MCN Weekend Archive for December, 2012
The DVD Wrapup: 2 Days in New York, 360, Following, Black Like Me … More
It isn’t enough that Julie Delpy is as fine an actress in English as she is in French and, at 43, still one the world’s most beautiful women, but she’s also proven herself to be an exceptional writer, director and singer-songwriter.
Read the full article »Willmington on DVDs: Following
A black-and-white British neo-noir shot on the cheap, with unknown actors, by a then-unknown co-writer-director (Christopher Nolan), Following is the often fascinating tale of a thief and a voyeur playing dangerous games. Nolan likes games and tricks, and the Wellesian magicians who play them, and the whole movie is something of a conjuring act. Though obviously the work of gifted youngsters and amateurs or semi-amateurs, done with scant resources and slender means, it’s a show that grabs you and keeps you guessing and rewards your attention and casts its own little spell. It‘s a real underground movie from a moviemaker just about to make his break into the mainstream — with another, more expensive, and even trickier film called Memento.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Ted
TED (Also Two Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (Two and a Half Stars) U. S.: Seth MacFarlane, 2012 (Universal) Ted is a vulgar, irreverent, dirty-mouthed comedy about a vulgar, irreverent, dirty mouthed teddy bear named, of course, Ted — a fuzzy horny little stoner who is the best friend of a sweet, somewhat Peter-Pannish…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: The Bourne Legacy; Ice Age: Continental Drift
I miss Jason Bourne already — missed him, in fact, even before I saw The Bourne Legacy, fourth in the multi-million-dollar-grossing Bourne spy movies, based on Robert Ludlum’s books. That series, you’ll recall, initially starred Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, super-spy on the run, and now, with Damon gone (after three outings), stars Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, another super-spy on the run. Cross, however, is not in any way related or connected to Jason Bourne, or to any other Bourne, beyond the fact that they were both involved in top secret “skill enhancement” programs that the government has now discontinued, and wants forgotten, along with Jason Bourne and anyone like him.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »The Weekend Report
With strong Saturday showings, Skyfall took a definitive lead for the weekend, followed by Rise of The Guardians, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, Lincoln, and Life of Pi. The overall weekend is estimated to be up 10% from last year.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Rise of the Guardians
RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (Two and a Half Stars) U.S.: Terry Ramsey, 2012 Movies just get curiouser and curiouser, as Alice might say, after striking another exclusive deal with The March Hare and Tim Burton. In the new DreamWorks animated lollapalooza, Rise of the Guardians (one of the more peculiar new super-hero…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Step Up Revolution; The Hand That Rocks the Cradle; Dead Ringer
STEP UP REVOLUTION (Also Blu-ray/3D Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy Combo) (One and a Half Stars) U.S.: Scott Speer, 2012 (Summit Entertainment) You don’t have to be a nincompoop to want to see something like Step Up Revolution, but it probably helps. The fourth in the “Step Up” series, which gave the world Channing Tatum…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Rio Grande
Among Ford buffs and aficionados, this has walways been the least admired of the three cavalry films—perhaps because it was shot quickly as a favor to Republic Pictures so Ford could go to Ireland and make his longtime pet project, The Quiet Man—but also because the script, by studio vet James Kevin McGuiness (who died in 1950, the year Rio Grande was released), isn’t as good as the ones Frank S. Nugent and Laurence Stallings wrote for the other two. (All three movies are based on stories by James Warner Bellah, who wrote the screenplay for Ford’s masterpiece, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).
Read the full article »Friday Estimates
It’s still vampires and secret agents and dead presidents, but this weekend, Bond leaps in front of Twilight and Lincoln gets $100m domestic in its sights (in the next week or so). The only newcomer is the Gerald Butler vehicle, Playing For Keeps, which seems to have crashed and left on the side of the road.
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Purple Noon
When the murder comes, it’s so swift, so unexpected, yet so oddly inevitable, that it’s hard to believe we’ve seen what we’ve seen. Whoosh! A knife thrust. A scream. “Marge!“ cries the victim, the knife stuck in his chest. He falls, dies, while his killer looks on, for a moment with seeming horror, as if he were witness to something awful, unimaginable — something that somehow doesn‘t even involve him. Did it really happen? Was it a dream? A fantasy? A lie? A movie? Yes, of course, we’re watching (and talking about) a movie: an exceptionally riveting and beautiful one about desire and cruelty and murder and malice and a game of make-believe by a psychopath/killer who is also an actor and an artist. A classic thriller called Plein Soleil, or Purple Noon, a movie shot in the adult playgrounds and mature pleasure spots of Italy and directed by a French filmmaker-artist, Rene Clement (who knew and understood sailing and the area well), from a classic novel-thriller by Patricia Highsmith, a brilliant American novelist who lived in France, and understood criminals well, if only in her imagination.
Read the full article »The DVD Wrapup: Beasts of Southern Wild, ParaNorman, Butter … More
Normally, come the first week of December, true aficionados of quality cinema – those who actually care about the Academy Awards, anyway — have entered into the annual ritual of predicting which deserving Best Picture candidates will be snubbed in favor of movies released after Thanksgiving. Last year, the Academy finally acknowledged the build-in frailty of its nominating procedure and doubled the number of finalists.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs: The Dark Knight Rises
CO-PICK OF THE WEEK: NEW THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.: Christopher Nolan, 2012. 1. The Rise A visual marvel and a hellaciously exciting action movie, a show also full of doom, gloom, violence and unexpected poetry and emotion — and very little humor of any kind — The Dark…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: Finding Nemo 3D, Up
Finding Nemo, the first one, was that epic 2003 Pixar computer-animated cartoon adventure about a boy clownfish named Nemo and his nervous father Marlin, and how they were separated on Australia‘s Great Barrier Reef, and how, they tried to find each other again, in an ocean world chockful of danger and delight. It’s one of the most popular movies ever made, and the second Finding Nemo, the new 3D version, doesn’t do anything to dampen that crowd-pleasing or diminish that delight.
Read the full article »The Weekend Report
Holdovers rule the roost, beginning with Twilight, Skyfall and Lincoln. The waning days of 2012 will be stuffed with a slew of award contenders vying to take the spotlight away from the likes of Argo, Lincoln and Silver Linings Playbook. Additionally the late year entries suggest strong appeal across the quadrants with an eclectic mix that includes Les Miserables, Django Unchained and Guilt Trip. Light the Yule log and bring on the egg nog.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Friday Estimates
Vampires and Spies and Bearded Presidents (again), Oh My!
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