a critic-quote for the movie ‘new in town’:
It’s Legally Blonde meets ‘Sweet Home Alabama’
and for some reason, a marketing person at the movie studio thought that this is a good thing.
(seriously, this movie looks like a five-peanut turd. hahaha! them folks from minnesota sure are wacky with their snow and ice and hunting and ‘oh yah’s all over the place. i mean, yeah, they are, but the coen brothers did a better job of illustrating this fact in ‘fargo’.)
Die Hard and Hot Fuzz, tonight at the Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse! Along with Q&A with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost!
Whoop whoop!
trailer for day watch, the sequel to night watch, is up on apple’s site.
some movie meme from jenny:
1. Popcorn or candy?
candy. too much popcorn makes me ill. and it’s really difficult to find just the right balance of “enough to eat” vs. “i’m going to hurl”.
2. Name a movie you’ve been meaning to see forever.
uhhh. hmmm. “deep throat” or “debbie does dallas”? the age of DVDs and the internets has allowed me to see pretty much everything i’ve ever wanted.
3. You are given the power to recall one Oscar: Who loses theirs and to whom?
warner baxter. yeah, that’s right. i’m going there. chester morris was robbed!
(yeah, i really don’t have anything serious to say for this one.)
4. Steal one costume from a movie for your wardrobe. Which will it be?
ummmm
5. Your favorite film franchise is…
cliché, i know, but i’m going to have to go with “star wars”
okay, well, the star wars trilogy
the real trilogy
oh, you know which ones i’m talking about
6. Invite five movie people over for dinner. Who are they? Why’d you invite them? What do you feed them?
franka potente
milla jovovich
alyson hannigan
ummm…well, really, that’s all i’ve ever wanted.
now, what’s this about dinner?
7. What is the appropriate punishment for people who answer cell phones in the movie theater?
you know that scene in “american history x”…
8. Choose a female bodyguard: Ripley from Aliens. Mystique from X-Men. Sarah Connor from Terminator 2. The Bride from Kill Bill. Mace from Strange Days.
mystique
9. What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen in a movie?
really ugly people in the row in front of me making out.
10. Your favorite genre (excluding comedy and drama) is?
porn (inasmuch as it is a genre). otherwise, scifi
11. You are given the power to greenlight movies at a major studio for one year. How do you wield this power?
see question 6
12. Bonnie or Clyde?
bonnie.
13. Who are you tagging to answer this survey? (Three or more)
yeah, whoever wants to
Theaters may ask to jam cell phones
Movie theater owners faced with falling attendance are considering asking federal authorities for permission to jam cell phone reception in an attempt to stop annoying conversations during films, the head of the industry’s trade group said on Tuesday.
Industry leaders at the ShoWest conference for theater owners want to find ways to win back crowds.
“I don’t know what’s going on with consumers that they have to talk on phones in the middle of theaters,” John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, told the ShoWest conference in Las Vegas.
Admittedly, people talking on their cellphones during a movie is pretty damn annoying. However, how much does this really happen? Is it really the epidemic the theatre owners want you to believe? I certainly don’t go to all that many movies anymore, but when I do go, it’s rare that someone starts up a phone conversation. Oddly enough, people have become, generally, polite enough to turn off their phones during movies. Or at least leave the auditorium to talk. And for those few who don’t, you’d be amazed at how well turning to them and shouting “would you mind taking that outside?!” motivates them to not do it.
I know I’m going to repeat a lot of people, but it’s not the cellphones that are keeping people away from the theatres. It’s the crappy movies. Actors who suck, yet get rewarded with even more money to be in even crappier movies. The questionable remake of a movie that we didn’t even know we liked so much we needed to see it all over again, this time starring the flavor-of-the-month. The sequel to a hugely successful film that attempts to become a franchise, and not telling more of the story that needs to be told. It’s the overpriced tickets. It’s the 30 minutes of advertising before a movie. The 20 minutes of trailers (for more crappy movies.) The tiny auditoriums with itty-bitty screens.
These are your problems. Fix them, and maybe people will start going out to see movies again.
Update: Jenny has a much more succinct review on her site.
Christian: [takes film off the projector] You desecrated a classic film. This is worse than “Godfather III.”
Gibson: Whoa, whoa, hey, whoa! Let’s not say things we can’t take back.
–The Simpsons
Now, I would not like to say I’m completely disappointed by Ultraviolet. To say I was disappointed would imply that I got absolutely nothing out of the movie. That’s not true. I got two things from it:
Okay, I know that phrase gets used a lot. And I realize we’re just barely past half-way mark of this particular decade. But I feel confident that my proclamation will stand the test of time.
(Dare I say it? Could this be the worst movie of this nascent century? It’s entirely possible, but I have faith in Hollywood that they’ll come up with something, or somethings, worse than Ultraviolet. For Ultraviolet’s producers’ sake, one can only hope they come up with this bad movie soon, so people will forget about UV.)
I won’t bother going into any real detail about the movie. If you’re a fan of Milla, you’ll most likely go and see it. In fact, you probably went and saw it today, much like Jenny and myself. (See Jenny’s earlier thoughts on the movie here.) All I can say is: Milla, you’re incredibly hot, and you do have your moments at acting. Sure, not Oscar-worthy moments, but you have them. But mostly, we like watching you in movies where you kick ass and take names. (And hopefully, get full-frontal, even if only for a few, brief seconds. Ahhhhhh. That helps erase the pain of the movie from my mind.)
So, to sum up: There is no escaping the black hole of suckitude that this movie has created, once you have gone past the Suckass Event Horizon that it creates.
Comic Book Guy: Last night’s “Itchy & Scratchy” was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured that I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.
–The Simpsons
Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
[Requires Flash]
Okay, okay. Try to keep this spoiler free. Let’s see…
Just got back from a screening of Serenity, and HOLY SHIT YOU’RE JUST SITTING THERE AND NEXT THING YOU KNOW…
No, no. Calm. You’re blowing it. Gonna ruin the whole movie for everybody else.
*breathe*
Anyways, to keep this short and simple: Serenity, good. Beer, foamy. Go, see it. It does a wonderful job of expanding on the existing storylines from the television series, but also stands on its own for those who have never watched an episode. (Well, hopefully…I’m fully immersed in the series, so I can’t really offer an objective opinion on that last part.)
And yes, some huge things happen. Really big. So big that if I were to even leak a hint of them, you would curse me. You’ll be sitting there in the theatre, your mouth agape, realising “yes, James is right…that’s some major shit…I’m glad he didn’t spoil it for me”, like so many other people might callously do.
Theron re-designs skimpy superheroine costume
Hollywood star Charlize Theron forced movie bosses to change her costume design for forthcoming movie Aeon Flux – after deciding her character’s original outfit was too revealing.
Yeah, Charlize…that’s just how the outfit is. Here, look:
If you can’t handle it, maybe someone else should’ve been cast.
(This picture came up during a Google image search. Kudos to the young lady. Very nicely done costume.)