Behind the scenes with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Thor 2 is coming out Nov 8th.
TRAILER #2: "Philomena"
This is a much better trailer than the first one, in my opinion. And boy does it look Oscar-y. They love these kinds of comedy-drama tearjerkers. But it got great reviews at all the film festivals, so we'll see when it comes out- it's now slated to be released on Nov 27th, in time for Thanksgiving.
Raves for Captain Phillips at New York
Paul Greengrass' Captain Phillips has been met with near universal acclaim at the New York Film Festival. Both the film and star Tom Hanks are receiving high praise and it seems set to join Oscar frontrunners 12 Years a Slave and Gravity as a leading contender for Picture, Director, Actor and across the board categories, maybe even Supporting Actor for newcomer Barkhad Abdi, who's been praised as well. The fact-based story of Captain Richard Phillip's 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates (another survival tale- that's a popular trend this season) is coming out in theaters in two weeks, October 11th.
"'Captain Phillips' unfurls with an intensity that knocks the wind out of you. Paul Greengrass' film is the most gripping based-on-fact film so far this year." (NY Daily News)
"Hanks is tremendous in the role of Richard Phillips- the nuance with which he unveils layers of control, the lack thereof, fear, dread, escalating panic and hopelessness is astounding and hard to watch at times." (The Playlist)
"Greengrass creates one of the most impressive, captivating military spectacles in recent years...Hanks is so commanding, so authentic here, taking what could be cheap, sentimental heroism and creating a real but extraordinary human who is just smart enough to survive." (Cinemablend)
"Tom Hanks does his finest work on screen since 'Cast Away' as Richard Phillips...the story, which made international headlines, is brought to vivid life by Greengrass." (NY Post)
Here's the trailer once more:
FEATURETTE: "Oldboy"
Behind the scenes interviews with the cast and crew of the upcoming Oldboy, out Nov 27th.
New York Film Festival Starts Today
Well, with Venice, Telluride, and Toronto now over, it's on to New York, with the fall season Oscar movies continuing to roll out. NYFF will run through October 13th, and the contenders in contention at this one include Nebraska, All is Lost, Inside Llewyn Davis, Captain Phillips, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Her. Obviously the big premieres at this fest will be Captain Phillips (screening today), which has already been seen by a few critics, Ben Stiller's Walter Mitty and Spike Jonze's Her. There will also be a secret surprise screening to be revealed soon, and with Foxcatcher and The Wolf of Wall Street both now delayed until 2014, my guess is that Saving Mr. Banks will make its debut here as well. Oscar season's in full swing even though none of these films have been seen by the public yet- but that will change starting next Friday, when Gravity opens. From that point on it'll be one Oscar movie after another opening every week for the next two months. The frontrunners for the time being remain Gravity and 12 Years a Slave, with smaller movies like Nebraska and Inside Llewyn Davis hovering around the edges, and Philomena waiting in the wings for its release in December. I'll have reports on the reaction to the bigger contenders throughout the festival, starting with Captain Phillips later today.
TRAILER: "Frozen"
Disney's new animated feature loosely based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, coming out Nov 27th. You wouldn't know it from the trailer, but this is supposed to be an actual musical, and with the voices of Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff, you'd think they wouldn't be hiding that fact (Tangled was a big hit, wasn't it? It's not like people don't like musicals).
TRAILER: "Dom Hemingway"
This is the kind of Jude Law I like- where he's playing weird character roles. He's always been better at that than as the traditional leading man type (see Road to Perdition, A.I., last year's Anna Karenina). This black comedy opens in the U.K. on Nov 15th, but it's not coming here until April 4th, sadly.
FIRST LOOK: "Dumb and Dumber To"
Harry and Lloyd are back with the duo's first snapshots from the upcoming sequel to 1993's Dumb and Dumber. Jim Carrey posted this one earlier today to his WhoSay account:
FEATURETTE: "Gravity"
Alfonso Cuaron, Sandra Bullock and the crew talking about making Gravity in 3D. The hugely critically acclaimed film is set to come out next Friday, October 4th- can't wait!
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Halloween" (1978)
Even though I admitted to not being a fan of the Friday the 13th movies, the original Halloween is still a great slasher flick, with some of the best suspense scenes of all time. It's John Carpenter who makes it good, that genre master of horror and sci-fi, here even coming up with the classic score himself. Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis stars in her feature debut, and the 35th anniversary blu-ray looks great and comes out in plenty of time for Halloween. What's notable in this one as opposed to the Friday movies is that most of the actual violence takes place off screen, without sacrificing an ounce of suspense or scares. You can actually make that work in a horror film- who'd have thought?
Original trailer from 1978 (warning- if you haven't seen the movie yet, 70's trailers are notorious for giving away entire films, including the climax and the ending. This one's not so bad but if you don't want to see anything major, you should probably think twice):
BOX OFFICE 9/20-9/22: 'Prisoners' Scares off the Competition
The Hugh Jackman drama Prisoners debuted at No. 1 this weekend, with a $21 million finish, to go along with its strong reviews (79% Rotten Tomatoes). It's something of a surprise that it did so well, considering that it was a very heavy adult drama about kidnapped children, from an unknown French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, but it's turning out to be a testament to Hugh Jackman's continually rising drawing power since 2008 (Real Steel, Les Miserables, and The Wolverine have all done better than expected and were sold based on his star appeal). The movie could be in for some strong legs as while, seeing that it got an "A-" from crowds and played roughly even with men and women (52/48). It will of course, have competition from other dramas competing for the same audience all coming out in the next few weeks (Rush, Gravity and Captain Phillips).
Last week's champ Insidious 2 fell 64% to $14.5 million this weekend, the typical horror movie cliff drop, but its total of $60 million has already made it a huge hit for the studio and director James Wan, more than the first movie finished with in its entire run. The other wide release of the weekend was the dance movie Battle of the Year, which starred Josh Holloway and Chris Brown, and bombed with just $5 million, maybe telling us the days of the hit dance movies like Step Up are over with. And the hit Spanish-language film Instructions Not Included continues to do extremely well, becoming the fifth highest grossing foreign language film of all time in the U.S., and likely to pass Pan's Labyrinth $37 million dollar finish in the next week.
Top 5:
- Prisoners- $21.4 million
- Insidious Chapter 2- $14.5 million
- The Family- $7 million
- Instructions Not Included- $5.7 million
- Battle of the Year- $5 million
In limited release, the 3D version of The Wizard of Oz pulled in an ok $3 million for ninth place, while the big news was Enough Said, the glowingly reviewed romantic comedy with James Gandolfini and Julia-Louis Dreyfus, pulling in a huge $60,000 per screen in only 4 theaters. Perhaps more attention was paid due to Gandolfini's recent passing, but the per screen average was stronger that Ron Howard's car-racing drama Rush, which opened on 5 screens for a $40,000 PTA.
Check back next week for the wide release of Rush against the new releases Don Jon, Baggage Claim, and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2.
Happy Birthday Bill Murray
One of my favorite comedians, Bill Murray turns 63 today- so here's a little tribute to the guy who started out on SNL, exploded into our favorite movie wiseguy in the 80's and 90's, and finally morphed into the sometimes serious actor and devoted Wes Anderson bit player he is today (though he still cuts it up on Letterman once in a while, see below). Caddyshack, Stripes, Ghostbusters, Lost in Translation, Zombieland- I can hardly choose my favorite. Oh forget it, yes I can- it's Groundhog Day, no question. Here's to you Bill!
One of the best scenes from Ghostbusters, right at the beginning:
And my favorite scene from one of my favorite movies of all time, Groundhog Day ("this is a man we're talking about, right?")
And here's his fantastic appearance on Letterman just a few weeks ago for the 20th anniversary of The Late Show:
