The Butler Made Obama Cry

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Cute story today from an interview the President gave today to radio hosts Tom Joyner and Sybil Wilkes of the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Here's the quote:

Tom Joyner: "Ok, before were get out of here, did you see 'The Butler' and did you cry?" 

The President: "You know, I did see 'The Butler' and I did tear up. I teared up just thinking about not just the butlers who've worked here in the White House, but an entire generation of people who were talented and skilled, but because of Jim Crow, because of discrimination, there was only so far they could go. And yet, with tenacity and dignity, they got up and worked every single day and put up with a whole lot of mess because they hoped for something better for their kids." 

Aww. The tearjerking ending is pretty powerful- people in my theater were sniffling too. President Obama went on to say that Oprah can really act, lol.

Movie of the Day: "Malcolm X" (1992)

Continuing our weeklong remembrance of the March on Washington, the second movie to celebrate civil rights this week is Spike Lee's Malcolm X, the sprawling biography of the slain civil rights activist played brilliantly by Denzel Washington (and for which he should have won his first Best Actor Oscar). The movie dramatized every major event in Malcolm X's life, from his early life as a criminal to his imprisonment, his conversion to Islam, his eventual falling out with the Nation of Islam, his spiritual re-awakening and so on, all the way to his assassination. It's a terrific movie that should have been recognized more in its time, but has since come to be considered a classic and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2010.

Trailer: 

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "To Be or Not to Be" (1942)

The Criterion series has been great about producing the best cover art to go with their new releases. The film stars Jack Benny and Carole Lombard (one of the great comediennes who died in a plane crash shortly before it came out), as part of a theater troupe that has to imitate the Nazis in order to get out of Poland. Considered controversial at the time of its release, both for its satire (remember, the Nazis were currently occupying at the time) and Lombard's recent death, the movie found new life soon after and is now considered one of the best of director Ernst Lubitsch's career. It's a great movie, and you should definitely check it out.

Original Trailer from 1942: 

Chadwick Boseman to play James Brown

Variety reports that 42 star Chadwick Boseman has been cast as the legendary James Brown in the long awaited biopic that has finally been given the green light. Producer Brian Grazer has been trying to get it off the ground for years and the project finally picked up steam when Tate Taylor (The Help), came on board to direct. It sounds like a traditional biopic that's going to follow the singer from poverty in Georgia to stardom in the 60's and 70's, but presumably Boseman's going to be doing some serious performing in this movie, as you can see below (I wonder if his voice will be dubbed).

Here's the Godfather of Soul in 1966 singing one of my favorite songs: 

Happy Women's Equality Day

August 26th has been marked by Congress since 1971 as Women's Equality Day, celebrating the anniversary of women earning the right to vote 93 years ago. To mark that occasion in film, watch 2004's Iron Jawed Angels, which tells the story of the American women's suffrage movement, that fought for the right to vote in the 1910's.  The movie was an HBO production starring Hilary Swank and Frances O'Connor as second generation suffragettes who revolutionized the movement through new activist tactics inspired by suffrage in England. It's a good movie, and amazingly enough there are relatively few films that explore the figures of early women's suffrage, so, not to be cliche, but you might actually learn something from this one (as I did watching it).

Trailer (sorry about the blurriness): 

Movie of the Day: "The Long Walk Home" (1990)

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington this Wednesday, I'll be posting 5 films about the Civil Rights Movement this week to mark the occasion, starting with today's entry, The Long Walk Home. This film starring Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek was set during the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, and chronicles the change of heart from an upper class white woman towards her black maid as she offers her rides home during the boycott. The movie is notable for its acting and one of the things I liked about it was the subtle way it incorporates how women were treated by their husbands in the 1950's as an avenue for Spacek's character to find a way to relate to the civil rights struggle. Whoopi Goldberg is great as the maid and the relationship between the women is moving in in its effectiveness.

Trailer: 

BOX OFFICE 8/23-8/25: Holdovers Dominate on a Solid Weekend

Lee Daniels' The Butler had a small drop off this weekend, holding on to the top spot and falling just 31% for a $17 million take.  That's a strong hold, if not as strong as 2011's The Help, and the film has a good chance of crossing $100 million in the coming weeks. That will of course, only help its Oscar chances this fall as more contenders roll out. In second place was We're The Millers, with another small drop in its third weekend of only 25%, pulling in $13 million and amassing a total of $91 million so far. It's on track to outgross Grown-Ups 2 to become the second biggest comedy of the summer, after The Heat, which took in $155 million.

The latest fantasy film based on a young adult novel failed to take off, with just $14 million since Wednesday for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, which also received bad reviews and a so-so B+ Cinemascore, so don't expect much more out of this one. And in fourth place, the Edgar Wright film The World's End, third in the beloved Cornetto trilogy (comprised of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), opened with $8.9 million, which is a solid number for its theater count of 1500, and a build on the last entry, Hot Fuzz, which opened with $5.8 million. Stateside, these films are the definition of cult favorites, that's for sure. The film also earned rave reviews (93% on Rotten Tomatoes), some of the best of the year, and will likely hold up well over the next month.

Top 5: 

  1. The Butler- $17 million
  2. We're the Millers- $13.5 million
  3. The Mortal instruments: City of Bones- $9.3 million
  4. The World's End- $8.9 million
  5. Planes- $8.6 million

Further down the chart, the well-reviewed horror film You're Next didn't make much of a splash, earning just $7 million over the weekend, and garnering a disappointing "B-" rating from the audience. Unusual for a horror film, but perhaps the comedic horror aspect was too high concept for fans of the genre. It's a soft weekend next time, with just the Ethan Hawke/Selena Gomez action movie Getaway coming out in wide release, along with the concert film One Direction: This is Us, so it looks like the openers are for the tweens only. Until then!

Major Backlash Against Ben Affleck as the Caped Crusader

It was predictable in a lot of ways, but the level of outrage is so high that there's apparently a mass suicide event scheduled for July 2014 on Facebook (hopefully as a joke). That, plus the angry tweets, comments, facebook posts, and blog entries (I guess myself included), not to mention petitions, including one that petitions the White House to have Ben Affleck removed from the film (not kidding), and maybe it's enough to start asking ourselves...might we be overreacting just a bit?

Believe me, I understand the gut reaction (see my previous post on the topic), and there's nothing more annoying to me than reading the oft-repeated claim that "the same complaints were made about Heath Ledger and Michael Keaton" back in the day, but this kind of outcry seems to be approaching nothing less than mass hysteria. I'll admit, it's kind of funny to watch, although I guess I feel a teeny bit sorry for Ben Affleck at this point (I mean, really, how humiliating), but all this attention on him is sure to take the focus off the Superman character (who happens to be my favorite superhero), to the point where he may as well not even be in the film! Henry Cavill's the one getting the shaft here, as WB clearly has no real interest in making any more solo Superman movies. So much for that franchise.

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But come on folks...mass suicide? Let's lighten up and look at it another way. If this movie turns out to be this generation's Batman & Robin, at least that's one of the most hilariously awful movies ever made- and that in itself possesses a certain kind of entertainment value like nothing else. I didn't really like anything about Man of Steel, but the idea of watching Ben Affleck prancing around in the Batsuit is almost too funny to resist. I think if anything this puts me on board with the casting of Matt Damon as Robin- just go all out with it!

Theater in Kentucky Won't Show The Butler

According to the Hollywood Reporter, a local theater owner in Elizabethtown, KY is refusing to show Lee Daniels' The Butler because of Jane Fonda's political views 40 years ago.  Apparently this guy holds quite a grudge. He trained pilots in the Vietnam War and is himself a Korean War vet, and accuses her of treason, refusing to show anything with her in it. He said, "I trained hundreds of pilots to fly, many of whom Ms. Fonda clapped and cheered as they were shot down."

This whole thing is completely ridiculous of course, and obviously doing something like this draws attention to the guy, but that is quite a level of hatred to hold towards a celebrity for 4 decades, don't you think? And how is this fair to the people who, you know, want to see the movie (a movie that she's barely in, by the way).

I mean, he has every right to protest, but he's probably losing money in the process, and it doesn't seem right to inflict his own bias on the people who might want to see the movie. And seriously dude, she has maybe 1 minute of screen time. Seems awfully petty.