Sunday, January 1, 2012
Oscar alert: Meryl Streep, her generation’s most skillful actress, portrays Margaret Thatcher, her generation’s most powerful woman.
Meryl Streep is the best actress of her generation, and she raises the bar again as 1980s British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Streep spends most of the film portraying Thatcher as she is now: an elderly woman looking back on her life. Confused, sometimes delusional, she carries on conversations with her dead husband, Denis, played by Jim Broadbent. Alexandra Roach does a fine job portraying Thatcher as a young woman, but Streep's powerful performance warrants Oscar consideration. Streep is so good that you get the feeling she could have been cast as the lead in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and pulled it off. Her performance covers up some of the film’s shortcomings, especially its failure to explore in depth some …
Saturday, December 17, 2011
But his beautiful mind is lost in the shadows amid the bombs and banter.
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, or Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, face a new supervillain set on destroying the world in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Holmes and Watson square off against Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), who has cooked up a scheme to pit various European nations against one another in the hope of profiting from the demand for weapons. A Gypsy fortuneteller, played by Noomi Rapace, tags along. Rachel McAdams, Holmes' love interest in the first film, makes a brief appearance. Guy Ritchie once again directs, turning Arthur Conan Doyle's classic literary character into just another Hollywood action hero. This is Sherlock Holmes 2.0—more of the same explosions and Holmes-Watson banter as the first film, just bigger …
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Michelle Williams captures the innocence and seductiveness of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe.
Michelle Williams gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn. The movie focuses on the summer of 1956, when Monroe went to London to shoot The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier (played by Kenneth Branagh). From the start, nothing goes well. Monroe is hopped up on pills, messes up her lines, is always late on the set and lacks self-confidence. No one likes her except for Dame Sybil Thorndike (Judi Dench) and messenger boy Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne). The story is told through Colin’s eyes. For all the Harry Potter fans out there, Emma Watson (Hermione) has a small role as Colin's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Lucy. Colin is smitten with Monroe and sees her for what she is—a fragile woman used …
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Kermit and company go 3-D with a fundraising plot that’s good family fun.
Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, Animal and all the rest are in The Muppets. Jason Segel co-wrote and stars in the film as Gary. He and girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) head to Hollywood on a dream trip. Tagging along is Gary's brother, Walter, a cute little puppet who is the world's biggest Muppets fan. Upon arriving in Hollywood, they find out the Muppets' studio has fallen into disrepair. Kermit and his gang of friends have long since parted company, but they reunite to put on a telethon to raise cash to buy back the studio. An all-star cast makes this a good movie for young and old. I know the Muppets are not for everyone—they have always been in a world of their own. But with CGI and the new 3-D, the Muppets are better than ever…
Friday, November 18, 2011
The fourth part of “The Twilight Saga” features the most anticipated wedding since at least Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries.
It has been three years since the first Twilight movie, and the wait is finally over: Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward (Robert Pattinson) tie the knot at last in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 1. The film is the fourth in a supernatural soap opera franchise that has raked in nearly $2 billion worldwide. Here is all you need to know to jump into the series: Vampire Edward Cullen and virginal human Bella Swan are getting married, and their werewolf friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) is not very happy about it. Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob? Let us know in the comments. There are no spoilers here. Your teenage daughter can tell you exactly what happens. Edward and Bella get married. Two weeks later she gets pregnant. After …
Friday, November 11, 2011
Leonardo DiCaprio in this film portrays the man who built and ran the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
J. Edgar Hoover ruled the FBI for decades, nosing around in the private lives of his enemies and friends. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Hoover in Clint Eastwood’s film about one of the most powerful Americans of the last century. J. Edgar focuses on those closest to Hoover: mother Annie Hoover (Judi Dench), secretary Helen Gandy (Naomi Watts), and FBI associate director and Hoover companion Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). DiCaprio, 37, as an aging Hoover is a stretch at times, and I don’t know whether he’s Oscar-worthy in a film full of award possibilities. The movie does a great job revealing the top cop's obsession with commies and radicals. It also portrays Hoover as a man always searching for the spotlight while keeping many secrets of his …
Friday, November 4, 2011
Eddie Murphy makes the comic caper worth the time of the 99 percent.
Ben Stiller plays an apartment building manager who is ripped off by penthouse resident Arthur Shaw (Alan Alda). Stiller and the other swindled employees (Casey Affleck, Matthew Broderick, Michael Pena and Gabourey Sidibe) plan their comic criminal revenge in Tower Heist. Are Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy still funny or have they lost their touch? Tell us in the comments. After an FBI agent (played by Téa Leoni) leaks word of a large stash of cash in Shaw's apartment, Stiller's character hires Slide, a two-bit cat burglar played by Eddie Murphy, to plan the heist. The movie picks up with Murphy’s arrival, but I was hoping it would come sooner than 40 minutes into the film. Tower Heist is smart, streetwise and sassy, mostly because of Murphy…
Friday, October 21, 2011
This popular movie franchise is about to make you jump in your seat again.
If you like scary movies, Paranormal Activity 3 could be just the movie for you. This old-fashioned ghost movie prequel takes the story line back to the beginning of the franchise and focuses on the two sisters seen as adults in the previous films. The girls share a two-level home with their mother and her boyfriend. The girls are aware of a ghostly presence in the house; the adults, at first, are not. The boyfriend has video cameras set up all over the house—running all the time, day and night. The suspense builds as we watch the surveillance-type video, waiting for a ghost to appear. Nothing happens for long stretches, but the payoff is always a nice series of clunky videotape spills, chills and thrills. Most people can relate to the “…
Friday, October 14, 2011
The movie that made kids dance in the 1980s returns with a new cast and new moves but the same tired story line.
Footloose is back, 27 years after America first cut loose with the story of old folks who hate loud music and wild dancing teens who want to shake their groove thing all night long. The story remains basically the same in this remake, largely shot in Hiram, Acworth, Kennesaw and other Atlanta-area sites. A grieving pastor (Dennis Quaid now, John Lithgow in 1984) leads a drive to pass an ordinance forbidding dancing, and a few years later his daughter, Ariel (Julianne Hough now, Lori Singer then), stirs controversy by participating in forbidden, underground dancing. The new kid in town, Ren McCormack (Kenny Wormald in place of Kevin Bacon), rallies the teens to petition the city to allow dancing. For a town that hasn't had public dancing in…
Friday, October 7, 2011
George Clooney brings doom and gloom as the bad guy in this Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky like saga.
This week’s movie, The Ides of March, is a political thriller along the lines of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky saga. George Clooney directs the film and plays Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris, while Ryan Gosling has the spotlight as media strategist Stephen Myers. Also contributing to the strong acting are Philip Seymour Hoffman as Morris’ campaign manager, Paul Giamatti as the opposition’s campaign manager, Marisa Tomei as a New York Times reporter and Evan Rachel Wood as the intern with a secret. Hollywood superstar George Clooney stars in and directs The Ides of March, a political thriller that reveals a dark underbelly of our ever-changing democracy. Clooney plays Democratic presidential candidate Mike Morris, a man who…
Brande Poulnot
10:19 pm on Friday, November 18, 2011
Sherry Burnell via Facebook: "Disagree. I thought the movie was awesome, and I am not some squealy teenie bopper. I would bet most of the people at the theater last night were in the 18 to 40 range. Lots of Edward and Jacob fans out there of all ages." more ›