-Here is a breakdown of the new Watchmen footage screened, and announcement of an official running time of 2 hours and 43 minutes.
-Check out that awesome Angels and Demons poster.
–Thor has a director.
–Max Payne gets the PG-13 it always wanted.
–Russell Crowe will play both Nottingham and Robin Hood in the upcoming Ridley Scott adaptation, but I think there is more to this then a dual role.
Flash of Genius is a serious drama about the true life struggles of Bob Kearns who had to fight the major motor companies for vindication on his creation, and the results are a solid offering, even though it might be a bit of heavy material.
Bob Kearns (Greg Kinnear) is an engineering professor who was always coming up with something. For as long as he could remember he was always creating useful ways to improve things and make things work better, so one day when he noticed a problem with his windshield wipers, he sought out something to do about it. What he created was the later to be named intermittent wiper that we all know and love today and he began on the process to sell it too the major motor companies in his home town of Detroit.
Partnering with his friend Gil Privik (Dermot Mulroney) Bob sets out to produce and sell all intermittent wipers to the major car companies and live out his new found dream he has always been looking for. Unfortunately, the road does not go as planned and Ford backs out of the deal, only to find Bob’s model in use six months later on the new line up of Ford vehicles. Bob quickly falls into a tail spin as he tries to earn his due and it has an effect on his personal, work, and family life in turn.
Bob’s struggles for credit are the focus of the picture and it is a passionate fight that he ends up having to try to take all the way to court. Greg Kinnear does a fantastic job of capturing Kearns and all of his subtleties, and I imagine he nailed the way this man was. Though outside Kinnear there isn’t a lot for the rest of the cast to do, it’s all kind of Kinnear’s show. But that isn’t a horrible thing at all, as he is great, but Dermot Mulroney is able to shine in his work and Lauren Graham does a fair job as Kearns wife. The child actors also do admirable jobs as the Kearns family and Alan Alda is great as Bob’s pro bono attorney; though he is just basically a nice version of his Aviator character.
The thing that holds this film back though is the heavy mood over all the proceedings. And I understand the material is rough and a hard row, but they could have done a better job of injecting some humor here or there or do a better job of not dragging out the miserable times of this man’s life as long as they did. Thankfully, when the film hits it’s final act, it is running at its best, and does a great job of finishing strong in the end; which a lot of movies can’t really say nowadays.
In the end, Flash of Genius is a solid drama that tells a great little story of the little guy fighting for what is his. The material seems a bit stretched for a feature, but the editing and pacing mis-steps that pop up might be to blame for that. Greg Kinnear is great and deserves any and all the praise he will get for this and easily carries this film on his shoulders. If your looking for a great little untold story, and don’t need a film with a ton of pick-me ups, this is an enjoyable endeavor.
[rating:3.5/5]
Greg kinneear is developing into a fine actor. Coming off a great performance in Little Miss Sunshine and a disturbing Bob Crane in Auto Focus, Kinnear takes up the fight of the little guy in “Flash of Genius” . Flash of Genius isbased on a true story about a little automotive item that many of us now take for granted …the intermittent windshield wiper.
Kinnear plays electrical engineer Dr. Robert Kearns. One rainy Sunday, on their way home from church, Bob is struck with the idea of slowing down the wipers on thew car only to wipe when needed. He attributes it to the human eyelid it closes only when the eye needs it to. Kearns grabs some parts and the wiper assembly from his car and over the next few weeks developed a prototype windshield wiper called the Kearn’s Blinking Eye Wiper. He then tells the family they are going into business and will produce the wiper motors and sell them to all the automotive manufacturers. He gets together with longtime friend and car dealer Gil Previck (Dermot Mulroney) who financially backs Kearns, obtains the patents for the invention and sets up the meet with Ford Motor company.
After a little mishap with a blown fuse , the blinking eye wiper astounds the research and development team at Ford. A College Professor comes up with they very thing Ford has been trying to build for 2 years in a matter of weeks. Pivick and Kearns sit down with Ford and strike a deal, verbally, but they need approval from Washington since the part is a safety device. Kearns supplies a working model and all of his research to Ford who mysteriously withdraws from the agreement with Kearns with out any reason. Weeks later as the Car Giant unveils the new Mustang, Kearns notices and brand new feature..the intermittent wiper!Â
This sends Kearns into orbit..he wants justice. His invention was stolen by Ford and now he has lost everything. Bob loses everything in his search for justice, his job, his family and his mind as he has a nervous breakdown. Bob Kearns continues his “David vs. Goliath” fight against Detroit Giant Ford. Ford in an attempt to keep it out of the newspapers offers millions to Kearns, but he just wants the truth to be known…He was the one who invented the wiper. The film concludes in a stunning courtroom debate between Bob (Representing himself) and the lawyers from Ford. The performance by Kinnear in the courtroom is “a cherry on top of this sundae” in the finely done film. Running time is about 2 hours but the story will have you captivated on what Kearns must go through just to see that justice is done. There are a lot of performances this year that will merit a mention during the award season, but failure to have Kinnear in there will be a huge mistake.
[rating: 4/5]
It is a sad day today, as Paul Newman, a screen legend, has lost his recent battle to cancer. His struggles had been know for sometime, and he lived a long and eventful life to the age of 83, but he will be sorely missed in the film community.
Staring in an umpteen amount of classics, Cool Hand Luke, The Sting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hustler, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Verdict, Road to Perdition, Slap Shot, and many, many more. He also contributed much to society and charity with his Newman’s Own line of foods and was always giving back to his film community as well; inspiring ends upon ends of actors through the years.
So do yourself a favor and go rent a Newman classic tonight and pop a nice bag of Newman’s Own popcorn and remember one of the great actors of all time, who will live on with us for as long as we watch his work in film.
For more about the man, head here. Or check out his career on IMDB.
1925-2008
A short batch this week, not much rumbling and grumbling in the film world right now apparently!
-The director of Wanted, Timur Bekmambetov, will be next taking on Moby Dick.
-More Shane Black is a good thing, and the Cold Warrior sounds promising. Also go out and see Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang already; I will even let you take credit for finding the movie too your friends.
-A Rashomon remake is getting closer to becoming a reality.
-Head here for a bunch of material for Sam Rockwell’s Moon!
It sure seems like it at least. At a press event shin dig yesterday, the Mouse House announced that Johnny Depp will be staring in three of their future tent-pole pictures. Jack Sparrow will be back in the alluded to sequel at the end of the third film, Sparrow will be the focus of the picture; though I guarantee Barbosa and Will Turner will make appearances. He will also star as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s mo-cap 3-D adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. On top of all of this, he is also planning on playing Tonto in a new adaptation of the Loan Ranger. Whew, well at least he will be busy, lets hope that quality products are churned out of this in the end. Best bet to be the best? Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton, which will be the first of these films to get off the ground. For all details, check here!
Sex and the City hits the big screen and unfortunately fizzles as a stand alone film due to a bloated run time and a lack of comic balance that made the show as good as it was.
The film picks up a few years after the shows finale, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) is still with big and happy, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Steve aren’t having much sex, Samantha (Kim Catrall) lives with Smith in LA and sees the girls as she travels back and forth for publicity events, and Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and Harry are happily raising their adopted daughter. Carrie and Big are looking for a place together and eventually decide to take the big plunge and finally get married. The planning and happiness swells for Carrie as problems bubble for Samantha and Miranda, while Charlotte sits by and provides positive support. Though as the date grows near Big grows weary and the always noncommittal man might have second thoughts, while Carrie crafts her next book which is to be centered on being in love rather than finding it.
Where the film goes from there I will let you discover, but if you have seen the preview then you already know just about everything anyways, so avoid if you haven’t seen yet and want to be surprised. My problem with the film is that it just isn’t that funny. The best jokes in the film are a poop joke and a reoccurring dog humping bit, outside that Samantha has a couple of good one liners here and there and that is about it. I know the series took serious looks at relationships all the time, but the usually spliced in one story line every show that was ripe for humor, that really isn’t apparent here. Three of the characters eventually end up in serious relationship lows and it just isn’t fun to watch and not entertaining at all. Also, the first hour or so of the film is like one giant label designer advertisement, mixed in with a couple of sly product placements. I mean it literally felt like I was watching a commercial with B-list actors showing off clothing, and the Vogue photo shoot was laughable at the blatant advertising ploy they are going for as Carrie changes dresses and then voiceovers the name of designer in an airy and exasperated voice; it was eye rolling city as it carried on for well over a couple minutes. Another thing that hurt the film is that the guys in the picture took a serious back seat to the proceedings and all of them saw more screen time in an episode then they did in this film. These significant others of these characters are a part of who these women are and to just make them background objects is a real shame, especially when they can be at the root of much of the comedy the show is so good at.
The film also didn’t do anything new or original that we haven’t really seen on the show. The movie didn’t try to be any more grand other then having as many labels and expensive fashion as possible. The film came across as a strung out episode or a couple of them mashed together without a very good overall arc for them. It would have been nice to have seen them change things up a little bit, and I am not asking them to alter the formula per say, but at least add a few new ingredients. And on that note, they do try this with Carrie’s personal assistant Louise (Jennifer Hudson), but ultimately her plot line is rushed and is only glimpsed at briefly and serves mostly as a catalyst for Carrie to find her way again. Which begs another question with unoriginality, what have these girls learned? Anything, they fall into the same traps and patterns over and over again, and I am sure they have been taught these life lessons in previous episodes at least once before, why can’t they make the right decision when they should, and maybe a new problem arises for them? I don’t know, maybe I am just rambling.
Though, because the film didn’t work for me doesn’t necessarily mean the actors did a bad job, because they were all very true to form for their established characters they respectably play. Samantha seemed to be played a bit tamer, but her situation dictated that, not Catrall’s performance. And while on Catrall, she does a great job in the film and is the real stand out of the picture here. She makes the most of her tired plot and keeps the funniest character in the franchise just that.
Unfortunately for Kristin Davis she has nothing to do as Charlotte. She literally spends the film as a moral support for her friends with little else to do, and maybe that’s why keeping everyone happy wouldn’t work as a compelling piece of work. Cynthia Nixon is solid a Miranda and can be as big a B as ever in this film, she walks that line of love hate so delicately and she straddles it here well once again. Sarah Jessica Parker actually comes across as the most flat and dialed in of the main actresses to be quite honest, and when she is hogging most of the spotlight, that isn’t going to help ones’ liking of the film. She didn’t come across as heartbroken as they wanted us to think she can be, or as happy as she was supposed to be as well. She unfortunately had to handle most of the super sappy scenes as well and they were saptastic to the extreme. The men also all do admirable jobs, with all of them getting little screen time and having very little to work with. Either way, no one is terrible by any means, but no one really knocked me on my ass with anything great or surprising, and I think that sums up this film well as now one really took any chances and played everything fairly safe.
The girls are back and unfortunately it doesn’t really matter as they were put into a safe bet instead of trying to do anything new or even be as risquà © and daring as the show could be sometimes. Diehards of the show will enjoy it, but casual fans that find the show funny when you catch it on TV are surely to be disappointed as it does not live up to the already set standard for the franchise. When a TV show becomes a film it should be trying to be the biggest, best, and peak of what the show is capable of being and unfortunately Sex and the City on the big screen doesn’t come close to being any of those things.
[rating:2.5/5]
Check out the theatrical review for Sex and the City here. [rating:4/5]
Definitley the release of the week, The Godfather Trilogy, has been painstainkgly repaired and restored to about as good as these films can posssibly look. Each movie gets its own disc, no more swapping DVD’s on Part II or VHS is you still role that way, and the extras are plentiful and intriquite. This collection is a must own for anyone that reads this site, and you should be in line to pick up this title ASAP! And if you don’t have a Blu Ray player, here is a great deal ($199!!!) to finally take the plunge to enjoy these films at their best.
Arguably a Top 3 pick for best crime movies of all-time, this noir-ish masterpiece of dirty Hollywood and Cops in LA is headlined by an A+ list cast with knockout performances by everyone. Filled with twists, turns, comedy, action, and romance, this movie has it all. This one is a steal on either format you pick up, but again, I would go with Blu if you have it, and if you don’t, why dont you?
Sorry for the delay, but I threw in all of todays quick hits as well! Enjoy!
–Doubt looks pretty much fantastic.
-The King of Kong director Seth Gordon’s next is a Christmas movie, we will see how that goes. At least if it sucks, he still has King of Kong!
-Please let Aronofsky make a Noah’s Ark film!
-The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has a video sneak peek.
–Ben Affleck has a new writing, directing, and acting vehicle.
Adam Carolla’s latest is a great little indie comedy that will go down as one of the better sports films of the last few years.
Carolla stars as Jerry Ferro, a handyman that has trouble keeping his day job, but finds peace in his boxing conditioning and classes that he teaches. Jerry was once a Gold Glove boxer that never made it big for the lack of any real reason. With a knock out hook and the ability to take some punches made him a formidable opponent but his life steered away from that and he finds him self living the day to day grind. Luckily for Jerry both a girl and a boxing comeback both pop back into his life at the same time and the story of The Hammer follows both of these comebacks.
The film is full of little twists and turns, so I will save those for you, but the story is solid and entertaining with Carolla supplying plenty of laughs. There are a couple of sections throughout the film where they let Carolla just riff on a topic and the results are some great lines and funny observations and it all comes across very natural in the conversation among Carolla and his co-stars. The romantic angle of the film also works really well with Carolla and Heather Juergensen playing off each other with ease. The arc is even touching at times and Carolla’s Jerry can come across as very sad and humbling at times while not coming across as desperate and that really makes him very likable and the film feel real.
Now, if you thought the romance worked well, well the boxing works even better, as Corolla proves he is more than up to the task. Carolla is so good in fact he has to have had some sort of substantial amount of experience in the past. The boxing scenes look great and they are even able to inject a good amount of humor into them as well.
Carolla can’t deserve enough praise for his work in the film, and while it isn’t an Oscar caliber turn, he excels at the physical side while also handling the touching scenes very well on top of that and shows a great amount of range while perfectly capturing the attitude of that single middle aged man that is desperately trying to hold on to the things he loves in life. I mentioned Juergensen’s work as the love interest and it is solid and works well in the picture. She might not knock the socks off everyone, but she is cute, smart, and sweet and is incredibly likable, as we root for the two to end up together.
The Hammer is a pleasant and welcome entry to the sports film scene. It is funny, with well shot action, and a story you can get behind. While the film is definitely a low budget affair it doesn’t really hurt the believability of the film and actually helps authenticate it as a small time guy trying to get out of the small time life. So run out and rent The Hammer, it works as a sports flick, a comedy, a rom-com, and has a little bit of something for everyone.
[rating:4/5]
Patrick Dempsey stars in this romantic comedy that brings nothing new to the genre and is about as unoriginal as a romantic comedy can be; though the film still is at least entertaining.
Dempsey stars as Tom, a life long bachelor that is a millionaire after inventing the ‘coffee cruiser’, which has an amazing platonic friendship with Hannah (Michelle Monaghan), a girl he accidentally fell into friendship with. The two meet every Sunday to discuss their lives and while Tom has “relations” with many women, and never on back to back days to remain noncommittal, he has every other part of a relationship with Hannah as the two go together like peas and carrots. When Hannah leaves for Scotland for six weeks for work, Tom notices a void in his life and realizes sleeping around with as many women as possible isn’t necessarily the way to go. He decides to tell Hannah how he feels only to find her to be engaged and thrown into the position of Made of Honor for he said wedding. Tom decides to take up the role, but ultimately try to use it to win her over in the two weeks he has before the wedding.
The film plays out as expected, but when you sign up for one of these films, you usually know what you are getting into. It just would have been nice to see them doing something a bit original, outside putting a male in the lead, and brought an interesting spin to the genre. The movie comfortably walks through the paces and hits all of the prescribed beats and that’s fine, but all in all way to predictable.
Luckily, Patrick Dempsey is an extremely likable lead, as he is in Grey’s Anatomy as well, and is an entertaining guy for guys, as well as a dreamboat for women. Dempsey’s wit and charm make the movie watchable though I would like to see him get out of the cushy lovey dubby stuff and but that wit and charm into something a bit darker. Michelle Monaghan kind of coasts through the film in auto pilot, again hitting all of her beats, and while she does a good job, she doesn’t really bring anything to the table either. The supporting cast is moderately funny and ultimately forgettable, which is a real shame as they wasted the great Kevin McKidd as the Scottish suitor for Hannah.
Made of Honor is a cookie cutter rom-com that brings nothing new to the genre. It is entertaining and more than watchable, thanks to the like-ability of Patrick Demspey, but it will not make you stand up and go, ‘that was pretty good’. The girl will eat it up though, so if you guys need a good date rental, this can’t hurt.
[rating:3/5]
