Columns By Mike WilmingtonWilmington@moviecitynews.com
Wilmington on DVDs: Sondheim! The Birthday Concert
Two mild objections. I understand the reason producer-director Lonny Price left the names of the singers off the concert program. He wanted to surprise the audience, who would have recognized most everybody. But the TV show and DVD’s potential audience includes many people who haven’t been to New York, and maybe never will get there. I’m sure they’d like to know, in every case, who was who, and who sang what. Also: It does seem to me, sorry, a little pretentious to leave off off the program the one Sondheim song almost everyone outside of New York City knows and wants to hear: “Send in the Clowns.” But then, isn’t a little pretentiousness part of what we love best about New Yorkers?
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: The Amazing Spider-Man
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (Also:Three or Four Disc Combo, with Blu-ray, DVD, Digital and 3D) (Three Stars) U.S.: Marc Webb, 2012 (Sony) Pity poor Spider-Man: He gets old, his webs get worn, and the movie guys just keep originating him, over and over. Ten years after the Marvel Comics movie that told the…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Flight
Denzel Washington, as advertised, gives an extraordinary performance in Flight, a Robert Zemeckis movie about the limits and contradictions of heroism, the perils of celebrity, and the corrosive effects of lies and alcoholism. Its a very good film, at times an excellent one, and definite Oscar nomination material. It’s also a very welcome movie.
Read the full article »Confessions of a Film Festival Junkie: AFI 2012
The AFI Fest opened Friday with the world premiere of Hitchcock, a likable yarn focusing on the iconic filmmaker and his wife at the time of his filming Psycho. In retrospect it seemed an almost anachronistic choice in light of the recent broadcast of “The Girl,” a more Machiavellian portrait of the man and his mentor/Svengali relationship with his The Birds discovery Tippi Hedren.
Read the full article »Friday Estimates: November 2, 2012
Wreck-It Ralph takes the high score with $13.4 million and will hang onto it for the weekend. Flight takes off with a strong start with $8.1 million and Man with the Iron Fists is in a dead heat for the third spot with Argo.
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