Results tagged “cinephillyist”

Only four new movie choices for this weekend, folks. Looks like Hollywood couldn't rustle up many opponents who wanted to do battle against the juggernaut that is Twilight. Cowards.

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Maybe it's because I love war movies. Maybe it's because I love George Clooney. But The Men Who Stare at Goats, based on a book by Jon Ronson and directed by Grant Heslov (a distant relative-of-a-relative by marriage, but that's not really pertinent), was definitely on my list of most-anticipated movies of 2009. The film, which is based on more truth than you'd like to believe (a paraphrase of the opening title card), follows a reporter's quest to learn more about an elite group of psychic soldiers, nicknamed "Jedi warriors," also features (as Allison so eloquently put it in today's CinePhillyist) "Obi-Won, Kaiser Soze, and The Dude"—a cast list that at once made me giddy with anticipation and totally nervous that the movie wouldn't do its cast justice.

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The film industry is clearly running scared of Halloween and Major League Baseball. Don't waste your time at the movies—nothing good to see there anyway. Trick-or-Treating, costume parties, and Phillies games rule this weekend.

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"That very night, in Max's room, a forest grew and grew and grew, until his ceiling hung with vines and walls became the world all around."

Last week the unthinkable happened. Couples Retreat won the box office race taking in 35.3 million dollars. People, don't you realize what you have done? You've only encouraged the studios to make more bad romantic comedies. You've proven they can still make money off of less than mediocre offerings if they release them on a date where there's no competition. Yuck.

This is a lousy week for movie releases. The only new flick hitting Philly theatres this weekend is Couples Retreat, which looks like the kind of crap "comedy" that horrible girlfriends drag their whipped boys to because they liked Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers and think the big doofy dude is kind of hot (Confession: in person he actually is kind of hot. And mighty tall).

In The Invention of Lying, we're forced to imagine a world where not only is there no lying, there's not even a filter that tells you "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all," and there's certainly no sugar-coating. You see an ugly baby, you can't just smile to hide your horror: nothing stops you from telling the parent their baby's ugly. Your boss leaves for the day, and you bid him/her goodbye with a blunt, "I'll be searching for jobs on Craigslist." Nursing homes are called things like "A Sad Place for Hopeless Old People." Wedding vows promise love and fidelity "for as long as you want to."

Adventures of Power (PG-13)

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What are you looking for in a horror movie? Are you looking for something that takes the genre down a whole new avenue, something that is sure to inspire other young and aspiring film makers? Well, then go rent Saw, because Sorority Row isn't for you. Are you looking for something disgusting, horrifically gruesome, and gore-tastic? Then go rent Hostel, because Sorority Row isn't the film you need. However, if you're looking for bitchy, fast paced, smart(ish) horror flick, well then we might have a winner.

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You probably know someone like Big Fan's Paul Aufiero. Diehard sports fan, lives and breathes football for the season, refers to the team as "we?"

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Well it's about damn time Quentin Tarantino's World War II action-adventure flick finally comes out, after nearly 10 years in development. stars Brad Pitt as the commander of a crack squad of Jewish-American soldiers charged with killing—and scalping—as many Nazis as possible. For as long as it took to come out, we hope it lives up to the awesomeness of its premise.
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We think we've just seen the next movie that people will be quoting at parties.

So, um, I don't get it. The Time Traveler's Wife is a highly-praised reality-bending romance, beloved both by critics and many of my friends. I've seen people push the book earnestly into somebody else's hands, saying, "Trust me, you'll love it." Sure enough, they would love it, and tell their friends, and so on. Now that said beloved novel has spawned a mopey, over-literal film adaptation, I can ask what I didn't ask then: why should I care?

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It's generally true that each film in the Harry Potter series has been better than the last—and also darker than the last. And as the series has gone on, we've not only gotten a chance to see Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley grow up before our eyes, we've also gotten a chance to see Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint grow up before our eyes—not to mention the rest of the young cast. With each film, these actors get a bit older and a bit more talented. It's especially astonishing to see how much improved Radcliffe is. Take a look back at his awkward, wooden, wince-inducing performance in The Sorcerer's Stone, and then watch how comfortable and funny and real he is in this film.

I worried I was going to miss the thing entirely—"the thing" being a round-table interview with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, the director and screenwriter of the film The Hurt Locker. I'd left early, I'd taken the precautionary cab so as not to be made late by a half mile walk in high heels to the Four Seasons. But, my taxi was sitting at 17th and Market with no clear sign that movement would ever be possible. Eventually, finally, it moved and I made it.

I'll be honest. I normally have a little trouble with war movies. When I say trouble, it's not some big moralistic debate, it's more like a bizarre phenomena in my brain that causes me to nod off whenever the subject is depicted on screen. It took me five tries to get through Braveheart without falling asleep and I don't think I've ever successfully seen Saving Private Ryan all in one sitting. Unless Jake Gyllenhaal is taking his shirt off (thank you, Jarhead), I simply have a hard time paying attention to films with bombs and guns. Well, at least when the bombs and guns are in the hands of actual soldiers. When they're in the hands of Bruce Willis as John McClane, I'm totally on board.

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I think I can say with some confidence that however you felt about Michael Bay's first Transformers film, you will feel the same way about his second one. It's more of the same. More giant robots getting into epic slow motion fights while things explode all around them. More Megan Fox in sexy outfits running in slow motion. More ponderous narration. More of John Turturro thoroughly embarrassing himself for what I hope is a very large paycheck. More lowbrow "comedy." More, more, more.

Chances are, if you're a food nerd like me, you probably already know much of the information presented in the new movie Food, Inc.. The film is co-produced by Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and features a lot of input from author Michael Pollan, who wrote In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma. So if you've read all these books, you're probably going to see the film anyway. (If only Marion Nestle had made an appearance, it'd be a Food Nerd's Trifecta.)

"Let's have a bachelor party with chicks and guns and fire trucks and hookers and drugs and booze!" Twenty-five years ago this summer, Rick Gassko (Tom Hanks) lived every adolescent boy's fantasy in Bachelor Party. So when we saw the previews for The Hangover, we assumed the traditional story of boys behaving badly was making the rounds yet again.