The latest from director Gus Van Sant stars Matt Damon (who co-wrote the screenplay with John Krasinski) as a salesman for a natural gas company seeking to buy up land and drilling rights in a small town and a local man (Krasinksi) who organizes others against the sale. Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lucas Black, and Hal Holbrook also star. Promised Land opens in select cities in limited release on December 28th.
Director Tim Burton‘s love letter to arguably the worst director Hollywood ever saw has made its way to Blu-ray. Johnny Depp stars as Ed Wood in this comedic biopic surrounding the earnest, but undeniably bad, filmmaker’s relationship with Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), his crossdressing fetish, and the filming of Wood’s most famous films including Glen or Glenda, Bride of the Monster, and Plan 9 From Outer Space.
The Blu-ray includes the featurettes from the 2004 Special Edition including the trailer, deleted scenes, and featurettes on the look of the film and recreating the look of Ed Wood’s movies, composer Howard Shore‘s use of the Thermin in the film’s score, a basic behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, Landau’s performance of Bela Legosi, and audio commentary with Burton, Landau, co-writers Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, director of photography Stefan Czapsky, and costume designer Colleen Atwood.
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While Brittany (Heather Morris) struggles from being removed from the Cheerios and reliving her senior year without Santana (Naya Rivera), Rachel (Lea Michele) struggles to make strides in New York, which means it’s time for Glee to turn to the music of Britney Spears for the second time in the show’s four seasons. As Brittany spirals further out of control the New Directions attempt to perform and intervention that only leads to an unfortunate performance of “Gimme More” at McKinley’s first pep rally of the new school year.
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Glee – Britney 2.0 Read More »
It’s only September, but it’s quite possible the latest film from writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson may be the best collection of acting seen in theaters this year. The Master, inspired (in part) by L. Ron Hubbard and the rise of Scientology, is a terrifically produced look into the life of a disturbed young man and his relationship with the leader of a cult.
The film is less concerned about the specific inner workings of a cult than what kind of life it’s leader might live and how he might react to those around him and those in need of his help.
When we meet Naval Officer Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) in the final days of WWII it’s obvious there’s something very wrong with the man whose violent and blunt interactions with everyone he meets fail to earn him friends. After the war, Freddie travels around the country in various jobs, including a department store photographer and field hand – both of which he’s forcibly removed from due to his poor judgement.
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Phoenix & Hoffman deliver a pair of Masterful performancesRead More »
Phoenix & Hoffman deliver a pair of Masterful performances Read More »
Trouble with the Curve, a tale of an old baseball scout (Clint Eastwood) reconnecting with his estranged daughter (Amy Adams) on his final recruiting trip, is exactly what you’d expect. In fact, less than halfway through the film I correctly predicted how every single storyline would end.
The by-the-book tale is an odd mashup cashing in on the success of Moneyball and Grand Torino (with a romantic comedy thrown in for good measure). Sadly, but not surprisingly, Trouble with the Curve is nothing more than blatant Oscar bait and forgettable feelgood pre-holiday fodder.
Clichéd and as subtle as a kick to the groin, the screenplay by first-time screenwriter Randy Brown doesn’t so much foreshadow events as scream loudly from Hollywood playbook exactly what will occur. Overly sentimental, and not ambitious in the least, the film is a crowd pleaser with well-placed grumpy old man jokes that won’t force audiences to think much (or at all).
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Eastwood and Adams have plenty of Trouble with the CurveRead More »
Eastwood and Adams have plenty of Trouble with the Curve Read More »
