Tagged: movie

Review: ‘Mirrors’

[[[Mirrors]]] are a reflection of reality or can be twisted into something that reveals another way to look at the world.  Ever since they were invented, the Greeks first thought your soul might be trapped within.  Through the years, stories have been told about what mirrors do or do not reveal.  Demons were thought to be revealed by mirrors while vampires do not cast reflections. It’s a rich subject that can make a wonderful thriller or horror movie.  The summer 2008 Mirrors, directed by Alexandre Aja, is not a worthy addition to the sub-genre.

Largely based on 2003’s [[[Into the Mirror]]] from South Korea, the movie involves a mirror universe, a demon, a divided family, and lots of ominous music.  Keifer Sutherland stars as Ben Carson, a New York police detective currently on suspension and taking a job as a night watchman at an abandoned department store to support his family.  Carson’s a mess.  He’s defined by his job and without it, he began drinking which led him to be thrown out of his home by his loving wife Amy (Paula Patton), deprived of access to his two children.  Instead, he’s sleeping on his sister Angela’s (Amy Smart) couch and ripe for a mental breakdown.  As a result, he’s slow to accept that he’s seeing things in the mirrors that remain remarkably clean.

Over the course of nearly two hours, he learns that there’s a malevolent spirit trapped in the mirror world and has been accessing the real world through mirrors to manipulate various people to try and free it.  Being the good cop that he is, Carson traces the building’s history and learns it was once a psychiatric hospital, and its unique treatment room remains intact.  He then traces the key patient who was treated there and learns she had been possessed by the spirit but it was cast into the mirror and others will continue to suffer and die until the demon is vanquished.

Over the course of nearly two hours, the audience is treated to a tremendous amount of unexplained characterization and world building.  Carson’s predecessor sends him a box of clippings that provide a key clue, but since it was shipped after his death and to someone he never met, we’re never told how that worked.  We know little of this mirror world and how some they move through space and time, which becomes a vital plot point towards the climax. The police investigations into some of these incidents, including Angela’s death, never seem to be carried out.

(more…)

24 tickets per day per theater for ‘Spirit’? Ouch!

  • News
  • January 11, 2009

In the middle of a weekend movie recap article with the fascinating headline "Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson Spanked by Clint Eastwood" we come across these horrible statistics:

From Friday-Sunday, the broken-down Spirit sold about 24 tickets a day at each of its theaters.  The above stat brought to you by highly speculative movie math: take the weekend per-screen average ($515) divide by three, and then divide by the average ticket price ($7.20).

My city screams, indeed.

‘The Dark Knight’ alternate trailer

Yes, yes. Highest grossing movie of 2008. Second highest of all time. A billion dollars in box office when all is said and done. And yet– it could have made even more money, if only they’d worked with the studio with the best batting average in the business…

We all know it’s about the toys anyway, right?

Hat tip: Mark Waid.

D.J. Caruso Continues to Talk ‘Y the Last Man’

  • News
  • January 1, 2009

Eagle Eye director D.J. Caruso, promoting the film’s DVD release, said of his next project, Y the Last Man,  “I think it’s one of those that the source material is fantastic stuff, it’s great, but it’s a tough one to lick into getting into a screenplay. I’ve tried to feel like it’s a trilogy of movies and I think everyone sort of agrees, but at the same time, just getting the first movie right and getting the right beats and knowing what to put in, it’s been really tough. You have great minds like David Goyer and you’ve got Carl Ellsworth and you’ve got Brian K. Vaughn, and I’m working with them to just kind of crack it and get it down. And we’re almost there. I know it’s a slow process, but I think eventually we’ll get it. We’re going to get it and we’ll get it right, but we had a pretty good breakthrough a couple weeks ago in the final act, and hopefully we’ll get there.”

On the concept that the ten volume series, which concluded earlier this year from Vertigo, being turned into a trilogy, he told Coming Soon, “I don’t think the movie so much will be left open-ended, it’s just a matter of, if you’re familiar with the source material, there’s so much great stuff and he meets so many great characters but it’s over the course of a long period of time. When you’re telling the story—yes, the fanboys and all the people who love it will go and see it—but if you’re just seeing the movie from a filmgoers’ perspective and you’re not familiar with the source material, you have to make sure you make the movie that they understand and they love, too. Like I said, it’s been more difficult than I thought but we’re getting close."

While he hopes to make this his next project, Caruso floated the notion that he may film something else if the screenplay gets delayed.

 

3-D Films in 2009 Face Theater Shortage

  • News
  • December 24, 2008

Every director these days is either enamored with shooting films in 3-D or for IMAX or both. DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg has become the 3-D Preacher, going around the country extolling its virtue.

The New York Times, this morning, noted that there’s just one problem: not every theater is equipped to show 3-D movies and its’ awfully expensive to gear up. “Like all studios experimenting with 3-D, Lionsgate is struggling with a shortage of theaters equipped to project the work. By the release date for My Bloody Valentine 3D, Lionsgate will have only 900 3-D screens available, so it will show a 2-D version of the movie on about 1,600 screens,” the Times reported.

The remake of My Bloody Valentine is the first horror film in the current revival of 3-D as a gimmick to make movie going once more a unique experience. “Advances in digital technology and more comfortable glasses — not to mention a young adult audience that doesn’t remember the 3-D horror movies of the past — have studios jumping back on the 3-D bandwagon. Family entertainment is leading the charge, with DreamWorks Animation and the Walt Disney Company set to unleash a blizzard of 3-D pictures over the next year. But the broader market is following fast,” they wrote.

The article noted horror films need something to keep the genre alive given the lackluster box office for the “torture” sub-genre exemplified by Saw and Hostel.

Joe Drake, the co-chief operating officer of Lionsgate and the president of the studio’s motion picture group, said,. “We see 3-D horror as financially lucrative and creatively exciting,” he said. “We want to break some new ground here in R-rated fare.”

“If there was ever a moment when horror needed to be reinvented, this is it,” said Jeanine Basinger, chairwoman of film studies at Wesleyan University. “You can only work one side of the horror street for so long before you have to cross to the other side and explore something new.”

The other option is to remake familiar films with new actors and directors with January 16’s release of Bloody Valentine as the tip of an iceberg. A month later comes the remake of Friday the 13th with A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween 2, and a parade of zombie releases to follow.

Alan Horn Briefly Updates DCU FIlms

  • News
  • December 18, 2008

alanhornarri-granitz-14912138-2-8527804Collider managed to briefly speak with Warner Bros. President Alan Horn, who provided a little update eon their DC Universe properties.

First up is the notion that Green Lantern will be the next hero to strut his stuff before the camera.  With a screenplay completed and location scouting occurring in Australia, the film appears to be in active pre-production. Horn said, “Also on the board. On the runway. Hasn’t taken off yet, but we’re close.”

Horn indicated he thought Superman would go into production before another Christopher Nolan Batman. “Probably in the next couple of years,” he said. “We’re very anxious to bring Superman back also.”
 
 As for third installment of Batman, Horn said, “We’ve been talking to Chris Nolan and what we have to do is get him in the right place and have him tell us what he thinks the notion might be for a great story, but Chris did a great job and we’d love to have him come back and do another one.

“The story is everything and we are very respectful of Chris. We have a wonderful relationship with him and we are going to be respectful of his timing and we want to get it right. Also, I think the fans expect that – they want us to make a terrific movie – we have to give them another great movie.”

As for the stalled Justice League film, Horn merely said, “Not yet.”
 

‘Wolverine’ Film Website goes Live

wolverine-logo-588268620th Century-Fox has launched their website for X-Men Origins: Wolverine with the newly released trailer and a countdown clock.  You can sign up for e-mail updates as the promotional machine gears up for the movie’s May 1, 2009 release.
 

JJ Abrams Completes ‘Star Trek’ Edits

  • News
  • December 17, 2008

JJ Abrams spoke briefly with MTV News about Star Trek, allowing us a chance to show off the new banner released today by Paramount Pictures.

The film’s trailer has wowed crowds and Abrams has completed editing the movie, which doesn’t up until May 8, 2009.

He admitted not everything shot will make it into the final cut. “You make a movie, and I think you always find yourself losing things here and there, embellishing things. It’s sort of par for the course. They’ll probably end up as deleted scenes on the DVD.”

Abrams noted that the film is intended for the widest audience possible but there remain nods to the diehard fans who have stuck with the franchise though some very lean times. “I think what you’ll see is there are — both story-wise and performance-wise, visually and aurally — many connections to what is familiar and what has come before. Which for the new fans of Star Trek, the newcomers to the world, will be irrelevant. But for those people who are fans and who hope for or expect certain familiar nods, they will undoubtedly get those,” he said.

He also confirmed that Leonard Nimoy’s Spock will be more than just a mere token appearance. “He’s in the movie, and his role is critical. I always think "cameo" feels like a role that the movie could exist without. This is critical, emotional and also a story element.

When asked to compare his film with the previous Trek films, Abrams spoke about how they pick up from the television series where everyone has been introduced and the crew knows one another. His film, in contrast, takes things back to those very early days.

“But on a much more practical level, Star Trek has never had the opportunity, nor the resources, to be realized in this way,” he said. “Things like the ships and the battles and the planets and the chases and the action sequences … and do them in a way that felt thrilling and terrifying and entertaining in a way that the show and the prior movies simply couldn’t afford to do. I feel we were able to bring to life, in a way we’ve never seen before, what it is to be a member of Starfleet. And that’s kind of cool.”

Hugh Jackman Talks ‘Wolverine’ Sequels

  • News
  • November 28, 2008

Hugh Jackman is heavily promoting Baz Luhrman’s Australia, which opened on Wednesday and has happily spoken of his next big film, X-Men: Origins: Wolverine.

 ”If it’s clear to us on May second or third that that’s gone, then I’ll walk away happily," Jackson told Moviehole about his tenuous future as Logan. ”I’m not going to flog something – or flog a dead horse, or try and make movies that people don’t really want to go and see. I have no interest in that. Even no matter how much I love the character. So there are many prerequisites".

Jackman has made the character his pet project, taking on production chores and as a result is already thinking about future installments. "There’s a few story lines that are running my head which I think would be really cool, but unless the script is right, then I just don’t see the point in doing it. I’m probably at the point in my career where I don’t need it. And the last thing I want to do is just to push it on people, if it doesn’t warrant a full feature movie.”

He also discussed how the solo project came about. “David Benioff, one of the great writers in Hollywood, came knocking at our door,” Jackman explained. “And I went and had a meeting with him, and he told me his idea. And I just went, ‘That is so brilliant.’ Now, I know this character by now, and he is a mad, mad fan of the comic books. He’s not cheap. But he came to us with this idea, which was smart and interesting. And it was also steeped in a deep love of the character, and the comic book history. So I just went, ‘Okay. There’s a reason to make this film.’ I was always a mad fan, in reading the comics, of the Wolverine in Japan saga, which is one of the most famous. But ultimately, we all decided – I think rightly, after seeing the film – that you need to understand the character’s origins, to understand who he is. And to really get it. So that’s what the movie does. It goes right back to him as a kid, basically.”

Additionally, Fox News reports that he will return to the Broadway stage as legendary magician Harry Houdini.

“Danny Elfman, once the leader of pop group Oingo Boingo and now often a composer of movie scores, is writing the music. Kurt Andersen, a former magazine editor and current radio host here in New York, is said to be working on the script although no one’s seen anything yet,” the site reports.

“The main thing is that Hugh is already working on magic routines. The show, when it materializes, would include Jackman replicating big Houdini tricks on stage. Hugh has already played a magician in the movie, The Prestige, so he’s up for it. Magician extraordinaire Ricky Jay is said to be giving him advice. At some point the producers may reach out to David Blaine and to Cirque du Soleil for help.”

‘Wicked’ Film Inevitable

  • News
  • November 28, 2008

Kristin Chenoweth, now out of work with the cancellation of Pushing Daisies, was asked if she’d be reprising the role of Galinda in the inevitable feature film version of Wicked. She told Moviehole, ”Well, will it ever be made? Yes, I do think it will be made. I think — you know, there’s some sort of thing going on right now where everyone’s hearing that there’s going to be a movie. You know, there will be a movie. But I believe — and I could be wrong, but I believe it will be years before we see it as a movie, because — you know, Universal will really want to make sure that they suck it dry, so to speak in all the theaters. And if you look at movies like Chicago and Phantom of the Opera those were 20, 25 years after the fact. And I could see, definitely, me playing Madame Morrible at that point. But I hope they really do it soon, so that I’m young enough to play Galinda.”

The musical is based on Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire which takes a revisionist look at the witches living in L. Frank Baum’s Oz. The best-seller was turned into a musical songs and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman and it debuted to acclaim in 2003, making stars of Chenoweth and Idina Menzel.

Wanted’s Marc Platt was signed to a long term deal at Universal this past July according to Variety and Wicked was included in the projects he will produce for them. Holzman is said to be at  work on a screenplay with David Stone on board  to co-produce.

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