings of the future. Audiences are more than happy to be swept away by something as artful as "WALL-E," but there's a notable disconnect between its premise and its emotional force. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">They're ROBOTS! </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Hollywood has a great fetish for humanizing an artificial intelligence we haven't yet invented. On the big screen, it's a given that as soon as AI is created, we're going to be downright nasty to those poor lil' robots? </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">It would not be a stretch to say that filmmakers seem more concerned with the emotions and freedoms of thus-far nonexistent machines than most currently oppressed humans. (Don't hold your breath for an animated blockbuster about Zimbabwe.) </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">But this is not heartlessness by Hollywood; it's a fascinating obsession that says much about the Dream Factory. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">We have seen Will Smith release the imprisoned robot masses in "I, Robot." ("I don't want my toaster or my vacuum cleaner appearing emotional," Smith jokes before his character's conversion.) </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">In "Blade Runner," Harrison Ford hunts "replicants" (humanoid robots) before doubting the cause and whether he, too, might be a replicant. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The "Terminator" movies are based on the fear of a future taken over by robots, but we eventually begin to root for the Terminator, played by our most robotic of actors, Arnold Schwarzenegger. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">WALL-E's inspiration, R2D2 (whose sound engineer Ben Burtt also does WALL-E's "voice"), and his sidekick C-3PO were what bound "Star Wars" together. The common thread throughout George Lucas' saga, they outlive everyone. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Visions of the threat of robots is a parallel, darker tradition in Hollywood dating back the "false Maria" of Fritz Lang's 1926 masterpiece "Metropolis." Arguably the greatest film in this vein is Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" a movie obviously referenced in "WALL-E." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">But more than anyone, Kubrick also examined the future ethics of artificial intelligence, and more importantly, what it means for an audience to sympathize with a robotic hero. It was Steven Spielberg who followed through on Kubrick's unfinished plans for 2001's "A.I.," in which the tantalizingly cute robot, played by Haley Joel Osment, attempts to become "real." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">In "WALL-E," we similarly follow a robot hero who wins us over with his endurance through solitude. The unlikely spark of love energizes WALL-E, whose bincocular-like eyes are slanted in a perpetual droop that we can't help but respond to with a collective "Aw." </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">In many of these films, robots are a metaphor for what we don't understand and therefore label "inhuman." In 1999's terrific "The Iron Giant" (directed by Brad Bird, who went on to become a Pixar man, helming "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille"), the lovable lug of the title is the victim of Cold War-era paranoia. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">But "WALL-E" and other robot-friendly films are chiefly about technology and coming to terms with it. WALL-E collects the debris of human ingenuity an iPod, a Rubik's cube reveling in its achievements. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">In the movie, the audacity of technology namely WALL-E might even save a complacent human race. But the film isn't blindly supportive of machines. For the overweight and lazy humans of "WALL-E" to be awakened, one character will also have to defeat a very HAL-like device. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">It should come as no surprise that Hollywood has such a penchant for humanizing robots. Movies have always been a medium whose advance is paced by technology. The creation of the moving image was an invention in the 19th century, and cinema progressed with the advent of sound recording in the `20s, color motion pictures later and recently digital filmmaking. Pixar, itself, is built on advances in computer generated animation. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Love movies, love robots.</span><br /></p> <p><a href="http://cystic-acne.info/" title="Cystic Acne">Cystic Acne</a> - Cystic acne, also known as nodulocystic acne, is a severe form of acne wherein acne develops into small cysts<br /></p>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-83330902997536789202008-07-01T00:47:00.000-07:002008-07-01T00:51:35.719-07:00SAG president doesn't want to hear strike talkThe head of the Screen Actors Guild doesn't want to hear the s-word as a deadline for contract expiration looms.<br /><br />"We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of Screen Actors Guild," Union President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement Sunday. "Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction."<br /><br />The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has taken out an advertisement in trade publications calling a strike "harmful and unnecessary." Citing $2.8 billion in lost wages, the ad says "We've completed four equitable and forward-thinking labor agreements. Let's get the fifth done."<br /><br />The ad is scheduled to run in Monday's editions of Variety and Hollywood Reporter.<br /><br />"The industry is shutting down because SAG's Hollywood leadership insisted on 11th-hour negotiations and dragging these talks into July so they can continue attacking AFTRA," AMPTP spokesman Jesse Hiestand said in a statement.<br /><br />The contract runs out at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday.<br /><br />Anxiety has been growing in Hollywood that actors might walk off the job or studios could lock out performers on the heels of a Writers Guild of America strike that devastated production from November through February.<br /><br />SAG leaders have been fighting a deal reached between producers and another actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Vote results among that union's 70,000 members are due July 8.<br /><br />AFTRA and the 120,000-member SAG have 44,000 members in common. SAG leaders are urging its members in AFTRA to vote against the deal, saying they can strike a better bargain with producers if the contract is defeated.<br /><br />SAG has said it is willing to continue talks with producers after its own contract expires.<br /><br />"The Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee is coming to the bargaining table every day in good faith to negotiate a fair contract for actors," Rosenberg said.<br /><br /><a href="http://diamondscout.net/" title="Diamonds">Diamonds</a> - Diamonds are foreverAndreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-7456498098743807102008-07-01T00:44:00.000-07:002008-07-01T00:47:21.309-07:00Publicist confirms: Thurman is engaged to Busson<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">It's official: Uma Thurman will marry financier Arpad "Arki" Busson. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"I can confirm she is engaged," Thurman's representative, Stephen Huvane, told The Associated Press in an e-mail. Huvane didn't immediately respond Monday when asked for further details. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Thurman filed for divorce from Ethan Hawke in 2004. They have two children. The 38-year-old actress was previously married to Gary Oldman. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Busson has two sons with Elle Macpherson. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Thurman received an Oscar nomination for 1994's "Pulp Fiction." Her screen credits also include the "Kill Bill" thrillers and "My Super Ex-Girlfriend."<br /><br /><a href="http://skin-dermatitis.com/" title="Skin Dermatitis">Skin Dermatits</a> - Dermatitis is a blanket term meaning any "inflammation of the skin"<br /></span>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-27148154611757556532008-06-10T23:30:00.000-07:002008-06-10T23:32:49.116-07:00Australian film organization creates Ledger scholarship<p> <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">LOS ANGELES (AP) Heath Ledger was known for giving aspiring Australian actors a hand in Hollywood. Now, an Australian film organization has established a scholarship fund in the late actor's name to continue those efforts. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"There's an entire tribe of Australians who have all benefited from his generosity," said Susie Dobson, president of Australians in Film, or AiF. "This (scholarship) captures Heath's spirit and serves our mission to help and celebrate Australian filmmakers." </span></p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Ledger who died at 28 of an accidental prescription drug overdose in January had served as an ambassador for the film organization and its board wanted to honor him after his death, Dobson said.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;"> Director Gregor Jordan announced the establishment of the Heath Ledger Scholarship Fund last week at AiF's annual Breakthrough Awards, where he read a statement from Ledger's father, Kim Ledger. </span><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Although reluctant to lend his name to anything commercial, we know Heath would be proud of his attachment to this scholarship," Kim Ledger's statement said. "This scholarship in part does what Heath has done personally during the last 10 years and supported financially or in kind many friends, Australian actors, singers, directors or writers seeking to ply their talents in the USA." </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Jordan also said that Michelle Williams, mother of Ledger's daughter, "would be very proud and happy to be the first benefactor" of the scholarship fund. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The first recipient will be announced next year, Dobson said.</span></p><br /><br />I had a good laugh today when I read an article over <a title="Movie News" href="http://cinema-pedia.com/">Movie News</a> today! The article was about <a title="Chuck Norris Facts" href="http://cinema-pedia.com/chuck-norris-facts.html">Chuck Norris Facts</a>. You can read it by going <a title="Chuck Norris Facts" href="http://cinema-pedia.com/chuck-norris-facts.html">here</a>.Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-14942028141856698722008-06-08T07:37:00.000-07:002008-06-08T07:38:46.361-07:00Carell jokes about on-screen kiss with The Rock<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Steve Carell, who plays Maxwell Smart in the upcoming spy comedy "Get Smart," says he had a scent-sational time kissing co-star Dwayne Johnson, who most might recognize as "The Rock" </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"The Rock has softer lips. I guess I could say that," the 44-year-old actor told AP Television. "He smells like strawberry shortcake. For me, that's why they call him The Rock. He rocks people's worlds." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Johnson countered that he doesn't smell or taste like strawberry shortcake "strawberry shortcake with liver I think." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The 36-year-old wrestler-turned-actor said he was gung-ho about planting a kiss on Carell. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"It was just one of those things where I thought well, you know, `What could be the most entertaining and funniest moment that we could think of that would still make sense and still kind of root in reality?'" </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"We came up with a great kiss," said Johnson, who plays Agent 23. "I thought if Jake Gyllenhaal can do it, Will Smith can do it, then I can do it, too. I'm going to own it. I was like, `Give me those lips right now. Right now.'" </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Said Carell: "He is such a good guy. We just laughed that whole day. That was a total no-brainer in terms of that scene. There was never one moment of hesitation or awkwardness. He's game for anything, let me put it that way." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Get Smart," also starring Anne Hathaway as Agent 99, is slated for release June 20. </span><br /><br /><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com" title="Movie Interviews">Movie Interviews</a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-64054911054446522302008-06-08T07:36:00.000-07:002008-06-08T07:37:39.495-07:00Vin Diesel and girlfriend welcome a daughter<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Vin Diesel is a dad. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Diesel, star of "The Pacifier" and "The Chronicles of Riddick," and his girlfriend, model Paloma Jimenez, welcomed a baby girl in Los Angeles on April 2, his representative, Meredith O'Sullivan, said in an e-mail Friday. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">O'Sullivan said the 40-year-old action star wasn't releasing the baby's name. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;"> Diesel's screen credits also include "The Fast and the Furious" "Boiler Room" and "Saving Private Ryan." He'll next be seen in the sci-fi movie "Babylon A.D.," slated for release Aug. 29.</span><br /><br /><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com" title="Movie Reviews">Movie Reviews</a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-79637404757661398692008-06-08T07:35:00.000-07:002008-06-08T07:36:42.462-07:00Wong Kar-wai to head Shanghai film festival jury<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai will head the jury at the Shanghai International Film Festival, which will be held June 14-22. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Wong, known for his moody visuals and melancholy soundtracks, won best director at the Cannes Film Festival for "Happy Together." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">He replaces filmmaker Anthony Minghella, who died of a hemorrhage in March following surgery.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;"> According to the festival's Web site, the jury will also include veteran Chinese actress Joan Chen, German producer Ulrich Felsberg, Danish director Bille August, Israeli writer Gila Almagor, Japanese director Kaori Momoi and Chinese director Huo Jianqi. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The jury will award the festival's top Jin Jue prize. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">This year's competition lineup includes movies from China, Europe, Japan, Argentina, South Korea, Lithuania, Russia, the Czech Republic and New Zealand. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">A retrospective of Minghella's work is being planned by the festival, a spokeswoman said earlier this week.</span><br /><br /><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com" title="Movies Coming Soon">Movies Coming Soon</a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-174318012500584112008-06-08T07:34:00.000-07:002008-06-08T07:35:21.947-07:00At Harvard, Rowling stresses role of imagination<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">J.K. Rowling stressed the crucial importance of imagination during a speech Thursday at Harvard University's spring commencement, saying, "We do not need magic to transform our world." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">The "Harry Potter" author also spoke about the benefit of failure, recalling the humiliations of her time in poverty before her career took off with her string of novels about a bespectacled boy wizard. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Before the speech, some members of Harvard's class of 1936 paid tribute to Rowling by carrying brooms during an alumni procession.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;"> President Drew Gilpin Faust also welcomed witches, wizards and Muggles non-magical people in Rowling's books to the commencement. Faust noted that there was a larger number of young children than normally expected for a Harvard graduation and that she knew she was the just "the warm-up act." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Rowling, who was given an honorary doctor of letters degree, urged the Harvard grads to use their influence and status to speak out on behalf of the powerless. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"We do not need magic to transform our world," she said. "We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already; we have the power to imagine better." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Imagination gives one the ability to empathize with others, she said. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation," Rowling said. "In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity; it is the power that enables us to empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Rowling described a low point seven years after graduating from college, when she was a poor single mother. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are ever after secure in your ability to survive," Rowling said. "You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity." </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">She called such knowledge "a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned."</span><br /><br /><strong>Source:</strong> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com" title="Movies In Theaters">Movies In Theaters</a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-79219456384467580012008-01-05T03:44:00.003-08:002008-01-05T03:44:58.325-08:00Review: Subtle Scares in `Orphanage'<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/the-orphanage.jpg" alt="The Orphanage" border="0" height="166" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">The Orphanage</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Floors creak and doors slam. Hidden passages lead to secret compartments. Ratty old dolls show up out of nowhere. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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.) </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-30874756384128578122008-01-05T03:44:00.001-08:002008-01-05T03:44:36.771-08:00Review: `Persepolis' Is Wildly Inventive<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/persepolis.jpg" alt="Persepolis" border="0" height="218" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Persepolis</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">"Persepolis" is a true original in the eclectic world of animation, one that's full of fascinating contradictions. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"> 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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-85371715104647240972008-01-05T03:43:00.004-08:002008-01-05T03:44:14.180-08:00Review: `Blood' Is Anderson's Epic<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/there-will-be-blood.jpg" alt="There Will Be Blood" border="0" height="167" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">There Will Be Blood</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-27568409539661686562008-01-05T03:43:00.003-08:002008-01-05T03:43:48.877-08:00Review: Denzel Steers 'Great Debaters'<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/the-great-debaters.jpg" alt="The Great Debaters" border="0" height="166" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">The Great Debaters</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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." </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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). </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-18268894250956840932008-01-05T03:43:00.001-08:002008-01-05T03:43:28.128-08:00Review: `Water Horse' a Touching Story<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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." </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">In other words, bring tissues that means you, moms and dads. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Sure, it borrows more than a little from "E.T." </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-79425101985250630302008-01-05T03:42:00.001-08:002008-01-05T03:42:58.123-08:00Review: `Bucket List' Survives Gimmicks<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/the-bucket-list.jpg" alt="The Bucket List" border="0" height="166" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">The Bucket List</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Facing terminal illness, we all should get to experience a no-costs-barred world tour to do everything we ever wanted. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"> 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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-34642463356513601782008-01-05T03:41:00.002-08:002008-01-05T03:42:04.518-08:00Review: `Treasure' Finds Fool's Gold<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/national-treasure-review.jpg" alt="Book of Secrets" border="0" height="171" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">National Treasure: Book of Secrets</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">The founding fathers of the "National Treasure" franchise wisely know not to tinker with a formula that inexplicably works. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">"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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"> 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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-33109693206913554622008-01-05T03:41:00.001-08:002008-01-05T03:41:43.443-08:00Review: `P.S. I Love You' Is Treacly<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/ps-i-love-you.jpg" alt="P.S. I Love You" border="0" height="250" hspace="6" width="188" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">P.S. I Love You</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">You can sort of see the allure "P.S. I Love You" might have held for Hilary Swank. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Instead, "P.S. I Love You" is as treacly as the title would suggest. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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." </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-3725925562294313102008-01-05T03:40:00.002-08:002008-01-05T03:41:20.503-08:00Review: `Charlie' Is a Crisp Satire<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/charlie-wilson-war.jpg" alt="Charlie Wilson's War" border="0" height="166" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Charlie Wilson's War</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">"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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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.") </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Charile Wilson's War Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-75679287354077700762008-01-05T03:40:00.001-08:002008-01-05T03:40:31.433-08:00Review: `Walk Hard' Hilariously Familiar<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/walk-hard.jpg" alt="The Dewey Cox Story" border="0" height="167" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Judd Apatow can do no wrong, apparently. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">"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.) </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"> 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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-15162833839330123702008-01-05T03:39:00.004-08:002008-01-05T03:40:09.300-08:00Review: `Sweeney,' Burton a Perfect Fit<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/sweeney-todd.jpg" alt="The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" border="0" height="167" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" is the quintessential Tim Burton movie, even though it springs from somebody else's celebrated mind. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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? </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-6698195593036326132008-01-05T03:39:00.003-08:002008-01-05T03:39:48.830-08:00Review: `Golden Compass' Is Lackluster<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/golden-compass.jpg" alt="Dakota Blue Richards" border="0" height="150" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Dakota Blue Richards</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-88940848507398801982008-01-05T03:39:00.001-08:002008-01-05T03:39:26.026-08:00Review: Cusack Wrings Tears With `Grace'<font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"></font><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/grace-is-gone-review.jpg" alt="Grace is Gone" border="0" height="167" hspace="6" width="250" /></font><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center" align="center"><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Grace is Gone</font></div><br /></div><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">Previous war-on-terror dramas this year have fallen short by putting their heads before their hearts. Not "Grace Is Gone." </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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.</font><br /><br /><font face="arial,helvetica" size="-1">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. </font><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4693532507938006201.post-1518788027114194462008-01-05T03:38:00.004-08:002008-06-08T07:56:27.073-07:00Review: `Atonement' a Dazzling Romance<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;"></span><br /><div class="mosimage" style="float: left;" align="center"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;"><img src="http://cinema-pedia.com/images/stories/news/atonement_review.jpg" alt="Keira Knightley, left, and James McAvoy" border="0" height="165" hspace="6" width="250" /></span><br /><div class="mosimage_caption" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">Keira Knightley, left, and James McAvoy</span></div><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">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. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">"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. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica;">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. </span><br /><br /><b>Read the entire article at: </b> <a href="http://cinema-pedia.com/" title="Movie Online" target="_blank">www.cinema-pedia.com </a><br /><br />-------------<br /><br />There are many software that can help you to improve your speed reading. Here is an article that explains this better: <a href="http://www.readingspeed.info/speed-reading-software.html" title="Speed Reading Software">Speed Reading Software</a>Andreihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082033695191167739noreply@blogger.com0