The Academy doesn’t want movie fans to forget the Oscars are coming up in a month, releasing a series of promos with host Seth MacFarlane. The latest promo features MacFarlane in his hotel room, banging the wall and asking the screaming woman next door to keep the noise down.
Lisa Loeb’s going to be out and about greeting fans in support of the upcoming release of her seventh album. No Fairy Tale drops on January 29th, and during the week of its release, she’ll be at the NAMM show in Anaheim (1/25) and Barnes & Noble at The Grove in LA (1/30) to meet her fans. She’ll also be performing the title track on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on January 31st and Conan on February 18th.
No Fairy Tale features two tracks in which Loeb collaborated with indie artists Tegan and Sara. She also invited Hello Goodbye, Morgan Taylor, Maia Sharp and Marvin Etzioni to contribute to No Fairy Tale.
1. No Fairy Tale
2. The 90’s
3. Weak Day
4. Walls
5. A Hot Minute
6. Sick, Sick, Sick
7. Matches
8. Married
9. Swept Away
10. He Loved You So Much
11. Ami, I’m Sorry
12. The Worst
The reason behind Jimmy Kimmel’s feud with Matt Damon has been revealed. Damon took over Jimmy Kimmel Live and with Kimmel tied up on stage, announced that Kimmel’s jealous of his acting career. It seems Kimmel has tried out for every role Damon snagged, and Kimmel did his nightly bumping of his acting rival to get back at him.
For a brief moment I thought about employing an age-old reviewing strategy for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters; namely using as many words as there are minutes in the runtime (88 in this case). However, I had a couple of points to make, so this review will easily pass that mark (already about 30 words away).
Obviously, when looking at a movie like this, one does not expect cinematic brilliance, award-caliber acting, and wildly innovative storytelling. Don’t worry, you won’t get it. Also, if you’re one of those people who think IMAX 3D is the bomb diggity, well … that’s … just sad really … but in any case, it doesn’t matter here. Sure it may be shown under that guise in some places, but the 3D is almost never immersive and practically always gimmicky. And if you don’t realize what’s wrong with seeing a letterbox presentation on an IMAX screen, keep throwing your money away. I doubt you had better plans for it anyway.
Okay, technical bits aside, I will provide positive points for this appropriately scheduled January release. First off, Jeremy Renner is fun. He doesn’t get to do much here you haven’t seen already, but I like his screen presence. More importantly to the title duo, I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated how beautiful Gemma Arterton is. During whatever corny or useless moments I normally might have let my brain wander with other films, I was unabashedly swept up in her visage.
Peter Stormare and Famke Janssen get little cameos and that’s cute. Actually, as far as character development goes, the right choice was made here, and there’s very little given to anyone not named Hansel or Gretel. Again, this isn’t the kind of movie one expects to be anything more than passably competent. Nor should it be when the most likable ancillary character is a troll that bears a remarkable resemblance to the Rock Biter from The Neverending Story.
What there is for a script does try to twist up the familiar fairy tale, and it does so amiably; smartly avoiding long-winded speeches and just getting on with the action. Where films like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Jonah Hex failed were in their ability to embrace the camp and forgo the notion of thinking style choices would make up for a lack of enthusiasm. Hansel & Gretel surely isn’t some remarkable piece of genius, but it delivers on its expectations so while I won’t attempt to find many words of praise, I also don’t find the need to take a hammer to it either.
Now sure, the action scenes are badly composited, full of quick cuts, and all shot far too close up, but there’s just something fun about watching two attractive people hack, slash, and shoot their way through scores of monsters. When pressed for a reaction to the film, all that came to my mind was “dumb, but moderately fun.” Still, if that’s the kind of movie you want, then it’s out there waiting for you. Just remember to find the non-IMAX, 2D version. I’m sure the Gummi Bears you can now afford will be a nice complement to the blood and silliness.
GRADE: C+
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters hits theaters on January 25, 2013 and is rated R for strong fantasy horror violence and gore, brief sexuality/nudity and language.
Paramount Pictures is running a four-minute preview of G.I. Joe: Retaliation in theaters in front of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, but for those not taking in that action film this weekend the studio’s released a new 90-second clip to check out. The clip features more of the fight scene off the side of a mountain as well as a little bit more of Dwayne Johnson and Bruce Willis.
The Plot:
In this sequel, the G.I. JOE team is not only fighting their mortal enemy COBRA; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.
Two new photos from been released from The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones coming to theaters on August 23, 2013. Based on the bestselling book series by Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments takes place in a world of Shadowhunters and demons and stars Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower in the lead roles.
The Plot:
Set in contemporary New York City, a seemingly ordinary teenager, Clary Fray (Lily Collins), discovers she is the descendant of a line of Shadowhunters, a secret cadre of young half-angel warriors locked in an ancient battle to protect our world from demons. After the disappearance of her mother (Lena Headey), Clary must join forces with a group of Shadowhunters, who introduce her to a dangerous alternate New York called Downworld, filled with demons, warlocks, vampires, werewolves and other deadly creatures.
Based on the worldwide best-selling book series.
So what happened after Mark the firefighter gave his hose to one of the eligible beauties on season one of Burning Love? The hit comedy web series earned rave reviews, with fans clamoring for a follow-up. And series creator/writer Erica Oyama and actor/director Ken Marino are answering viewers pleas with a second season of the online web series that pokes fun at reality dating shows.
Burning Love 2 debuts on February 14th, with new episodes arriving every Thursday and Friday on Yahoo!. Returning cast members include Marino, June Diane Raphael, Michael Ian Black, and Adam Scott. Jerry O’Connell, Michael Cera, Adam Brody, Colin Hanks, Joe Lo Truglio, Ryan Hansen, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Nick Kroll, Nick Thune, Martin Starr, and Kumail Nanjiani join the cast for season 2.
Season 2 Plot:
The second season of Burning Love follows Julie (June Diane Raphael), who failed to capture bachelor Mark Orlando’s heart the first time around, as she searches for love among a group of guys who are hopefully, but probably not, there for the right reasons.
Watch the trailer:
Heading up one big-budget sci-fi action franchise is apparently not enough for director JJ Abrams who is reportedly close to making a deal to direct Star Wars Episode VII. With two Star Trek films under his belt, Abrams is definitely not a stranger to being in charge of a franchise with a passionate fan base, which should work in his favor if he does sign on the dotted line and attach himself to the new Star Wars movie.
Disney’s not wasting any time in bringing Star Wars 7 to the screen, setting a 2015 release for the return to the world of Jedi warriors and bizarre space creatures.
The studio’s tapped Michael Arndt to handle the script, and there’s no official confirmation on whether he’ll be including any of the past Star Wars characters in the new films.
Sting’s added new dates to his Back to Bass Tour, extending his tour and heading back out on the road in May. The tour, which finds Sting accompanied by a 5 piece band playing “stripped down” versions of his greatest hits, kicks off in Kelowna, British Columbia on May 30.
Backing up Sting on the Back to Bass Tour are Dominic Miller on guitar, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, David Sancious on keyboards, Peter Tickell on electric fiddle, and Jo Lawry (vocals).
For details on tickets – and for updated tour info – visit Sting’s official site.
May 30 Kelowna, BC – Prospera Place
May 31 Victoria, BC – Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
June 02 San Francisco, CA – America’s Cup Pavilion
June 03 Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl
June 05 Denver, CO – Red Rocks Amphitheatre
June 07 Chicago, IL – Ravinia
June 08 Chicago, IL – Ravinia
June 12 Baltimore, MD – Pier 6
June 14 Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Event Center
June 15 Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Event Center
June 17 Kitchener, ON – Memorial Auditorium
June 18 Kingston, ON – K-Rock Centre
June 20 Bangor, ME – Waterfront Pavilion
June 21 Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion
June 22 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun
June 24 Summerside, PEI – Credit Union Place
June 26 St. John’s, NFLD – Mile One Centre
June 29 Oswiecim, PL – Life Festival Oswiecim, Stadion Mosir
July 01 Cork, IE – Live at the Marquee
July 06 Arras, FR – Main Square Festival
July 10 Mainz, DE – Mainz Volkspark
July 12 Stavern, NO – Stavern Festivalen
It’s been so long since I heard anything about Upside Down that I forgot it even existed. But it does, and now the official US trailer has finally arrived.
Filmed back in early 2010, Upside Down was expected to arrive in theaters sometime last year but that release never materialized. However, Millennium Entertainment, along with offering a new visually stunning trailer and poster, is now promising a March 15, 2013 release in theaters.
The Plot:
Ever since Adam (Jim Sturgess) and Eden (Kirsten Dunst) fell in love as teens, their bond has faced astronomical odds. The pair are separated not just by social class and a political system bent on keeping them apart, but also by a freak planetary condition: they live on twinned worlds with gravities that pull in opposite directions—he on the poverty-stricken planet below, she on the wealthy, exploitative world above. Their budding but illicit romance screeches to a tragic halt when interplanetary-border patrol agents catch them and Eden suffers an apparently fatal fall.
But when, ten years later, Adam learns she is alive and working at a vast corporation whose towering headquarters connects their planets, he sets out on a dangerous quest to infiltrate the company and the upper world to reconnect with her. Upside Down is a visually stunning romantic adventure that poses the question: what if love was stronger than gravity?
