Jason Segel and Emily Blunt star in the R-rated romantic comedy The Five-Year Engagement. Directed by Nicholas Stoller, the Universal Pictures release opens in theaters on April 27, 2012.
Emily Blunt stars as Violet Barnes, Jason Segel plays Tom Solomon, Chris Pratt is Alex Eilhauer, Alison Brie is Suzie Barnes-Eilhauer, and Rhys Ifans is Winton Childs. Mimi Kennedy plays Carol Solomon, David Paymer is Pete Solomon, Jacki Weaver is Sylvia Dickerson-Barnes, Jim Piddock is George Barnes, and Mindy Kaling is Vaneetha.
The Plot:The director and writer/star of Forgetting Sarah Marshall reteam for the irreverent comedy The Five-Year Engagement. Beginning where most romantic comedies end, the new film from director Nicholas Stoller, producer Judd Apatow and Rodney Rothman looks at what happens when an engaged couple, Jason Segel and Emily Blunt, keeps getting tripped up on the long walk down the aisle.
Christian Bale leads the cast of the R-rated drama The Flowers of War. Directed by Zhang Yimou, The Flowers of War opens in limited release on December 23, 2011 followed by a wider release in the winter of 2011/2012.
Christian Bale stars as John Miller, Ni Ni is Yu Mo, Zhang Xinyi is Shu, Huang Tianyuan is George, and Tong Dawei is Major Li. The cast also includes Atsuro Watabe as Colonel Hasegawa, Shigeo Kobayashi as Lieutenant Kato, and Cao Kefa as Mr Meng.
The Plot: The film, set during the Japanese invasion of China, is told from a young girl’s point of view, not as a history lesson, but as an intimate, elemental and paradoxically universal celebration of the human spirit. Bale stars as a dissolute Westerner who seeks refuge in a Catholic Church. There, he meets a beautiful Chinese courtesan who helps him rescue a group of schoolgirls from a terrible fate at the hands of the Japanese.
War Horse? More like Bore Horse. Director Steven Spielberg may need to continue letting J.J. Abrams make his films (Super 8 worked out for the best).
I apologize for being so blunt about it, but with a runtime of 2 hours and 26 minutes that feels more like 2 weeks, 26 days, there’s no point in beating around the bush. After being adapted into a Tony Award-winning play in 2007, from Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel of the same name, the adaptations needed to end there. And be forewarned there are a few spoilers ahead (skip to the end if you just want the final word).
Being that this is a Spielberg film, where the protagonist never dies, the story follows a horse from birth to … not-death (told you there would be spoilers). We start with a horse auction where a drunk farmer outbids his landlord to secure the horse and then follow WWI via the road traveled by the horse; first as the beloved friend of the drunk farmer’s son – a teenage boy on the cusp of adulthood, then as the mount for a captain in the British army, then as the pet of a French girl, then as an overly-taxed workhorse for the German army, and finally, after all this, the film comes full circle to a horse auction to determine the final owner of the horse. That sentence was long and very drawn out … just like the movie.
What is probably a very rich book, full of heartwarming stories, ends up a tedious succession of people marveling at the quality of this horse and more than a few instances of this being the smartest equine prior to Mr. Ed. Sadly, there are no talking animals, and I really do mean that sarcasm has been turned off for the rest of this paragraph.
The opening section plays out like some stripped-down version of Babe, complete with a wily goose on the drunk farmer’s property. Then there’s a bit of Saving Private Ryan lite, a section best reserved for friends of Flicka, back to Saving Private Ryan lite, one excellent scene involving the horse caught in barbed wire (and not because the horse is hurt, it’s the one truly excellent scene), then the horse auction, and then mercifully, the end credits – though not until Spielberg has thrown in one of the hammiest endings of 2011, if not this young century.
If you’re particularly fond of horses and have no trace of cynicism, War Horse may be what you’re looking for. Watching such a beautiful animal be abused and hurt, no matter the triumphs throughout, isn’t exactly my idea of good fun, but to each their own. Anyone with a particularly strong aversion to cruelty towards horses will find some scenes tough to watch, but it’s also possible you won’t care if you’re at all like me because you’re so bored by that point that the idea of feeling emotion is alien.
Of course, given Spielberg’s penchant for throwing aliens into films, even when they don’t need to be (*cough* Crystal Skull), it’s nice to see him not go to that well again.
Although I’m sure there will be plenty of people who find the story inspirational and moving because it’s about a pretty horse overcoming all that’s put in its way, nothing in the film outside of that one particular scene alluded to earlier was noteworthy or memorable (as evidenced by my lack of mentioning who the actors were). Even the John Williams score was innocuous at best and intrusive at worst. Watching War Horse is the last thing I’d do on Christmas Day unless I really need the sleep.
GRADE: C-
War Horse hits theaters on December 25, 2011 and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of war violence.
On July 23rd, Relativity Media brought the cast of Immortals and director Tarsem Singh to the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con to show off new footage from the 3D swords and sorcerers epic and talk to potential ticket buyers about the film’s upcoming November 11, 2011 release. Immortals stars the next Superman, Henry Cavill, as Theseus, a peasant chosen by the gods to lead the battle against the evil King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke). Cavill was on hand to discuss the film, along with his co-stars Kellan Lutz (Poseidon), Stephen Dorff (Stavros), Luke Evans (Zeus), and Freida Pinto (Phaedra).
Showing off never-before-screened fight footage of the film’s heroes in action against various creatures, director Singh was quick to point out to the crowd that his film is actually darker than the previously released trailer would indicate. And according to the film’s producers, what will set this movie apart from others of its ilk is Tarsem’s visual style.
After taking to the stage for the fan Q&A, Cavill and Singh sat down with members of the press to further discuss this 3D tale of Greek gods and CGI blood. Cavill was teamed up with his director for our interview which delves into how the script evolved, the film’s tone, fighting with swords, and Cavill’s process of preparing physically for the role. Cavill also answered a couple of Superman questions (because, after all, this interview was done at Comic-Con and it would have been impossible to ignore the fact Cavill’s the new Man of Steel).
Henry Cavill and Tarsem Singh Interview:
How was the Hall H panel experience?
Tarsem Singh: “It was a strange, lovely experience. It was wonderful, just looking out into the void of darkness. I kept saying to Henry that it felt like watching porn. You don’t know if there are weirdos out there or some cute chicks. You keep answering questions and waiting for a response.”
Henry Cavill: “No comment.”
Tarsem Singh: “You’re talking to Clark Kent here. He’s a straight guy.”
Henry, what was the appeal of a project like this?
Henry Cavill: “When you’re growing up as a boy, the idea of playing a sword-wielding hero and beating up the bad guys is always a fun thing, and you get to play it in the big leagues and for real and get the real costumes on and have all the special effects. But, ultimately, it was down to Tarsem.
Reading the script, it had a few kinks in it initially, but Tarsem’s vision was the one thing that sold me on it, and his passion for it. Even if Tarsem came to me with a piece of wood and pretended it was a script and said, ‘No really, I’m really passionate about this,’ he would be able to sell me on it, and it would be an amazing piece of wood.”
What changed to make it better?
Tarsem Singh: “It was much worse than that. Henry is being very nice and saying it was a kink, but there was practically nothing there. So, when we started, I just said, ‘I need to find somebody who I think, when the script works, can act. And, I want an unknown.’ Not that Henry was unknown, but I think he was to the rest of the world at that time. So, when I went to meet him, we had one scene, and that’s all it was. All I did was have him read the scene, and he read it perfectly, and I told him, ‘It was all wrong, read it another way.’ He did that and I told him, ‘You were better earlier.’ He came back and I realized he could go where I wanted, so I went back to the studio and said, ‘We don’t really have a script.’
When we started, he was a king’s son, and now he’s a peasant. I said, ‘Whatever you change, I think he can act it.’ I was just looking for a guy who, no matter where we went, could make it work, and that was Henry. But he’s being nice when he says kink. We just had one scene.”
How did you approach the costume design, especially with some of the helmets that don’t look like traditional Greek?
Tarsem Singh: “The movie is not traditional Greek. When it started, I was thinking it might be much more like Baz Luhrmann doing Romeo & Juliet in Mexico. It’s supposed to be Greek time with electricity. As we started, they tried to tell me, “If you stay closer to the Greek stuff and you don’t have any of these things, you will have a much bigger audience.” But I wasn’t interested in making a straight Greek.
Then, I think you’d end up with exactly what 300 had, and I was going much more towards just having fantasy fun with it. Theseus (Henry Cavill) never had any fights with Gods. He wasn’t, at all, at war with the Gods. We were mixing the two stories, so I said, “Why not go the whole hog and just do what you want to do?”
What’s the overall tone of the film?
Tarsem Singh: “Fun and dark and lovely and sexy and violent.”
Henry Cavill: “Violent and sexy shouldn’t be put together.”
Tarsem Singh: “No?”
Henry Cavill: “No.”
Tarsem Singh: “Haven’t you seen Discovery Channel? The animals are always eating each other, and they’re mating. It’s violent and sexy. I watch it all the time.”
Tarsem, if there was no real working script for this film, what brought you to the project?
Tarsem Singh: “I had a thing that I was interested in, and once I met Henry, I just said, ‘Everything needs to fall around him.’ And then, all the Gods became young. When it started, I started with it for a selfish reason. I wanted to do a story on, ‘If Gods exist, why is the world as miserable as it is?’ I started with that theme, but you’re in trouble if you deal with any modern religion. You’ll get stoned in some countries, and you’ll get killed in others. So, if you pick a dead religion like the Greeks, all you’ll get is people bitching about you on the Internet and I was fine with that.”
Henry Cavill: “That’s going to happen anyway.”
Tarsem Singh: “So, I just turned it Greek because of that. I was interested in the subject matter of, ‘If Gods exist, why don’t they show up on the White House lawn and say, ‘Be nice to each other.’ I needed to find a reason for them, and I found it, and I think a minuscule of it is still left in the movie.”
Tarsem, you mentioned that 3D goes well with your style. Why is that?
Tarsem Singh: “It tends to be not very fast, cutty and tableau-y.”
Does it help give depth to the very painterly type of images you like?
Tarsem Singh: “Yes. I wasn’t interested in poking your eye out, even though occasionally it helps. For me, when I was making those tableaus, it was wonderful. I went for Caravaggio paintings. Of course, Caravaggio’s paintings aren’t particularly 3D, but for the first time, the Renaissance figured depth out. They got the perspective right. To see a flat image in 3D is all wrong, but right now, whatever we feel works for you is what the convention will make it go far.
It was great having 3D because I needed at least a year and a half to finish the movie, and they told me I had the time. I said no to it on Snow White, the next film that I am doing. I had these guys and I had to make it look great, as long as someone didn’t tell me, ‘Now, do all the modern stuff that’s hip.l What I do tends to look very dated. It just comes with the territory. But, fortunately, it’s very 3D friendly.”
Henry, what was the physical training like, to prepare for this, and how did it get you ready to play Superman?
Henry Cavill: “The physical training was extensive and exhausting. I think I was doing 9 to 5, at one stage, with the training. You certainly learn a lot when you go through that process once. You learn about how to do it more efficiently the second time. Although I’ve had a trainer both times, it’s a very different kind of thing for this next job (Superman).
For example, I’m 25 pounds heavier now than I was in Immortals. That is enough said, really. It’s prepared me mentally. When you have that negotiation, when you’re training, and you get to that rep which is difficult, and you know you’ve got 10 more reps to go in that one set, and another five sets after that, and you say, ‘I don’t really have to do this. I can do something else. If I just put the weights down and have a bit more rest, it will be fine.’ It teaches you how to negotiate and win the negotiation and how to notice the lie in your head, which is, ‘Oh, it hurts it’s dangerous,’ as opposed to, ‘Yeah, it hurts, but that’s good.’ As my new trainer says, it doesn’t have to be fun to be fun. That’s very telling.”
Tarsem Singh: “I tell that to my girlfriend all the time. She doesn’t listen to me.”
Did getting to play with swords live up to your fantasies as a kid?
Henry Cavill: “Oh yeah, very much so, especially when you win all the time.”
Did you have to learn archery to use a bow?
Henry Cavill: “There were no extensive archery lessons, no. I did on The Tudors. I had a very brief three hours of archery at one stage.”
Tarsem Singh: “I saw the scene, and I remember Henry correcting us on it. We only had one bow scene and it looks like he’s an expert. He’s always fighting with different weapons, but I remember when we gave him the bow, he said, ‘I wouldn’t hold it like this.’ Suddenly, it was designed for a left-hander. I was like, ‘It’s a movie, Henry, just pull the damn thing.'”
What do you think the appeal is for this type of story with modern audiences? Why will people connect with it?
Tarsem Singh: “What, sexy Gods fighting each other?”
Henry Cavill: “That’s a good point. What will the audience like?”
Tarsem Singh: “For me, I’m very rarely interested in genres. As long as I feel I can put my DNA out there in the ideology, it works for me. That was basically it. I started with it being something else, and it turned into Greek. I don’t particularly care so much for serial killer films, but I’ve done one. And, I don’t like fairy tales, but I’m doing one. I just look at it and say, ‘Can I say something in this, and will the people giving me $100 million let me?’ If it’s a personal film, sure, you can say whatever you want. But, on something like this, am I ready to let them put enough milk in my coffee and still think it’s my coffee? That’s what you try to judge when you fight with people. So far, I’m very glad about the film the way it is. There’s very little milk in it.”
Henry, what’s it like for you now, with all this attention that’s on you? Is it something that you’re able to just tune out and focus on the work, or is it hard to not be distracted by it?
Henry Cavill: “You make a choice, whether you focus on the – and I hate the word – celebrity aspect of it or not. I have chosen not to. I know I can’t make everyone happy, but I know I can do the most justice I can possibly do to a character, or any character if I put my all into it. That’s the choice you have to make.”
While he was at Comic-Con, Andrew Garfield spoke about the awesome responsibility of stepping into the Spider-Man costume. Are you thinking about that with Superman?
Henry Cavill: “It’s very humbling to be chosen to represent such an enormous character with so much depth to it as well, but at the same time, it’s a true honor. I want to do justice to the character, and I want to be the right guy for the job. I want to prove them right, much like Zeus.”
Liam Neeson and Joe Anderson lead the cast of the gritty action thriller The Grey. Directed by Joe Carnahan, the Open Road Films release opens in theaters on January 27, 2012.
Liam Neeson stars as Ottway, Joe Anderson plays Flannery, and Frank Grillo is Diaz. Dermot Mulroney plays Talget, Dallas Roberts is Hendrick, Nonso Anozie is Burke, James Badge Dale is Lewenden, and Ben Hernandez Bray is Hernandez.
The Plot: Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements – and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt – before their time runs out.
At the premiere of DreamWorks Pictures’ I Am Number Four, Laura Slade Wiggins talked about working on Showtime’s hit – and very adult – series, Shameless.
“What’s so complicated about this place?” “ROAR..ROAR..ROAR” “It’s a zoo.” That’s how ex-journalist Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) discovers that his new dream home is on the property of a rundown, closed zoo in the family film We Bought a Zoo.
Since the loss of his wife Ben has been struggling to keep his family together which hasn’t been easy, especially for his 14-year-old son Dylan (Colin Ford) who’s been acting out so much at school he’s been kicked out. Desperate to try to start over and find some way to bring joy back into his children’s lives, Ben – after seeing his little daughter Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones) smile while she feeds some chickens and be truly happy for the first time since her mother’s death – decides to do the unimaginable and buy the zoo.
No one including the head of the staff at the zoo, Kelly Foster (Scarlett Johansson), thinks Ben and his two kids are up to the task of rebuilding the zoo and getting it ready for opening in July. Dylan hates being so many miles from his old home and deeply resents his dad for their new living conditions, but begins to warm up when 15-year-old Lily (Elle Fanning) starts bringing him sandwiches after her shift at the zoo so she can get to know him better.
Going through his life savings like a shot and not knowing the first thing about animals, Ben depends greatly on Kelly to show him the ropes. At the same time, he begins to impress her and the rest of the staff by his determination, will, and strength to make re-opening the zoo an “Authentic American Experience” for his children and himself.
Based on a true story, We Bought a Zoo is a funny, uplifting, inspirational film with a stand-out performance by Matt Damon. He truly shines in his performance of a loving, struggling father who only wants his family to have the chance to begin again and be happy. The scenes between Damon and Ford as a fighting, grieving father and son are heartfelt and true. So are the cute, sweet and tender scenes between Damon and Jones as his daughter who wants him to tell stories about him and mommy. Damon also captures perfectly just how out of his element Mee is in trying to run a zoo and handle the wild animals. His stand-off with the giant grizzly out of his pen and without a gun is both terrifying and awe-inspiring.
Thomas Haden Church delivers a scene-stealing performance as Damon’s loving, supportive brother who wants him to start over – just not as a zoo owner. And Scarlett Johansson is solid as the seasoned but jaded zookeeper who finds herself starting to believe in Mee and getting caught up in the possibility of restoring the zoo to its former glory.
We Bought a Zoo is beautifully directed by Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous) with stunning cinematography, perfect pacing, and a wonderful soundtrack that aids in bringing scenes to their emotional climax.
Sweet, sentimental and charming, We Bought a Zoo is a family-friendly film that will have the audience laughing and rooting for the Mee family until the credits roll. Make sure to take a trip to the theater this Christmas and spend some time with the animals.
GRADE: B+
We Bought a Zoo hits theaters on December 23, 2011 and is rated PG for language and some thematic elements.
Taylor Swift broke the news to her Twitter followers, first tweeting on December 22nd:
Something I’ve been VERY excited about for a VERY long time is going to be happening VERY soon.”
Followed by:
And this is it, the big surprise… Go get it! #TheHungerGames http://instagr.am/p/a2sQb/”
And the big news is that she and Civil Wars collaborated on a song for The Hunger Games soundtrack. “Safe and Sound” is a beautiful ballad which fits in well with the tone of the novel (hopefully that same dark tone will be found in the feature film version of Suzanne Collins’ bestselling trilogy).
Listen here:
The song is currently for sale exclusively on iTunes.
More on The Hunger Games:
The plot: “Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the evil Capitol of the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. A twisted punishment for a past uprising and an ongoing government intimidation tactic, The Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains.
Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.”
The Hunger Games hits theaters on March 23, 2012 and stars Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and Liam Hemsworth as Gale.
Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen in A Dangerous Method - Photo by Liam Daniel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Tell me about your mother.
Huh. With no context that’s really creepy. Even knowing it’s a characterization of something Sigmund Freud would say doesn’t help much. However, for all you psychology majors out there who’ve wanted to see a bit behind the curtain of both Freud and Carl Jung, and don’t like reading books, there’s director David Cronenberg’s take on things, A Dangerous Method.
In the film, Jung (Michael Fassbender) is enamored with the idea of psychoanalysis as championed by Freud (Viggo Mortensen). After taking on Sabina, a troubled patient played by Keira Knightley, and treating her with talk therapy, the two psychologists begin a working relationship … and slowly drift apart in their theoretical approach … and then Jung and Sabina have an affair … and then they split up … and then Jung and Freud have a big falling out … and then Jung and Sabina work together on a case study … and then another half explored plot point … and then another … etc, etc.
Before dissecting the issues within the storytelling, the good element to take away from it all is watching the three main actors on-screen. Fassbender is all over the screen this year (X-Men: First Class, Shame, Jane Eyre) and continues his streak of excellent performances. Any issues with his portrayal are with the script, not in his delivery. The same goes with Mortensen, and although more of a supporting player, makes the most of his time on-screen.
The big surprise is Knightley. While some elements drift into the over-acting category, it’s a generally solid acting job. As a result of the effects of severe physical abuse perpetrated upon her character growing up, a number of tics and stammers are exhibited (not to mention an accent that holds most of the time thankfully). She handled most of it well, though amongst those tics is an occasional jutting out of the jaw that may be the creepiest image on screen in some time.
All three do suffer from time to time in the phenomena of making it look like acting, but again, the script and direction seem to be more at fault for this. The story is half character study and half bio-pic. From the manner in which things unfold, it’s almost as if Cronenberg and screenwriter Christopher Hampton were fighting the entire time about what kind of movie it was – never reaching a balance for the audience’s sake.
There is a nice cameo by Vincent Cassel as Otto Gross, which injects some much-needed energy into the middle section of the film. Gross’ interactions with Jung move the plot forward but whatever good that does is forgotten as quickly as his character, which disappears from screen almost before he arrives.
Also not helping matters is some of the worst editing of the year. As reels changed, usually coinciding with a jump forward in time, the shift was so abrupt that one wondered if the films was put together out of order. Skipping forward so often made each segment feel like we were starting anew, having to figure out the dynamics between the characters all over again – just beginning to get a hold of things – only to push ahead another year or two.
And while the score was generally discordant, possibly by design, there is a key production element to give praise to: the costume design. It must have been period authentic … because it was all so drab and awful looking. Short of the dapper threads sported by Mortensen, everyone else seemed to have raided the local high school theater department’s closet.
Part of being so dispassionate about the film is knowing the director’s capabilities. Had this come from some unknown entity, it merely would have been a forgettable blip on the radar; from Cronenberg, it’s a letdown. Having a few paragraphs of on-screen text close out the proceedings only exacerbates the confusion over what the point of the film was in the first place and adds to the mystery of why he would take such a formulaic approach to such well-known historical figures. A Dangerous Method sports occasional bouts of good acting and the first half holds promise but once the bio-pic mentality sets in, all one can do is find a comfortable sitting position and wait for the end credits.
GRADE: C-
A Dangerous Method is rated R for sexual content and brief language.
