MCN Weekend Archive for July, 2011

Critics Roundup — July 21

Captain America: The First Avenger |Yellow|||| Friends with Benefits |Red||Green||Yellow A Little Help |||Red|Yellow| Another Earth |||Green|Green| The Myth of the American Sleepover |||Green|| Sarah’s Key |Yellow||||Green

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DVD Geek: Red Riding Hood

The film is accompanied by 27 minutes of good production featurettes (best moments—a musician records a drumbeat on a watermelon floating in a bucket for the musical score; and a rehearsal of a dancing scene that is hot as all get out even though the performers are just in their sweats) …

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Review: Captain America (1 Spoiler Section, well marked)

I kinda love the sepia-spirited movie that Joe Johnston made out of Captain America, one of my favorite Marvel characters growing up. I kinda hate the commercial for Avengers that Marvel wrapped the film in and for me, pretty close to ruins the last 15-20 minutes of the film for me. So where does that…

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Wilmington on DVDs. The Rest. Take Me Home Tonight, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Amelie, Skidoo

Take Me Home Tonight (Also Blu-ray) (Two Discs) (Two Stars) U.S.; Michael Dowse, 2011 (20th Century Fox) Hyphenates of the world, arise! Topher Grace has just executive produced a movie, directed by Michael Dowse (FUBAR) from a story Topher Grace co-wrote, in which Topher Grace plays Matt Franklin, a 1984 L. A. underachiever who works…

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The DVD Wrapup: Take Me Home Tonight, Limitless, Potiche, The Music Room, Beauty and the Beast, Small Town Murder Songs …

Take Me Home Tonight Nearly 40 years after the release of “American Graffiti” – as close to perfect a movie as one is going to download anytime soon – filmmakers are still attempting to extract pay dirt from George Lucas’ gold mine, even if the vein played out after “Dazed and Confused.” “Take Me Home…

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WILMINGTON ON DVDs: Co-Picks of the Week: New. Potiche, Limitless

  CO-PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW   Potiche (Three Stars) France, Francois Ozon, 2010 (Music Box) A few words about Potiche: Catherine Deneuve is still beautiful at 67. Gerard Depardieu, still tremendous at 62, has grown as immense as Brando (in girth as well as talent.) Both still hold the screen casually and with real…

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Wilmington on Movies: Project Nim

  “Project Nim” (Four Stars) U.S.-U.K.: James Marsh, 2011 I. Let’s Play. — Nim He was a gnarled, hairy old chimpanzee, who spent most of his time in a large cage with two chimp companions and an occasional human visitor or keeper. He moved slowly and a bit painfully and he had a strange, sad,…

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The Weekend Report, July 17, 2011

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Part 2 debuted to a record breaking estimate of $168.6 million domestically and corralled roughly 65% of the marketplace in its debut and the series finale.

Marked on the curve the rest of the newcomers had to settle for chump change. A new Winnie the Pooh targeted at viewers not quite ready for Potter ranked sixth with $7.8 million. And in the niches there was an excellent bow for Bollywood’s latest Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara of $820,000 and a sturdy initial salvo of $104,000 for Tamil language Deiva Thirumagan at 22 venues.

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Friday Estimates, July 15, 2011

Harry Potter breaks the opening day record by about 25% while Transformers continues to hold pretty well against the onslaught. And Winnie The Pooh opens like its name.

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Wilmington on Movies: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two” (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.; David Yates, 2010 Part I. All fine things must come to an end, and so finally has the Harry Potter series: the books first of all, and now the movies, climaxing at last in a final explosion, a last spell, that…

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Box Office Hell — July 14

Our Players|Coming Soon|Box Office Prophets|Box Office Guru|EW|Box Office . com Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 2 |142.8.|164.1|147.0|152.0|151.0 Transformers: Dark of the Moon|21.5|22.8|26.0|23.0|23.5 Horrible Bosses|16.4|17.2|17.0|17.0|17.5 Zookeeper|10.5|11.4|12.0|11.0|11.0 Winnie the Pooh |8.0|9.7|10.0|10.0|10.0

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Critics Roundup — July 14

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2 |Green||Green|Green |Green Life, Above All (NY, LA) |||Green|| Snow Flower and the Secret Fan |Yellow||||Yellow Tabloid |Yellow||Green|Green|Green Winnie the Pooh |||||Green The Tree |||Yellow||

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Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two

Harry, Ron and Hermione together epitomized love and friendship and bravery in a way that few characters in children’s books ever do. J.K. Rowling created these memorable characters, but let’s not forget that it was these young actors, who had the weight of carrying a best-selling series onto the big screen thrust upon them when they were all themselves just awkward preteens embarking on their own real-life journeys into adulthood, who made Harry, Ron and Hermione come to life for millions of fans.

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Wilmington on DVDs: The Rest. Arthur, The Lincoln Lawyer, Promised Lands, Vera Cruz.

Arthur (One and a Half Stars) U.S.: Jason Winer, 2011 Rarely has the time seemed less right for a movie than it does for the Russell Brand remake of Arthur — that 1981 comedy semi-classic starring Dudley Moore in his career peak, as the drunken Manhattan heir to millions.  The Moore Arthur was a fancy swiller…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Box Set. The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy.

“The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” (Four Stars) U.S.-New Zealand: Peter Jackson, 2001-2003 (New Line).  Picks of the Week may come and go, but here is my choice as Pick of the Decade. My selection, for all of the 2000s: Peter Jackson’s staggering adaptation of author J. R. R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy,…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. Araya

        Araya (Four Stars) Venezuela/France: Margot Benacerraf, 1959 (Milestone Film & Video) Art can be exhilarating, life can be disappointing. The uncommonly beautiful Venezuelan movie, Araya — a big critical success and major award winner at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959 — has been neglected in America for most of the…

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The DVD Wrapup: The Lincoln Lawyer, Rango, Arthur, Waking Madison, Damnation Alley, The Third Wave, Miral, Insidious …

The Lincoln Lawyer: Blu-ray The last time a movie was adapted from a crime novel by Michael Connelly, it left such a bad taste in the mouth of longtime fans they prayed he wouldn’t sell another of his books to Hollywood, especially those associated with LAPD detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. Even with the estimable talents…

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Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. Rango; Uncle Boonmee, Who Can Recall his Past Lives.

CO-PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW Rango (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.: Gore Verbinski, 2011 Rango is a fast, funny, gorgeous-looking cartoon feature by director Gore Verbinski that sends up movie westerns as they’ve rarely been sent up. In this puppet-ish spoof — in which Johnny Depp plays (or voices) a gabby chameleon masquerading as…

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The Weekend Report: July 10, 2011

As expected the second weekend of Transformers: Dark of the Moon retained top spot at the box office with an estimated $46.7 million tally that transported it to the head of 2011 domestic grossers with a $260.7 million cume. The two incoming national releases followed with the self descriptive Horrible Bosses bowing to $27.9 million and the light comic menagerie of The Zookeeper sweeping up $20.7 million.

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Wilmington on Movies: Horrible Bosses

 Horrible Bosses (Two Stars) U.S.: Seth Gordon, 2011 There’s an ugly rumor going around that Horrible Bosses is a funny, clever movie. But if that’s true, I must have wandered into the wrong Multiplex theatre and seen some other horrible movie by mistake. Maybe it’s just me. One person‘s laugh riot can be another person’s snore….

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MCN Weekend

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls' Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More

rohit aggarwal on: The DVD Wrapup: Ophelia, Ambition, Werewolf in Girls' Dorm, Byleth, Humble Pie, Good Omens, Yellowstone …More

https://bestwatches.club/ on: The DVD Wrapup: Diamonds of the Night, School of Life, Red Room, Witch/Hagazussa, Tito & the Birds, Keoma, Andre’s Gospel, Noir

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Sleep With Anger, Ralph Wrecks Internet, Liz & Blue Bird, Hannah Grace, Unseen, Jupiter's Moon, Legally Blonde, Willard, Bang … More

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Bumblebee, Ginsburg, Buster, Silent Voice, Nazi Junkies, Prisoner, Golden Vampires, Highway Rat, Terra Formars, No Alternative … More

GDA on: The DVD Wrapup: Bumblebee, Ginsburg, Buster, Silent Voice, Nazi Junkies, Prisoner, Golden Vampires, Highway Rat, Terra Formars, No Alternative … More

Larry K on: The DVD Wrapup: Sleep With Anger, Ralph Wrecks Internet, Liz & Blue Bird, Hannah Grace, Unseen, Jupiter's Moon, Legally Blonde, Willard, Bang … More

Gary Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Shoplifters, Front Runner, Nobody’s Fool, Peppermint Soda, Haunted Hospital, Valentine, Possum, Mermaid, Guilty, Antonio Lopez, 4 Weddings … More

gwehan on: The DVD Wrapup: Shoplifters, Front Runner, Nobody’s Fool, Peppermint Soda, Haunted Hospital, Valentine, Possum, Mermaid, Guilty, Antonio Lopez, 4 Weddings … More

Gary J Dretzka on: The DVD Wrapup: Peppermint, Wild Boys, Un Traductor, Await Instructions, Lizzie, Coby, Afghan Love Story, Elizabeth Harvest, Brutal, Holiday Horror, Sound & Fury … More

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon