Archive for Movie News

No one else captured what it was like to be a teenager full of angst like John Hughes did. Think about it: up until the 80s not many movies with teenagers were really digging in to what a teen was experiencing. John Hughes managed to see through all the garbage and put out movies like The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Pretty in Pink. Say what you will, but those movies captured the alienation that many teenagers go through all the time.

Hughes went on to write the successful Home Alone series and worked on several of the early National Lampoons movies. Other classics from him include: Dutch, Curly Sue, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Beethoven and recently Drillbit Taylor.

Many directors work hard to express themselves in their films and really relate to and pull in the audience at the same time. Hughes had a simple way of taking ordinary teenagers and putting them in ordinary situations and making everyone think that their lives could be on the big screen. Didn’t you ever wonder what it would be like to be left home alone? Not that those extremes would happen to the average person, but the fun of your imagination takes flight.

Hughes’ touch will be missed by anyone that ever laughed, cried or related to his movies. He started the careers for several movie stars and even made Ben Stein famous; anyone that can do that deserves plenty of credit. Going back and watching those movies today, although dated, kids can still see how the stories reflect their own lives and vice versa. He made Chicago feel like every small town in America.

A report was let out a few days ago that World Events Productions may sell the rights to Voltron in order for a live action movie to be made. The question is: does anyone care? Well, if you are a child of the early 80s that grew up with the metal toys and remember crashing them at your younger sister in hopes that Voltron would save the day, then yes, you would care. However, they want to turn it into a live-action movie, which may be a little different than expected.

Transformers has done pretty well as a live-action adaptation of a toy line, GI Joe on the other hand looks too far fetched an idea. Since Hollywood is looking back to old 80s cartoons, or I should say Japanese Manga from the late 70s, why not the Thundercats? Or better yet M.A.S.K., the Inhumaniods, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Jem, Centurions, Tranzor Z? All of these would be pretty sweet live-action movies.

There are a few things in the world that Hollywood does not need to glorify on the big screen, and old cartoons is one of them. You can pull only so much together to make a story for 30 minutes seem interesting, how about 90? Instead of destroying the legacy of some of these shows, maybe they should release them all on DVD so many of us can watch them and experience a little piece of childhood again. It is a shame that most of those toys haven’t been made in a few decades. The Centurions completely would dominate anything kids play with today. And the original Voltron lions? Those things were built to last, not the cheap plastic stuff you have today. Heck, the Smurfs are getting a movie, who cares about those guys?

Johnny Depp is strange. Everyone knows that he can play a strong dramatic role, but no one wants to watch that. Come on, you know you’d rather watch him play some bizarre character with that huge grin on his face. Which is why his latest movie, Public Enemies, doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as what he has in store in the coming years.

First, he’ll be back working with Tim Burton to revamp Alice in Wonderland and what more perfect part for Johnny than to play the Mad Hatter. Very few people in Hollywood can be eccentric like Depp and make you forget that he also played Don Juan a decade ago.

Next year he dives into another Hunter S. Thompson novel, The Rum Diary, and plays a freelance journalist living in the Caribbean trying to stay sober while deciding the next point in his life. This novel was written before Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, so there won’t be as many acid flashbacks, but be ready for a dark trip through the soul of humanity.

Of course, what else would be news if it weren’t for rumors of a Pirates of the Caribbean 4? This only means that the most noted role Depp has played, Jack Sparrow, will don his hat and swagger for yet another movie in the years to come.

Leave it to Depp to play some of the most bizarre leading characters in Hollywood which turn out to be his most memorable. Then again, he was also Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood which probably meant that he was destined to play odd roles forever.

Raring to go out and watch a new movie? Here’s a quick rundown of movies opening this week in San Francisco.

1. Cheri

Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Lea, Paris’ most envied seductress to the rich and famous. She has been thinking of retiring from her distinguished stature when her former courtesan and arch rival, Charlotte Peloux (played by Kathy Bates), asks her to teach her 19-year-old a thing or two about women.  Stephen Frears (The Queen) directed Cheri while Christopher Hampton (Atonement) wrote the screenplay.

2. The Stoning Of Soraya M.

Set in a remote village in Iran, a French journalist (played by James Caviezel) attempts to uncover the true details behind the death of Soraya from the words of her aunt, Zahra (played by Shohreh Agdashloo). The movie “exposes the dark power of mob rule, uncivil law and the utter lack of human rights for women” (from the website).

3. Unmistaken Child

Unmistaken Child chronicles the four-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001. Tenzin Zopa, the deceased monk’s devoted disciple, sets off on foot to find the reincarnation. He interviews young kids in even the most remote villages in Tibet and witnesses special traits and rare ritual tests to find out the identity of his reincarnated master and present him to the Dalai Lama.

4. Whatever Works

Larry David stars as Boris in the newest comedy from filmmaker, Woody Allen. Life starts getting complicated when a runaway named Melody (Evan Rachel Wood) enters his life and his apartment. Things get even crazier when her parents show up to rescue her.

A lot of people will be lining up to watch Transformer or My Sister’s Keeper. But it’s good to know that people have more choices than that when it comes to the big screen.

Meryl Streep can sing, dance, play a nun, hunt for orchids, fight a custody battle, but can she cook? Well, who else would you expect to play longtime television chef, Julia Child? Many of us only know the Julia we saw on television towering over a chopping block talking in that funny accent. What a lot of us don’t know is how she started cooking and the ramifications her career actually had on the world at large.

Amy Adams is still a fresh face trying to find her place in Hollywood, but can she cook? Amy plays Julie Powell, an average person that seems to be stuck in her boring life until she has a great idea: what if she made every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook and blogged about it for a whole year? One thing is for sure, that is a whole lot of butter to choke down in one year.

It sounds pretty easy, doesn’t it? Follow a cookbook for a year, and see where it takes you. Yet, as the movie will suggest the journey is not easy for either person. Julia had to climb uphill against a lot of opposition to get her book out to the masses and prove to people that anyone could cook. Julie needs something to get her out of a deep rut and prove to herself that she can be great no matter how uneventful her life might be. The really cool part about this whole story is that it is based on true events. Do a quick Google search, and find her blog so you can read up a little bit beforehand.

In August we’ll be able to see how difficult it was for both women when Julie and Julia hits theaters.

I  think that the new Star Trek movie was awesome! It had many excellent aspects and was like the older ones.  Personally, I would give it nine point five out of ten stars.

The movie begins when the U.S.S. Kelvin is sent to investigate a lightning storm in space. Out of the storm emerges the Romulan mining ship, Narada, which attacks the U.S.S. Kelvin, killing much of the crew, including the captain. Thus, George Kirk is put in command.  His pregnant wife is evacuated along with most of the crew.  In the lifeboat, she gives birth to James Kirk, and then the elder Kirk crashes his ship into the Romulan ship.

Next, you see James Kirk as a young, reckless teen. He has stolen his stepfather’s car and is racing along a road at high speeds when a cop attempts to pull him over.  Kirk speeds on, but loses the car off a cliff, so he is arrested.

Next you see him at a bar full of Starfleet sailors.  Kirk gets in a fight with some and afterward is talking to Captain Pike who bets him to join Starfleet. The next day, he arrives on base and becomes a cadet and befriends Leonard McCoy. Later, at the end of training, he is sent in front of a tribunal because he cheated on a test.  Suddenly, command reports that a fleet ship is damaged, and all the cadets are sent to ships.  Kirk is grounded, though, so he can’t come, but McCoy smuggles him in as a patient under his care.

Kirk recognizes the similarities between the Vulcan incident and the encounter that destroyed the Kelvin and warns Pike that the fleet is heading into a trap. The Enterprise arrives late to find the fleet destroyed and the Narada drilling into Vulcan’s core.  Pike is ordered to surrender and come to the Narada, but on the way Pike drops Kirk, Hikaru Sulu, and Engineer Olson into a orbital ski dive to attack the drill. Olson dies, but Sulu and Kirk destroy the drill and allow Spock to save some of the Vulcans.

As they sail away, Pike is captured, so Spock is Captain.  Then Kirk and Spock argue, so Spock maroons him for mutany. . .

I will not share anymore details, so I do not devulge the entire movie’s contents, but I will say it was great!

If there’s one film that I look forward to watching, it’s Transformers 2 : Revenge of the Fallen. Why am I looking forward to watching it? Simple, you can judge a movie by its teaser trailers and posters, and I judge this movie as “very good”.

When I saw the first trailer of Revenge of the Fallen two months ago, I was impressed. The makers of this flick are living up to their promise of bringing us a better sequel, and it’s how a sequel should be–better than the first.  It’s evident in the trailer that Revenge of the Fallen will be a visual feast.

Like most everyone, I saw Transformers in 2007 and loved it. I bought its DVD and watched it again and again with my family. We loved the amazing visual effects and could not get enough. When we heard that a sequel was in the making, we were very excited and pounced on the first trailer when it was released. Yesterday we saw the second trailer, which was released the other day. The second trailer shows that Revenge of the Fallen, like Transformers in  2007,  would not be all action because it also is laced with humor. The visual effects are evidently more superior than what impressed us in 2007. The two years that passed have surely brought a lot of improvements in the field of visual effects in films, and the makers of Transformers are making sure that we get the best out of what technology has to offer.

As to the storyline on which this movie is built, well, it has the typical structure we can expect with this genre: after final battle a bigger battle comes because the enemy is not that beaten. The bigger battle happens after Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons and Megatron’s dead body is stolen from the US Military and revived by Skorpinox.  Starscream and his Megatron get back at the autobots and the human race.

The 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival kicks off on April 23, 2009, at the Castro Theatre with Peter Bratt’s La Mission about an ex-con trying to make a better life living in San Francisco’s Mission District, until he discovers his son’s secret that threatens to destroy him. The film stars Benjamin Bratt, Erika Alexander and Jeremy Ray Valdez.

At this year’s festival, don’t miss tributes, awards and forums organized and chosen by the San Francisco Film Society.

1. The San Francisco Film Society recognizes, every year, filmmakers who have contributed vastly to the art of cinema and filmmaking. The Founder’s Directing Award for 2009, given to masters of world cinema, will be given to Francis Ford Coppola. The 2009 Peter J. Owens Award, given to filmmakers who have contributed well to cinema and its organizations, will be given to Robert Redford. And this year’s recipient of The Kanbar Award For Excellence In Scriptwriting is James Toback.

2. The Midnight Awards, sponsored by W Hotel and 7×7 Magazine, honor a young American actor and actress who have greatly contributed to independent and Hollywood films with their exceptional talent, intelligence and character. This year’s recipients are Evan Rachel Wood and Elijah Wood.

3. Centerpiece Event features the West Coast premiere of American director Marc Webb’s 500 Days Of Summer featuring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. This movie follows the 500 day romance of Tom and Summer. A cocktail eception follows the movie premiere at Clift Hotel. Both events will be on May 2.

4. The SFIFF also has organized different forums throughout the festival. Hear director Barbara Ettinger and producer Sven Huseby share their thoughts on making their documentary A Sea Of Change and the issue of ocean acidification. Listen to Jennifer Maytorena Taylor tackle the issues of American Muslims and destroy the negative image they currently have through her documentary, New Muslim Cool.

The SFIFF closes on May 7 with Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds at the Castro Theatre. Unmade Beds is the story of two young expats in East London, each with their own mission, crossing paths along the way.

After too much anticipation, the trailer for Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest movie Bruno finally has been released on the Internet. For those of you who may not remember Mr. Cohen, Borat should jog your memory. Cohen brings another one of his characters to the big screen and once again pulls all the stops to make you squirm and laugh.

Instead of playing an inept news reporter hailing from Kazakhstan, Bruno is a gay, fashion designer from Milan, Italy. From what the trailer leads you to believe it looks like Bruno has been let go from his job in Milan and roams America to cause panic and awkwardness to the masses.

Cohen seems to know how to strike fear in all of America, and it is fascinating to watch him work. For a British comedian he really knows the best places to get people when they aren’t looking. This is actually what makes this movie, and Borat, great: it catches you totally off guard and kind of makes you think about yourself and those around you.

Reality checks like this need to be cached more often. It wasn’t more than 30 years ago Mel Brooks dropped Blazing Saddles, and people found that to be rude and offensive yet obscenely funny. What does Cohen do differently? Chances are if you didn’t like Borat, you probably will hate Bruno. However, if you still have a sense of humor and know a good joke when you see one, get to your theater early on July 10.