Whatever its shortcomings, director Jim Sheridan and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts deserved better than the give-away-the-store trailer that Universal delivered for “Dream House.”
Screenwriter David Loucka? Oh yeah, HE deserved a trailer that drops the film’s big reveal on you before you buy your ticket. They would have done us all a favor by hinting at the eye-rolling lulu of a finale he cooked up for this faintly spooky semi-supernatural thriller.
Emilio Estevez wrote, directed and took a supporting role in “The Way,” an easy-going road picture that plays right into his father, Martin Sheen’s wheelhouse.
The rules of screen romance don’t change much, from country to country, culture to culture. The cinematic language of love is universal.
Thus the French romance “The Names of Love” plays with conventions that American filmgoers will find familiar and fun. He (Jacques Gamblin) is a scientist who investigates bird deaths, warning the public of the next avian flu outbreak. He’s a French fuddy duddy.
She (Sara Forestier) is a manic, seemingly dizzy free spirit, free with her body, a sensualist and a leftist who figures she can sexually convert any “fascist” she brings to her bed. She calls lots of guys fascists.
“Real Steel” is “Transformers” meets “The Champ,” a cute, occasionally sentimental father-son bonding picture with Rock’Em Sock’Em boxing robots as its backdrop.\
Gus Van Sant’s “Restless” is predicated on an old movie truism — the quirkiest romances begin at funerals.
That’s where Enoch (Henry Hopper) meets Annabell (Mia Wasikowska). He’s a morbidly curious funeral-crashing teenager who lives in a rundown mansion, wears black clothes from another era and plays “Battleship” with the ghost of a Kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase).
Naturally, Annabell, who tells him she volunteers in a local hospital, is drawn to him. She wants to tag along to the funerals. And when she bails Enoch out of a tight spot with a funeral director, she’s in. But we think that funeral director is right on the money.
“Either you are the world’s unluckiest boy, or a sick prankster!”
Thus, does an odd and oddly touching romance begin, a film that pays faint tribute to the ’70s death-obsessed dark comedy “Harold & Maude,” but one which grasps the doomed nature of all love affairs, even among the young.
Stephen Myers knows his boss’s talking points so well he can stand in for him, reciting them as technicians adjust the lights for the next presidential debate.
“My religion, what I believe in, is called the Constitution of the United States of America.”
Myers (Ryan Gosling) knows the line because he’s heard it a hundred times before, because he believes it and believes in the man who says it, his presidential candidate-boss, Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney).
“The Ides of March,” George Clooney’s latest civics lesson as actor and director, is a down and dirty politics-behind-closed-doors tale. It’s about a campaign professional (Gosling) letting his idealism get in the way of his professionalism. And it’s about disillusionment, ugly pragmatism, back-room deals and maneuvering in this mass media/social media/no secrets age.
Rachel Weisz has her best role since her Oscar winning turn in “The Constant Gardener” in “The Whistleblower,” another tale in which she plays an idealistic, morally complicated woman in pursuit of a deadly truth.
Toes are tapping, feet are shuffling and boots are bouncing in the opening to the new “Footloose.” Kids are dancing and frolicking, having a few beers to the title song of a 1984 movie, a tune by Kenny Loggins.
Then tragedy strikes. And Bomont, Georgia becomes the town that banned organized dances. The preacher preaches this from his pulpit, the town council goes along and the local cops enforce it.
But time passes, and it’s up to the dance-crazy new kid, Ren, to tame the local wild child preacher’s daughter, Ariel, and to get Bomont back on its dancing feet.
If there is a movie more familiar to multiple generations than “Footloose,” chances are it has hills covered in edelweiss or Atlanta burning down. You tamper with a movie, a formula and a story this beloved, you do it at your own peril. Even if the original movie wasn’t anybody’s idea of high art.
There’s something irresistible about a the underdog’s plight, something glorious about a “Cinderella Story” in sports. “The Mighty Macs” is a movie that taps into that, telling us of the glory days of Immaculata College’s women’s basketball team. This tiny Catholic school for women dominated the sport at a turning point in history, and this plucky, old-fashioned sports drama sets the scene and tells the tale with a lot of heart and a dash of wit.
Based on Friday night’s numbers, “Texas Chainsaw 3D” will collect maybe $25 million this weekend, enough to slip past “Django Unchained” and all the rest on this first weekend of 2013.
“Chainsaw” — the “massacre” is silent — did over $10 million late Thursday and all day and night Friday.
It’s on a LOT of screens, it’s in 3D, and it’s the only “new” movie to go into wide release this weekend.
“”Django” did over $6. “Hobbit” right around $6 and “Les Miserables” in the $4-5 range. That puts “Django” finally ahead of “Les Mis” in the US box office. Both films opened Christmas Day, but “Django” has held onto audience longer.
“Promised Land” opened wider and cracked the top ten, dropping “Silver Linings” out of it.
Both will clear the $100 million mark — or come very close — by the end of the weekend.
