Wilmington on Movies: Green Lantern

Here comes another shot at Green Lantern again, in a big new superhero movie from Warner Bros. and D.C., and he’s got that silly little green mask again. And it strikes me as a silly green movie even though Reynolds is not bad, and even though the movie was made by Martin Campbell, who directed two of the best non-Connery James Bond movies. (I won’t mention the writers.) And even though it’s got a great villain, Sarsgaard’s Hector, who steals the whole movie, from Reynolds, from Strong, from Rush, from everyone. I bet he’d have stolen it even if they made him wear a silly little green mask too.

The Weekend Report: June 19, 2011

The emerald avenging Green Lantern debuted on top of weekend ticket sales with an estimated $52.4 million (including Thursday midnight shows). The session’s other wide national debut was the family targeted Mr. Popper’s Penguins that charted in position three with $18.2 million. The coming of age yarn The Art of Getting By opted for a medium wide launch that grossed $730,000 from 610 venues.

Wilmington on Movies: The Art of Getting By

  The Art of Getting By (Two Stars) U.S.: Gavin Wiesen, 2011 If you’ve ever been faced with a last minute must-do study cram for a class you’ve been skipping or ignoring, you have to be moved just a little by The Art of Getting By — a movie whose hero (hero?) George Zinavoy (Freddie…

Friday Estimates, June 17, 2011

Green Lantern beats out Mr. Popper’s Penguins by more than a 3-to-1 margin. And a decent hold for Super 8.

Wilmington on Movies: Le Quattro Volte, My Perestroika

Le Quattro Volte (Three and a Half Stars) Italy/Germany/Switzerland: Michelangelo Frammartino, 2010 Movies, more than any other art form, can precisely show and beautifully render the appearance and feel and flow of reality: the look of the world, the way time passes, the way humans and animals and other life forms act on our planet. (And…

Wilmington on Movies: Mr. Popper’s Penguins

 Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Two Stars) U.S.: Mark Waters, 2011 Well anyway, it’s not the penguins’ fault. Six of them — six handsome, lively and seemingly fearless emperor penguins — have been cast in the title roles of the new Jim Carrey movie, Mr. Popper’s Penguins. There, they share a refrigerated sound stage with the rubbery-faced, rubbery-limbed,…

DP/30: Buck, director Cindy Meehl and subject Buck Brannaman

Buck is opening this weekend on the coasts. It’s a doc about the “Horse Whisperer,” who like so many who connect with animals, Buck’s instinctual insights are often more about humans than horses. Meet the man and the filmmaker before going to the movie or after.

DP/30: The Last Mountain, director Bill Haney, subject Robert Kennedy, Jr

With explosives the size of a Hiroshima bomb being dropped on Appalachia every week, industry has already taken 500 mountains down to rubble and dumped the residuals into the rivers, contaminating 2,000 miles of federal river. The Kennedy family has been fighting to save these mountains and to stop the environmental destruction from the practice for decade. Filmmaker Bill Haney tells the story with Bobby Kennedy, Jr. by his side.

CONFESSIONS OF FILM FESTIVAL JUNKIE

LAFF Out Loud The curious thing that popped into my head as I leafed through the program book for the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival was decidedly arcane. It had nothing to do with the film selections or such decidedly local issues as parking or the logistics of getting from one venue to another. This…

Review: Green Lantern (spoiler-free)

I didn’t love this movie. But for the first half-hour, it had me, hungry for it to win me over completely. And like I said, it got too complicated.

The DVD Wrapup: Red Riding Hood, Hall Pass, Jackass 3.5, Legend of the Fist, Kill the Irishman, Intolerance, The Makioka Sisters …

Red Riding Hood: Blu-ray If the word, “Little,” is conspicuously absent from the title of Catherine Hardwicke’s retelling of the venerable fairy tale, it’s probably because, 1) American lawmakers, parents and ratings boards are made queasy by the portrayal of sexual-awakening among “little” girls in the movies, and 2) there’s nothing remotely “little” about Amanda…

Wilmington on DVDs: The Rest. Battle: Los Angeles, Red Riding Hood, Hall Pass, Monogamy, Such Good Friends, Captain Newman, M. D.

Battle: Los Angeles (Also Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo) (One and a Half Stars) U. S.: Jonathan Liebesman, 2011 (Sony)  Seeing Battle: Los Angeles is like being forced to simultaneously watch, on big  TV screens covered with grit, War of the Worlds and Black Hawk Down being mashed to a pulp. Ear-splittingly loud and mind-numbingly violent, jam-packed with gung ho war…

DP/30 Emmywatch: How To Die In Oregon, director Peter Richardson

HBO’s currently showing How To Die In Oregon, a powerful documentary on the legal and human cost of the right-to-die battle in that state.

Wilmington on DVDs: Pick of the Week, New. Another Year.

 Another Year (Also Two-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Combo) (Four Stars) U.K.: Mike Leigh, 2010. (Sony Pictures Classics) Another Year, from Mike Leigh is  another look at the Britain he‘s chronicled so powerfully and memorably since his first feature, Bleak Moments in 1971. It’s a rich humane work about people and classes, friendship and anguish, marriage and loneliness:…

DP/30: The Art of Getting By, actor Freddie Highmore

Searchlight picked up a film at Sundance this January called “Homework.” It’s now called The Art of Getting By and comes out this Friday. We spoke to Freddie Highmore and his co-star Emma Roberts with the writer/director Gavin Wiesen at Sundance. And we had a chance to talk to Freddie on his own a few months later.

DP/30 Emmywatch: The Killing, actor Michelle Forbes

Michelle Forbes is a television veteran whose career has taken her from deep space to the Baltimore morgue to the vampire-ridden bayous of Louisiana, and back again, playing smart, tough women. But this year, she got to play the intensely vulnerable Mitch Larsen, mother of the deceased on AMC’s just-renewed hit drama, The Killing.

Wilmington on DVD: The Rest. Just Go With It; The Company Men; Sanctum.

Just Go With It (Two Stars) U. S.: Dennis Dugan, 2011 (Columbia) Okay, here’s Adam Sandler again. He or somebody he knows saw Cactus Flower… Cactus Flower, you say? Yeah  —  the 1969 movie comedy, from Abe Burrows’ Broadway hit about a philandering dentist (Walter Matthau), the one where Matthau cons a pretty counter-culture gal…

Wilmington on Movies: The Last Mountain

THE KIDS AREN’T ALL RIGHT: An Interview With Submarine Director Richard Ayoade

The Gronvall Files British actor, writer, and director Richard Ayoade turns 34 this month, around the time that his feature directorial debut Submarine—a big hit in the U.K.–arrives on this side of the Atlantic. Based on the acclaimed novel by Joe Dunthorne, the movie is a whip-smart coming-of-age comedy set in Wales, about a very…

Weekend Report, June 12, 2011

Super 8 wins the weekend easily, though our estimate is about a million dollars lower than others. Judy Moody isn’t such a bummer for Relativity, as they were distributing on a for hire basis, not covering production or P&A.