This year's Oscars ceremony has had the ceremony's lowest TV ratings in the US, according to initial figures.
The three-hour ABC broadcast drew an average of 32m viewers - a million less than 2003's figure, set a day after the US-led invasion of Iraq had begun.
Last year's ceremony was watched by an average of 41 million people.
In comparison, talent show American Idol, the most popular US TV series, averages 30 million viewers each week with its Tuesday night broadcast.
Modest hits
The ratings are the lowest since 1974, when the current ratings system first began.
The record low audience comes in a year when the Oscars race for best picture was dominated by films which received critical acclaim, but performed modestly at the box office.
Only one film out of the five best picture nominees - teenage comedy Juno - broke the $100m (£50.9m) barrier.
The night's big winner, violent drama No Country For Old Men, which claimed four awards including best picture, only made a modest $64m (£32.6m) at the North American box office.
The most-watched Oscars broadcast was in 1998 when 55m Americans watched box office blockbuster Titanic win 11 awards.
ABC said in a statement that this year's ratings did not account for an increasing number of homes watching the ceremony on personal video recorders.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Feb 27, 2008
Oscars suffer lowest TV ratings
BibleKeeper #2
This is a good information for you who are interested in reading and researching scripture on the Internet. Now you can dig your religion understanding with a free Online Bible Study resource. Ya, please visit BibleKeeper.com. This site offer the Bible in 28 different languages as well as a variety of versions.
Choose menu "Bible Study Tools". Search the Bible by chapter and verse or by specific text. On the drop-down menu, you can select a book, chapter, and Bible Verses.
Some of the Bible's listed require special fonts be installed to be viewed properly.
This site provided instructions below to assist you in setting up your web browser. You may not have the proper fonts installed on your computer so you may need to download them. You can find most fonts for free simply by searching in Google for the name of the needed font.
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Now you can also read Christian Finance Blog
BibleKeeper #1
BibleKeeper.com is a free online Bible study resource for anyone who is interested in reading and researching scripture on the Internet. This site offer the Bible in 28 different languages as well as a variety of versions. You can use the tools below to search the Bible for specific words or verses.
Choose menu "Bible Study Tools". Search the Bible by chapter and verse or by specific text. On the drop-down menu, you can select a book, chapter, and verse.
Some of the Bible's listed require special fonts be installed to be viewed properly.
This site provided instructions below to assist you in setting up your web browser. You may not have the proper fonts installed on your computer so you may need to download them. You can find most fonts for free simply by searching in Google for the name of the needed font.
Here you can find instructions about Netscape's Navigator/Communicator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. We used Greek encoding as an example but these instructions should work for most fonts.
Start learning Bible Online
Feb 26, 2008
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2008 Oscar Winners
- Costume Design: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
- Animated Feature: Ratatouille
- Makeup: La Vie En Rose
- Visual Effects: The Golden Compass
- Art Direction: Sweeney Todd
- Live Action Short: Le Mozart Des Pickpockets
- Animated Short: Peter and the Wolf
- Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
- Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum
- Film Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum
- Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from Once
- Original Score: Atonement
- Documentary Short: Freeheld
- Documentary Feature:Taxi to the Dark Side
- Cinematography: There Will Be Blood
- Foreign Language: The Counterfeiters
- Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
- Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno
- Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
- Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
- Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose
- Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
- Director: The Coen Brothers, No Country for Old Men
- Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Oscar winner reveals the secret of pro-Nazi traitor
A new play suggests John Amery rebelled against his father's concealment of his Jewishness
The Oscar-winning writer Ronald Harwood is to re-examine a wartime story of treachery at the heart of the British establishment. Using fresh documentary evidence, his play will tell of the fate of the privileged Nazi sympathiser John Amery, the son of a Tory cabinet minister, who was hanged for treason in 1945.
Harwood, who won a Bafta last weekend for his Oscar-nominated screenplay The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has tried to solve the puzzle at the centre of the Amery case - a mystery that had troubled the playwright for decades.
An English Tragedy, which opens tomorrow night, recounts the series of treasonable crimes that eventually brought Amery, the eccentric son of senior Tory politician Leo Amery and the brother of the late Tory MP Julian Amery, to the hangman's noose.
'I first read about this remarkable case in the 1960s,' said Harwood, 73. 'I grew up in South Africa and so came to Amery's story through Rebecca West's marvellous book The Meaning of Treason. I once asked her why she thought Amery had pleaded guilty at his trial. She said it was to spare his family embarrassment, but this didn't seem right to me. He'd embarrassed them all through the war. His father was a cabinet minister and he was broadcasting from Germany. I have wanted to try to explain it since then.'
Amery gave countless pro-German broadcasts during the war and openly promoted fascism throughout Europe. He was hanged in Wandsworth prison in December 1945 by Albert Pierrepoint, the chief executioner. Harwood, who is Jewish and won his first Oscar for the screenplay of Roman Polanski's epic account of the Holocaust, The Pianist, believes he found the key to Amery's behaviour when new government papers came to light. They revealed that the traitor's own politician father had denied his Jewish identity.
Leo Amery, who was known in Parliament as 'the pocket Hercules', was a member of Churchill's war cabinet and had hidden details of his background because he felt it would impede his political ascent. Contemporaries often joked that, had Leo Amery been a head taller or his speeches half an hour shorter, he would have become Prime Minister. In a period when anti-Semitism was widespread, the fact he was half Jewish would certainly not have helped.
Harwood believes this family deception provides the key to John Amery's disturbed and rebellious personality. The son, educated at Harrow, was a dashing, affectedly charismatic figure who carried around a teddy bear as a young man, but he was also in trouble with authority from an early age. 'Of all the boys whom I have known,' said Sir Cyril Norwood, Amery's former headmaster, 'John Amery was the most abnormal.'
Expelled from several expensive schools, Amery eventually settled in France, where he became a follower of the French fascist Jacques Doriot. During the war, Amery regularly broadcast propaganda from Berlin.
Partisans captured Amery in Italy, where he had been promoting Benito Mussolini on Radio Rome, and he was taken into custody.
At the Old Bailey, aged 33, he pleaded guilty to indictments 'alleging high treason and treachery' and was sentenced to death within just eight minutes of entering the dock. The Times reported that during the proceedings Amery appeared to have a half-smile on his face. On 28 November 1945, Justice Humphreys sentenced Amery, saying: 'You now stand a self-confessed traitor to your King and country and you have forfeited your right to live.'
On the day of the hanging, the condemned man met his execution with a cool wit. 'Mr Pierrepoint,' he said. 'I have always wanted to meet you, although not, of course, under these circumstances.' These lines will be spoken at the close of Harwood's play by actor Richard Goulding, who is fresh from an RSC tour in Trevor Nunn's production of The Seagull. 'I had not read a new play script before and it seemed incredible I was being offered this part,' Goulding said this weekend. 'In a way, it was a bit alarming that they had thought of me for the role of an unhinged fascist.'
Brigid Larmour, the artistic director of the Watford Palace Theatre, where the play opens tomorrow, said she would have put on the play whoever had written it. 'Amery was a fascinating, mercurial character. This is a very intelligent play but also very amusing.' It is hoped the play will transfer to the West End.
Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
Sunday February 17, 2008
The Observer
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Feb 24, 2008
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DVD Review: Helen Mirren at the BBC
If you love Helen Mirren (and c'mon, who doesn't -- I mean, The Queen, Prime Suspect -- the chick is badass, no?) then you have to check out a new DVD collection out this week. It's called Helen Mirren at the BBC, and, even if you've got the tote bag and coffee mug to attest to the tons of money you've already given PBS as thanks for showing so much great British TV, I can promise you that you haven't seen this stuff.
I'm pretty sure, anyway, that none of this stuff has ever aired here in America. Seventeenth-century Jacobean tragedy? Yeah, that's gonna try the patience of even the most attentive American viewer ... at least, that would have been the attitude. This five-disc, nine-movie set starts out with the 1974 BBC production of The Changeling, a 1622 drama in which Mirren plays the anti-heroine Beatrice-Joanna, who does some very naughty things in the name of love. (A young Brian Cox stars as her lover.) She rocks it, and from there on it's just nonstop Mirren awesomeness as she takes on George Bernard Shaw's 1929 play The Apple Cart, portraying the mistress of the king of England in this 1975 production, before appearing as Benito Mussolini's lover in Caesar and Claretta, also from 1975. (Robert Hardy, who was Siegfried in All Creatures Great and Small and Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies, plays the dictator, which is just plain weird.)
There's more: A 1975 production of a play called The Philanthropist by Atonement screenwriter Christopher Hampton; Mirren again plays the lover of an older, more powerful man. A 1975 adaptation of a novel by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie called The Little Minister; here Mirren gets to foment revolution in 1840s Scotland. A wonderfully weird 1979 made-for-TV film, Blue Remembered Hills, by Singing Detective author Dennis Potter, in which the adult cast members portray small children; Mirren pouts and sulks as a pigtailed little snot called Angela.
And that's still not all. These nine TV plays are amazing examples of what TV at its best can do; even though most of these are studio-bound and shot on video (as most BBC productions were in the 70s and early 80s), they're still totally gripping. They're also essential for understanding Mirren's talent as we see it today. She's made a career of portraying smart, strong, ambitious women, and this is where it all began.
Watch an exclusive clip from the DVD, in which Mirren talk about her tast in men.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MaryAnn Johanson
reviews, reviews, reviews! at FlickFilosopher.com
Al Pacino Rumored to be in Next Bond Movie
Well, if the rumors are true, Bond may be going toe-to-toe with one of the world's most respected, most beloved actors. The movie, Quantum of Solace (a.k.a. Bond 22), named after an Ian Fleming short story, takes place immediately after that killer ending to Casino Royale. How immediately? Try one hour. For the first time in Bond history, James Bond picks up right where he left off and continues on the mission that was never really finished last time. Remember that terrorist network Le Chiffre was working for? Well, his boss is still around. Guess whom the rumor has pegged as his boss?
Al Pacino.
Now, while some folks are celebrating this bold choice of a selection, others, like myself, are dreading it being true. I mean, I love me some Pacino, really I do. If the man makes a movie, I'm there. But a Bond villain? Really? "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die. HOO-AH!" Heaven help us if he has a midget sidekick. "Mr. Bond, say hello to my…"
In all seriousness though, Pacino was an incredible actor and has immeasurable charisma. Unfortunately, he stopped ACTING years ago. Oh, he still appears in movies. He just doesn't create refined, well honed characters anymore. They're all just Al Pacino. And that is distinctly NOT what a Bond villain is. Bond villains stand out as something completely detached from reality. They're powerful, insane and have a sense of style all their own. The only thing cooler and more iconic than a Bond villain is a Bond villain's henchman. Both require unknown actors who can use their abnormal physical features to create their character (like Jaws or Oddjob), or they require actors with an immense amount of range.
Can you honestly picture Pacino fitting into that world, even in a small role? No. It's going to be one of those "Oh my goodness! It's Al Pacino!" moments. Like a Christopher Walken cameo. As cool as it is, it just kind of takes you out of the movie.
Normally, I wouldn't be so uptight about Bond casting. They've made so many missteps over the years that it is not even funny. But last time they didn't just get it right, they got it really, really right. People who never liked a Bond movie in their life (like my wife) fell head over heels in love with this movie. And the fans (like myself) lost our damned fool minds. It was a perfect Bond film, resetting the entire series and rekindling the world's love affair with the single greatest secret agent to ever live. I really, really, really want them to get this 100% right.
And that means pulling back on the celebrity casting. And that means leaving your little friend at home. But say hello to him for me. Hoo-Ah!
Written by C. Robert Cargill
Email massawyrm@hotmail.com
Movie of the Week: Scalpers
Scalpers (2000)
Director/Writer: Adam Rodin
Starring: Steve Braun, Seun Olagunju, Jeff Skinner, Rachel Toles
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Vanguard
Runtime: 84m
In this week's Movie of the Week, Scalpers, a newcomer fighting for his place in the territorial ticket trade learns the ins and outs of the scalper underworld.
Synopsis
Who needs two? Who needs tickets? The mantra of the ticket scalper beckons the fan. In this hip urban drama, Joey Grey, a newcomer fighting for his place in the territorial ticket trade, learns the ins and outs of the ticket underworld. Raised by his Grandpa, Joey grew up hustling instead of playing little league. When the conflict over turf and tickets reaches a boiling point, he must outfox the competition and pull off the most important hustle of his life.
This film is provided to Film.com through its relationship with CABINETIC (http://www.cabinetic.com), a San Francisco-based company with an extensive library of independent, international and documentary films.
Source: www.film.com
Feb 22, 2008
80th Academy Awards Nominations Announcement
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2007 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.
Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in “Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
(DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in “In the Valley of Elah” (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in “Eastern Promises” (Focus Features)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in “Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal)
Julie Christie in “Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in “La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in “The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in “Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There” (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in “American Gangster” (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in “Atonement” (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in “Gone Baby Gone” (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in “Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Best animated feature film of the year
“Persepolis” (Sony Pictures Classics) Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Brad Bird
“Surf's Up” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ash Brannon and Chris Buck
Achievement in art direction
“American Gangster” (Universal)
Art Direction: Arthur Max
Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
“Atonement” (Focus Features)
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
“The Golden Compass” (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)
Art Direction: Dennis Gassner
Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti
Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Art Direction: Jack Fisk
Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
Achievement in cinematography
“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (Warner Bros.) Roger Deakins
“Atonement” (Focus Features) Seamus McGarvey
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Janusz Kaminski
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roger Deakins
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Robert Elswit
Achievement in costume design
“Across the Universe” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Albert Wolsky
“Atonement” (Focus Features) Jacqueline Durran
“Elizabeth: The Golden Age” (Universal) Alexandra Byrne
“La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse) Marit Allen
“Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount) Colleen Atwood
Achievement in directing
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Julian Schnabel
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight) Jason Reitman
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) Tony Gilroy
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Paul Thomas Anderson
Best documentary feature
“No End in Sight” (Magnolia Pictures)
A Representational Pictures Production
Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience” (The Documentary Group)
A Documentary Group Production
Richard E. Robbins
“Sicko” (Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company)
A Dog Eat Dog Films Production
Michael Moore and Meghan O’Hara
“Taxi to the Dark Side” (THINKFilm)
An X-Ray Production
Alex Gibney and Eva Orner
“War/Dance” (THINKFilm)
A Shine Global and Fine Films Production
Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine
Best documentary short subject
“Freeheld”
A Lieutenant Films Production
Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth
“La Corona (The Crown)”
A Runaway Films and Vega Films Production
Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega
“Salim Baba”
A Ropa Vieja Films and Paradox Smoke Production
Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello
“Sari’s Mother” (Cinema Guild)
A Daylight Factory Production
James Longley
Achievement in film editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal) Christopher Rouse
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Juliette Welfling
“Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment) Jay Cassidy
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Dylan Tichenor
Best foreign language film of the year
“Beaufort” A Metro Communications, Movie Plus Production
Israel
“The Counterfeiters” An Aichholzer Filmproduktion, Magnolia Filmproduktion Production
Austria
“Katyń” An Akson Studio Production
Poland
“Mongol” A Eurasia Film Production
Kazakhstan
“12” A Three T Production
Russia
Achievement in makeup
“La Vie en Rose” (Picturehouse) Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald
“Norbit” (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount) Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney) Ve Neill and Martin Samuel
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“Atonement” (Focus Features) Dario Marianelli
“The Kite Runner” (DreamWorks, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Participant Productions, Distributed by Paramount Classics) Alberto Iglesias
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.) James Newton Howard
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Michael Giacchino
“3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate) Marco Beltrami
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Falling Slowly” from “Once”
(Fox Searchlight)
Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova
“Happy Working Song” from “Enchanted”
(Walt Disney)
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“Raise It Up” from “August Rush”
(Warner Bros.)
Music and lyric by Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack and Tevin Thomas
“So Close” from “Enchanted”
(Walt Disney)
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
“That’s How You Know” from “Enchanted”
(Walt Disney)
Music by Alan Menken
Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
Best motion picture of the year
“Atonement” (Focus Features)
A Working Title Production
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production
Lianne Halfon, Mason Novick and Russell Smith, Producers
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
A Clayton Productions, LLC Production
Sydney Pollack, Jennifer Fox and Kerry Orent, Producers
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production
Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
A JoAnne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production
JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Lupi, Producers
Best animated short film
“I Met the Walrus”
A Kids & Explosions Production
Josh Raskin
“Madame Tutli-Putli” (National Film Board of Canada)
A National Film Board of Canada Production
Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
“Même les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)” (Premium Films)
A BUF Compagnie Production
Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
“My Love (Moya Lyubov)” (Channel One Russia)
A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production
Alexander Petrov
“Peter & the Wolf” (BreakThru Films)
A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production
Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman
Best live action short film
“At Night”
A Zentropa Entertainments 10 Production
Christian E. Christiansen and Louise Vesth
“Il Supplente (The Substitute)” (Sky Cinema Italia)
A Frame by Frame Italia Production
Andrea Jublin
“Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)” (Premium Films)
A Karé Production
Philippe Pollet-Villard
“Tanghi Argentini” (Premium Films)
An Another Dimension of an Idea Production
Guido Thys and Anja Daelemans
“The Tonto Woman”
A Knucklehead, Little Mo and Rose Hackney Barber Production
Daniel Barber and Matthew Brown
Achievement in sound editing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Skip Lievsay
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney)
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Christopher Scarabosio and Matthew Wood
“Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro)
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins
Achievement in sound mixing
“The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal)
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney)
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane
“3:10 to Yuma” (Lionsgate)
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe
“Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro)
Kevin O’Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin
Achievement in visual effects
“The Golden Compass” (New Line in association with Ingenious Film Partners)
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney)
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
“Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro)
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier
Adapted screenplay
“Atonement” (Focus Features)
Screenplay by Christopher Hampton
“Away from Her” (Lionsgate)
Written by Sarah Polley
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn)
Screenplay by Ronald Harwood
“No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Written for the screen by Paul Thomas Anderson
Original screenplay
“Juno” (Fox Searchlight)
Written by Diablo Cody
“Lars and the Real Girl” (MGM)
Written by Nancy Oliver
“Michael Clayton” (Warner Bros.)
Written by Tony Gilroy
“Ratatouille” (Walt Disney)
Screenplay by Brad Bird
Story by Jan Pinkava, Jim Capobianco, Brad Bird
“The Savages” (Fox Searchlight)
Written by Tamara Jenkins
The 80th Annual Academy Awards
The 80th Annual Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 24, 2008.
The following schedule may change and you should check it periodically or check the press releases section of this Web site to be sure you have the most recent information about the 80th Awards.
- Monday, December 3, 2007: Official Screen Credits forms due
- Wednesday, December 26, 2007: Nominations ballots mailed
- Saturday, January 12, 2008: Nominations polls close 5 p.m. PST
- Tuesday, January 22, 2008: Nominations announced 5:30 a.m. PST, Samuel Goldwyn Theater
- Wednesday, January 30, 2008: Final ballots mailed
- Monday, February 4, 2008: Nominees Luncheon
- Saturday, February 9, 2008: Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards presentation
- Tuesday, February 19, 2008: Final polls close 5 p.m. PST
- Sunday, February 24, 2008: 80th Annual Academy Awards presentation
Source: http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/timetable.html Read More......
Feb 21, 2008
Movie Reviw: Penelope (2008)
Poor Penelope. Her mother wants to marry her off but men aren't so much throwing themselves at her, as out of the nearest window. Born to aristocratic parents, the young Penelope (Christina Ricci) is stricken by a family curse that has left her, rather unfortunately, sporting a pig's snout for a nose. Only if she weds a fellow 'blue blood' can the curse be broken. Decent performances from a big name cast ensure this family fairytale is mildly entertaining fare, but it just isn't meaty enough to make a big squeal at the box office.
Having grown up in the confines of the family mansion, Penelope is desperate to escape from her protective parents (Catherine O'Hara, Richard E Grant) and experience the "outside world". But with money-making snappers (The Station Agent's Peter Dinklage) on the prowl she faces being made a laughing stock when all she wants is to live a normal life. The problem is that Ricci just isn't convincingly scary enough - she looks more like she's had a botched nose job as opposed to a walking advertisement for the grotesque.
"STRIKES A TOUCHING CHORD"
While the plot itself appears to have been cursed with some scenes stretched to breaking point, the theme of self-acceptance is sensitively played out and Penelope's predictable 'beauty is only skin deep' moment of realisation strikes a touching chord. But it's James McAvoy's irrepressible on-screen charm as likeable rogue/suitor Max, alongside welcome cameos from Nick Frost and Russell Brand, that manages to rescue this otherwise underwhelming fantasy from being a second-rate Shrek fable.
Penelope is out in the UK on 1st February 2008 2008.
Credits:
Director: Mark Palansky
Writer: Leslie Caveny,
Stars: Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon, Catherine O'Hara, Richard E Grant
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Length: 101 minutes
Cinema: 01 February 2008
Country: UK/US
Source: BBC London
JESSICA SIMPSON TO GET MARRIED
Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo are set to get married.
The "The Dukes of Hazzard" star, who has been dating American football star Tony since her father Joe set them up last November, is reportedly planning to tie the knot for a second time.
A source close to the couple said: "Jessica has never been happier than she is when she's with Tony."
"She knows her first marriage didn't work out, but she has a really good feeling about this one, and wants to make her feelings for Tony clear."
However, a friend of the singer - who was previously married to singer Nick Lachey - says the story is an elaborate stunt constructed by Jessica to promote her upcoming country music album.
The pal told America's OK! magazine: "I think it's a press stunt. She always leaks information about her faux love life when she's desperate to get her face on magazine covers!"
It was recently revealed Jessica is planning a new reality TV show documenting the release of her album.
A representative for CMT, the US TV network expected to broadcast the show, said: "We have had exploratory talks with Jessica's camp, but nothing has been confirmed or signed."
Source: BANG Showbiz
BRITNEY NOT ALLOWED TO SEE SONS
Britney Spears was denied permission to see her two sons yesterday (Feb 19, 2008).
The troubled singer's custody plea was rejected by family court commissioner Scott Gordon, despite ex-husband Kevin Federline supporting Britney's request to visit two-year-old Sean Preston and Jayden James, 17 months.
After the day-long closed court hearing, Kevin's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan said: "Both sides want to see the day that visitation can resume."
"It is a question of working out details on how that can happen. Mr. Federline looks forward to his children having their mom back in their life."
Kaplan also revealed Kevin is coping well as a single father, adding: "Mr. Federline is doing everything that he can to make up for the fact that the boys are with him."
"He is keeping family around the boys and trying to let them know there is any change whatsoever."
Britney's lawyer Anne Kiley was also unsuccessful in her request for a gag order to be placed on the case to prevent details being made public.
Commissioner Gordon explained: "We're dealing with very critical issues. The hearings are public. The public has a right to know what the courts are doing."
The hearing was the first in the custody battle since 26-year-old Britney was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation earlier this month.
Her father Jamie has co-conservatorship of Britney which gives him control over her day-to-day affairs.
Neither Britney - who sparked rumors she is pregnant again after being spotted with a bulging stomach at the weekend - or Kevin were present at yesterday's hearing.
Source: BANG Showbiz
AGUILERA WON'T STOP NAKED SUNDAYS
Christina Aguilera says motherhood won't stop her enjoying ''naked Sundays'' with her husband.
The "Dirty" singer - who gave birth to her first child, Max Liron, with record producer Jordan Bratman on January 12 - insists she will continue to lounge around in the nude at home.
Christina said: "When it comes to things like our cosy naked Sundays I think it's important for Jordan and I not to lose ourselves. Of course, having a child requires a lot of time and attention, but we think it's really important to still have mummy and daddy time."
Last year, Christina revealed she and Jordan liked to spice up their love life by spending a whole day naked every week.
The 27-year-old singer said: "We have to be the cosiest couple around. We have something called naked Sundays."
"On Sundays we just do everything in the house, and we're just cosy and laid back. We don't need to go anywhere, we're just with each other."
"We do everything naked. We cook naked."
"It's important to keep the marriage alive, to spice it up a little."
Source: BANG Showbiz
NATALIE PORTMAN'S SCARLETT SISTER
Natalie Portman wishes she had a sister like Scarlett Johansson.
Natalie, who is an only child, loved having Scarlett as her on screen sibling in new royal drama "The Other Boleyn Girl," in which they play Anne and Mary Boleyn.
Speaking at the film's royal premiere in London's Leicester Square last night (Feb 19, 2008), Natalie told BANG Showbiz: "I always grew up dreaming of having a sister. Working with Scarlett was wonderful, we became so close on set."
"I would cherish having a sister like Mary a lot more than my character Anne does, that's for sure."
"In the film Mary and Anne are battling for the affections of King Henry VIII and Anne is very scheming and cold. As someone who so longed to have a sister I wouldn't be like that at all."
Scarlett looked stunning on the red carpet in a Christian Lacroix one-shoulder silver dress, while Natalie dazzled in a claret Stella McCartney gown.
Eric Bana, who plays Henry VIII in the film, refused to be drawn on which actress he preferred kissing, saying coyly: "That's for me to know. I could never choose."
The screening was also attended by Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.
"The Other Boleyn Girl" sees a love triangle develop between Henry VIII and the Boleyn sisters, which takes a dark turn when Anne fails to provide him with a male heir.
Source: BANG Showbiz
SEAN BEAN FINALLY GETS MARRIED
Sean Bean married his long-term girlfriend yesterday (02.19.08).
The "Lord of the Rings" star tied the knot with Georgina Sutcliffe at London's Marylebone Register Office.
The intimate ceremony was witnessed by 15 friends and family including Sean's daughters - nine-year-old Evie from his second marriage to Abigail Cruttenden, and Molly and Lorna from his first marriage to actress Melanie Hill.
The bride looked stunning in a low-cut gold silk top with a black pencil skirt and champagne colored heels.
Sean - who first met Georgina when he accidentally text messaged her while trying to contact his assistant two years ago - wore a pinstriped suit, a navy blue tie and brown boots.
As the happy couple exited the registry office, Sean told waiting reporters he felt "fantastic" before the newlyweds departed in a red taxi.
Sean, 48, and Georgina - who is 20 years Sean's junior - were originally due to wed last month. However, the ceremony was canceled just 24 hours before with the couple citing "personal reasons."
This is the actor's fourth marriage, while it is Georgina's first.
Source: BANG Showbiz
20 Million Miles To Earth
Plot summary
A number of Sicilian fisherman are hauling in their empty nets when a huge rocketship crashes into the ocean. Two of the alarmed men overcome their fear and row out to the half-submerged wreck. They rescue two people, one of them Col. Calder, before the rocket begins to sink. Judging from the angle, it appeared to be embedded in the sea floor. Why did it suddenly start to sink? Anyway, the ship had traveled to Venus and back. The mission was top secret and the public is not informed of the achievement until later.
Of interest for other fans of classic science fiction: the rocket looked like one of the space arks from "When Worlds Collide."
Anxious fisherman and Commissioner Unte tend to the survivors, the latter urgently requests for a doctor. Meanwhile, Pepe spots a cylinder that washed ashore. The little brat hides it in a cave and subsequently opens the container. Inside is what appears to be a huge booger. A vague shape suggests that some sort of animal is encased in the gelatin. Pepe promptly takes the booger to Dr. Leonardo. The old biologist has been paying the urchin for unusual sea life caught in the nets. Yeah, anything brought back on a rocketship is going to be unique. Leonardo immediately pays two hundred lira for the oddity; the kid never mentions the rocket, nor the cylinder.
I have to point something out here. The entire blame for a number of deaths, human, canine, and the Ymir, can be placed squarely on Pepe's head. If, rather than being a greedy child, he had immediately turned the container over to the Commissioner, none of what follows would have happened.
Marisa was summoned to help with the crash survivors and soon runs afoul of Calder's temper. The other man, Dr. Sharman, is near death. The Colonel still insists on shaking him awake, an action that Marisa tries to discourage. The discourteous officer calls her a nurse and pesters the dying man until he expires.
Back at Leonardo's, the Ymir eventually wakes up and claws its way out of the gelatin. The creature frightens Marisa, while Dr. Leonardo is amazed. He locks it in a cage and is surprised the next morning. The creature more than doubles in size overnight! There is only one thing to do with such a fantastic find. The old man and his granddaughter pack their belongings and head for Rome.
General McIntosh arrives at the sleepy village and immediately begins offering big rewards for anyone who finds the lost cylinder. The specimen from Venus is considered the most important part of the expedition. Pepe, hearing the word "lira," immediately shows the Americans where he left the empty container and tells them to whom he sold the contents. Before the search begins for Dr. Leonardo, McIntosh gives the brat his money.
How is that for a moral? Do the wrong thing - get paid twice.
After several hours of bouncing around in a towed cage, the Ymir is both larger and upset. It scares Marisa again, then breaks out of the cage and flees into the woods. The creature is wonderfully animated. It stalks across the screen and never seems to sit still. If the head is not turning, then the tail is lashing. I have always had a special fondness, out of Harryhausen's many wonders, for the Ymir. It is just so cool looking. And gentle, the "beast" would not hurt a lamb (unless the walking mutton poked it first).
The military types soon locate Dr. Leonardo. Calder finds the time to insult Marisa once more before the group begins searching for the Ymir. They almost capture it in a barn, but it escapes. One man is seriously injured in the chaos and Unte immediately decides that the alien is dangerous and must be destroyed. The rocketship commander has other, less lethal, ideas in mind. One is how to capture the Ymir, the other is that dating a woman who is willing to take his crap might be fun. Marisa and Bob (Calder's first name) start making eyes at each other.
Pursued by trigger-happy Italians on the ground and menaced by low flying American helicopters, it is surprising that the Venusian stops to eat the sulfur dropped as bait. A net is dropped over the Ymir and electric generators are attached. The current knocks the creature unconscious. It is taken to Rome, where the phenomenal growth continues.
The primary reason that the United States government wanted the creature captured was to find out how it survived in Venus' toxic atmosphere. A number of men on the expedition died after exposure to Venus, despite advanced respirators. The Ymir's internal workings are studied, revealing no major organs! The reason it was resistant to gunfire is that its circulatory and respiratory systems are not centralized. The Ymir is a web of connected vessels, with dense filters in the tubes that carry air.
An unfortunate accident at the research facility cuts the electric power. The Ymir, now sixteen feet tall, wakes up and knocks down a wall to get free. The Venusian is not happy. (How would you like to be sedated with electric current?) Even on a rampage, it probably would not have harmed anyone or anything unless provoked. First an elephant, that screams like a pterodactyl, attacks, then the military chases it through Rome. Grenades, rifles, and tanks are used. Cornered atop the Coliseum, the suffering visitor from another world is finally killed.
I genuinely felt sorry for the Ymir (it is never called such in the film, but this is its name). Watching "20 Million Miles to Earth" as a child, it was monumentally sad when the creature fell from atop the ancient Roman structure and laid still amidst the broken stone.
Read this review from Badmovies.com
Feb 19, 2008
Get your sport and concert ticket at Viagogo
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Viagogo is an online ticket exchange aimed at the European and American market. Here you can get your London Tickets. You can buy and sell live event tickets in a safe and guaranteed way, and to bring "efficiency and transparency to what has traditionally been a murky market place".
Inorder to guarantee your transaction, Viagogo offer you full ticket tracking, managed logistics and live customer service support.
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Ready to buy ticket, or just wanna see ticket around, check out this link
Feb 14, 2008
Brad Pitt Exclusive Wallpapers for Windows and Mac
Download Brad Pitt Exclusive Wallpapers for Windows and Mac. All our desktop wallpapers are created exclusively for AllMoviePortal.com. You won't find it anywhere on the web! Enjoy it while it's free.
Instruction
Select the size (800x600 or 1024x768 pixels).
Click on the link below the thumbnail.
Windows: Right click on image and 'Set as Background' or 'Set as Wallpaper'
Mac OSX: Drag the image onto your desktop. Go to System Preferences. Then go to the Desktop icon and open it. Then drag the image into the well.
Mac OS9: Drag the image onto your desktop. Go to your Control Panel and select Appearance. Click 'set desktop' and choose your new desktop.
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Brad Pitt Movie Wallpaper
Brad Pitt,
Movie Wallpaper,
Mr. and Mrs. Smith,
Photo Gallery,
The Assassination of Jesse James
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2007 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford WallpaperDownload Wallpaper: 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024
All Wallpaper of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
All Wallpaper of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Actors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt arrive to the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium on January 27, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards - Arrivals. Shrine Auditorium. Los Angeles, California United States.January 27, 2008.Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage.com. See more photos
Brad Pitt Wallpaper, 2005, Mr. and Mrs. SmithRead More......
Valentine Movie Review
Film detail:
Valentine also known as: Mortelle Saint-Valentin Valentine's
Logline: Ten years after a nerd is humiliated by several women in college he seeks dark revenge.
Genres: Comedy, Romance, Suspense/Horror, Thriller and Adaptation
Running Time: 1 hr. 36 min.
Release Date: February 2, 2001 Nationwide
Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Production Co.: NPV Entertainment
Village Roadshow Pictures Entertainment Studios: (USA): Warner Bros. Pictures
U.S. Box Office: $20,384,136
Filming Locations: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Produced in: United States
Starring: Daniel Cosgrove, Katherine Heigl, Katherine Heigi, David Boreanaz, Denise Richards
Valentine is the type of movie that I suspect most mainstream critics are likely to skewer. I do not see any Oscar nominations forthcoming. However, it was basically exactly what we've come to expect from today's slasher flicks, and that's both good and bad in many ways.
Denise Richards in Valentine The story here revolves around five young ladies who have been best friends since childhood. There was this kid in the sixth grade that was the kind of misfit kid that children will always pick on. The girls are certainly no different and at a Valentines Day dance things got out of hand and the young man ended up getting put away for the rest of his childhood.
We join the girls many years later as the young women are actively dating and looking for relationships. A really twisted Valentine shows up for each of them and people start dying, and the prime suspect turns out to be the kid they all made fun of back in the sixth grade. Our slasher here wears a cupid mask, and like most slashers isn't picky about his choice of weapons, he'll use whatever is sharp and handy. We did enjoy his Valentine cards though with text such as "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, They'll need dental records to identify you!" Hallmark take note!
Of the cast, the only one of the girls you're likely to recognize is Denise Richards. And we were pleased that she played the member of the group who had a bit of a morally casual attitude that we really like. In other words, she's the slut of the bunch. We get lots of cleavage shots and even a bikini shot in the hot tub, but unfortunately nothing more from Denise or any of the girls. What the heck has happened to the obligatory bare breast shot in booger movies?
Overall, although we found the movie to be a bit formulatic, it delivered basically exactly what the trailers promised. Consequently it gets 3 stars from us although we do have some issues with it. Denise's breasts would've been good for another star! It seems the modern day slasher flick is almost trying to be more politically correct and cut back on the blood, etc. Unfortunately, it's a slasher flick, that's what we expect. It's going to get the R-rating for violence no matter what, so let us have our breast shot and let the blood fly. The people who gripe about such things do not go see these movies anyway. The ones who do see the movie know it is just that and are there to be entertained. Enforce the R-rating, keep out the kiddies, and give us the campy violence and indestructable boogers that we expect.
Enough of the soapbox. Bottom line if you've seen the trailer and it looks like a movie you'd like, you probably will. If you looked at the trailer and kinda shrugged, go see something else.
Reviewed by Billy Bob (email :billybob@moviesforguys.com)
Source:
Review : www.movieforguys.com
Film detail: www.moviesyahoo.com
Pamela Anderson's Valentine's strip
Pamela Anderson is to strip on stage on Valentine's Day (14.02.08).
The former 'Baywatch' actress will perform four times at Paris' Le Crazy Horse cabaret club on February 13 and 14, after club owner Andree Diessenberg saw her assisting magician Hans Klok in his Las Vegas show last year.
Diessenberg told People magazine: "Pamela chose the dates herself. But when I saw her onstage, I said to myself right away, 'I have to put her onstage.' What a knockout!
Pamela will perform a Brigitte Bardot tribute number entitled 'Harley Davidson' and will also appear in the finale."
Le Crazy Horse is a cabaret club situated on the expensive Avenue George V in France's capital city. After opening in 1952, it quickly became known as the 'Temple of Nudity' because of its completely naked policy.
The club is frequented by many stars. Burlesque queen Dita Von Teese regularly performs, while Jay-Z and Beyoncé Knowles treated themselves to a private visit for Jay-Z's 38th birthday last year.
Mother-of-two Pamela is said to be "in discussions" about whether or not she will appear fully nude in the finale.
Feb 10, 2008
Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour
Screaming of tweens might not be music to ears, but ringing of registers will be
By Chad Greene
“It’s like standing behind a jet when it revs up,” the stage manager for the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both of Both Worlds Concert Tour says of the decibel level inside the packed-to-the-rafters arenas shown in this Disney Digital 3D documentary. “Actually, it’s even worse.”
While shrilly screaming tweens might not be music to the ears of any exhibitor, constantly ringing cash registers will be. Opening the day after Miley Cyrus—the star of the Disney Channel hit Hannah Montana—ends her absolutely sold-out tour, this silver-screen version is sure to be a huge hit. Set to run theatrically for only one week, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert has already generated gigantic advance ticket sales and could be extended through Valentine’s Day weekend.
Truth be told, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour is not a prime example of the musical documentary genre—cameras crash clumsily through shot after shot, jibs loom monstrously in the darkened arenas. The 3D effect is only intermittently impressive—primarily in shots that pan across the thousands of arms waving glow sticks in the audience. And both the moderately talented Cyrus and her blonde-wigged alter ego are outperformed by supporting act the Jonas Brothers. But let’s be honest: Hannah/Miley’s millions of fans are likely to belt out “Nobody’s Perfect” and scream anyway.
Distributor: Disney
Cast: Miley Cyrus, Joe Jonas, Kevin Jonas, Nick Jonas, Kenny Ortega and Billy Ray Cyrus
Director: Bruce Hendricks
Producer: Art Repola
Genre: Musical documentary
Rating: G
Running time: 74 min.
Release date: February 1, 2008 ltd.
Source: http://boxoffice.com/reviews/2008/02/hannah-montanamiley-cyrus-best.php
Movie Review: "Across the Universe"
Director and co-writer Julie Taymor gets points here for concocting one of the strangest and most fascinating musicals of recent years. Across the Universe is a story of the 1960s and of the now, performed as a dramatic musical set entirely to the great songs of The Beatles. With a strong and affecting narrative tied together by often breathtaking modern performances of the great Lennon/McCartney pieces, Across the Universe is a strange and at times staggering trip.
Despite having directed a number of films now (the ultra-confronting Titus among them), Julie Taymor is still best known as a visionary theatre director: her celebrated stage adaptation of The Lion King is still playing at theatres around the world, and is still packing them in. While I’ve never gotten around to seeing that particular opus, after seeing Across the Universe I’d believe that Taymor could turn even gauche Disney fluff into memorable theatre.
Across the Universe is set in Liverpool, New York, California and Vietnam, and is a passionate love story and ode to the activist and politically volatile decade that The Beatles helped to compose the soundtrack to. Our hero and heroine (Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood) are, respectively, a Liverpool boy and an upper-class American girl, both of whom grow up through the turbulence that characterised the 1960s, and who become lovers, activists and artists, and, ultimately, symbols of the youthful spirits of their time. The story entails cross-cultural romance, sexual revolution, the conflict between art and commerce, conscription, the protest culture, the sixties drug scene, the music business and class conflict. It’s a heady mix, and for the most part Sturgess and Wood prove themselves utterly up to the task of giving spirit to it all. Taymor has used these wonderful actors (both of whom prove themselves gifted singers as well) to ground her kaleidoscopic odyssey in human warmth and passion, and this helps to drag even the most dubious audience-member into the film effortlessly. This reviewer was in two minds to begin with, but within ten screen minutes I was sold on the conceit of this film; clunky though it all may sound from one perspective, it’s at times a deeply affecting portrait of one of the most important decades of the twentieth century. The 1960s of course also represent that time many of us wish we could rekindle the spirit of, and it’s clear that Taymor is holding this idea up for us to inspect. One can’t watch the Vietnam sequences in Across the Universe without thinking of that other conflict that has helped to define this first troubled decade of the 21st century.
Like all of Taymor’s work, Across the Universe features many sequences of inspired inventiveness and breathtaking visual beauty. The music is all energetically performed, and singers like Bono and Joe Cocker not only contribute memorable cover versions of some of the crucial songs, but make interesting cameos in the film too. While the odd set-piece (for example the sequence set in a returned-soldiers’ hospital ward) descends into surely unintentional comedy, for the most part the film absolutely seduces the audience with its visionary mix of politics, romance and artistry. Across the Universe might just prove the most memorably idiosyncratic love story of the year.
Sourcee: http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/stories/s2080640.htm
Movie Review: The Band's Visit
I wasn't wild about seeing The Band's Visit. From the publicity materials, it looked like another one of those watered-down, Hallmarky foreign-language films that have slowly seeped into the American box office, stuff like Like Water for Chocolate, Il Postino or Life Is Beautiful that appeals to wide audiences without ever rising above pure fluff. (Many of these films fell under Harvey Weinstein's scissors, and were each similarly shaped according to his commercial instincts.) But happily The Band's Visit has its own rhythms and personality apart from all this. It's a crowd-pleaser, to be sure, but an expertly crafted and hugely rewarding one.
Written and directed by Eran Kolirin, making his feature debut, the film is a member of that great, but underused genre: disparate personalities thrown together by unexpected circumstances, like Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944), Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1957) or John Hughes' The Breakfast Club (1985). The Band's Visit sets up its visual displacement right away, as the eight members of the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Band from Egypt wait at an Israeli airport, on an almost abandoned, sun-baked platform, vainly hoping that their hosts will pick them up. They stand, starch-stiff in their immaculate uniforms, silent instruments crated at their feet. The leader, Tawfiq (Sasson Gabai, also in Rambo III -- no kidding) decides to take action. He orders the band's youngest member, a tall ladies man, Khaled (Saleh Bakri) to get directions. But in speaking to an attractive girl behind a counter, he gets the wrong pronunciation and the band winds up in a desolate town on the far side of the country.
By the time the mistake is discovered, there are no more busses for the rest of the day. Fortunately, there's a café. Its loose, laid-back manager Dina (Ronit Elkabetz, from Late Marriage and Amos Gitai's Alila) offers to help them out for the night. The eight members split up to stay with Dina and her friends in their small dwellings; Tawfiq and Khaled end up with Dina herself. The sensuous and playful Dina invites the sad, withdrawn Tawfiq out for dinner, while Khaled ends up tagging along on a disastrous double-date to a roller disco. Another band member is charged with phoning the Egyptian embassy, but must share the public phone with a local who waits -- every night -- for a call from his girlfriend. Tawfiq's right-hand man Simon (Khalifa Natour), who has waited years for his own chance to conduct, learns his own life lessons while staying with the out-of-work Itzik (Rubi Moscovich).
Of course, Kolirin is setting up a parable about Israeli-Arab relations, but the magic of The Band's Visit is that all these situations and relationships dance right on the edge of cutesy and just a hair's breadth away from sentimental. It takes a great deal of skill to strike this balance and effectively pull it off; it's perhaps even more difficult than pulling off a complicated three-hour epic with thousands of extras, props, costumes and effects. You can see just how close Kolirin comes to disaster in some of the movie's publicity stills, with characters posing in silly, joyous ways. But a closer look reveals how completely Kolirin has understood his subjects and their physical surroundings. When Dina and Tawfiq are onscreen together, they're like apples and oranges; he's rigid and emotionally closed, while she's limpid and invitingly sensual. She flirts with him and he politely resists. But Kolirin keeps these physical attributes firmly within the characters and their personalities; they do not turn into cartoons merely to illustrate Kolirin's point.
Khaled throws an interesting bend in this straight-across opposites-attract dynamic. He's much more like Dina than his bandmate, confident and sensual. And Tawfiq and Khaled have fought just previous to their rescue, with Khaled's membership in the band threatened. Once again the director lays out this touchy dynamic in very interesting, visual ways. What makes the film such a great import is that the Egyptians and Israelis mainly use English to converse; the film, or at least the print I saw, provides subtitles, but only for those unaccustomed to thick accents. Likewise, Khaled likes to use Chet Baker as part of his pickup routine, complete with a sexy, crooned version of "My Funny Valentine."
But the overall effect of the English dialogue is that it elevates the characters to the same kind of new level of politeness. They relate to each other as outsiders, rather than as one group visiting another group. This also throws into relief the simple, but civilized concepts of being invited and visiting. It's very touching watching the characters regard one another and interact with one another with tentative curiosity; they almost spur one another on to better behavior. Sometimes when a guest leaves, there's a sense of relief; we can go back to relaxing and being ourselves. But when The Band's Visit ends we feel refreshed and fulfilled.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/adelaide/stories/s2080640.htm
How to Rob a Bank
By Annlee Ellingson
And 10 tips on how not to get away with it
Distributor: IFC First Take
Cast: Nick Stahl, Erika Christensen, Gavin Rossdale, Terry Crews, Leo Fitzpatrick and David Carradine
Director/Screenwriter: Andrews Jenkins
Producers: Rick Lashbrook, Darby Parker, Arthur Sarkissian and Tim O’Hair
Genre: Crime thriller
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 81 min.
Release date: February 6, 2008 NY
For a hip commercial and music-video director, Andrews Jenkins is oddly behind the curve and out of step in his feature directorial debut, subtitled And 10 Tips on How to Get Away With It. The problems start with his specious premise: that we are being relentlessly nickel-and-dimed by service surcharges.
Granted, it’s a bit hard to swallow that one has to pay to access his or her own money. But Jenkins centers his critique of this “crime of convenience” on the $1.50 charge to withdraw money from an ATM machine—which, of course, isn’t applied at every ATM, just those that aren’t operated by your own financial institution. Jenkins glosses over this detail while also complaining about cell-phone roaming fees (what wireless plan doesn’t blanket the majority of major markets these days?) and late fees on DVD rentals (likewise a thing of the past in this post-Netflix era).
When’s he’s charged $1.50 to withdraw his last $20, only to be told that because of the fee he now has insufficient funds, Jason “Jinx” Taylor (Nick Stahl) storms into his bank amid a robbery-in-progress. He runs for cover and ends up locked in the vault with seductive hired gun Jessica (Erika Christensen) and the computer at the center of the theft. Outside, cliché British villain Simon (Gavin Rossdale) tries to negotiate access to the vault while Officer Degepse (a cartoonish Terry Crews) manages the S.W.A.T. team surrounding the building.
Jenkins peppers this simple yet still fuzzy plot with banter whose potential for wit is sidelined by its delivery. Stahl is the most natural actor of the bunch, but Christensen has never convincingly inhabited any role, and the other players are little more than caricatures.
When the jokes are working—for example, Jessica explains to Jinx that freelance criminals connect via an online Duran Duran fan forum where they use the code “Hungry Like the Wolf” to set up bank robberies—Jenkins overplays them. The exchange goes on and on, with Jessica further revealing that Led Zeppelin is the preferred network for the CIA, until Jinx asks, “But why Duran Duran?” The bit ends with a lame “Why not?”
For heist flicks like How to Rob a Bank, the biggest sin one can commit is not staying at least one step ahead of the audience. But here the complications, especially in the third act (when the details of the larger plot—a scheme borrowed liberally from Office Space—are revealed) are either extremely unlikely (what bank vault doesn’t have a backup generator?) or predictably obvious and, although ponderously foreshadowed, ultimately resolved by dumb luck.
Source: http://boxoffice.com/reviews/2008/02/how-to-rob-a-bank.php
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Feb 7, 2008
Meet the Spartans (2008)
Doing Battle on the Field of Parody
So much has been written about the homoeroticism in the film “300” that any spoof is bound to feel like overkill. Fortunately, overkill is what Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer do best: as the uncontested titans of the parody genre (with fingers in everything from the “Scary Movie” franchise to the more recent “Epic Movie”) they continue to prove that ridiculing other movies is much easier than making your own.
In “Meet the Spartans,” King Leonidas (Sean Maguire, whose accent veers from London to Glasgow and back again) and 13 faithful boyfriends — er, soldiers — face off against the Persians and an avalanche of pop-culture detritus. While a slutty Queen Margo (Carmen Electra, of course) tries to distract the men from one another, celebrity not-so-lookalikes and unfunny reality-show takeoffs vie for our attention and gag reflex.
As redundant and tasteless as Queen Margo’s crab-infested chastity belt, “Meet the Spartans” is best described by the reactions of a row of what appeared to be sixth graders who shared the screening with me. As various Spartans slipped one another the tongue (Eewwww!), a nipple clamp was ripped off with the nipple still attached (Aaarghh!) and the Spartans skipped into battle singing “I Will Survive” (Huh?), I realized the kids had said it all.
“Meet the Spartans” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has flying dentures, a flatulent penguin and human testicles smeared with dog food.
MEET THE SPARTANS
Opened on Friday nationwide.
Written and directed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer; director of photography, Shawn Maurer; edited by Peck Prior; music by Christopher Lennertz; production designer, William Elliott; produced by Mr. Friedberg, Mr. Seltzer and Peter Safran; released by Regency Enterprises and 20th Century Fox. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes.
WITH: Sean Maguire (Leonidas), Carmen Electra (Queen Margo), Ken Davitian (Xerxes) and Kevin Sorbo (Captain).
Source: http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/01/26/movies/26spar.html
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