Scarlett Johansson stars in this sci-fi action thriller from director Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita, The Professional and The Fifth Element) about a woman turned into a type of superhuman. Maybe ScarJo's been boosted by The Avengers to want to be a new female action star- whatever the case, her filmography lately is certainly becoming a lot more interesting, with Her, this week's Under the Skin, and now Lucy, coming out August 8th. Count me in.
REVIEW: "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues" (2013) Will Ferrell, Christina Applegate. Dir. Adam McKay
The original Anchorman was one of the most absurd, unique, and endlessly quotable comedies of the last decade. It was a sleeper hit in 2004 but its fans only grew in numbers, waiting for the inevitable sequel to arrive, which it finally did nine years later. After so much time in the interim, and with all the original cast and crew back for the second time around, you'd hope that this new entry in the adventures of Ron Burgundy and co. would live up to the hype- and I'm happy to say it does.
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, is at least as funny and weird as the first movie, packed with obvious improv and one-liners, and gags stacked one on top of the other so that if a joke doesn't quite hit, it's only a few seconds before one that does. Like the best sequels, it benefits from a feeling of warm familiarity with characters you already know and love- and here everyone hits the right note, with even the one-dimensional Brick Tamland (Steve Carrell), whose role is bigger this time, expanded to include a sweetly ridiculous love story between him and his female counterpart, Chani (a pitch-perfect Kristen Wiig). Will Ferrell is of course back as the title character, the bumbling buffoon who remains as clueless and stupid, yet oddly loveable as ever, and his news team is rounded out by Paul Rudd and David Koechner, who each get their moments to shine over the course of the film (Keochner's Champ Kind has some of my favorite, laugh out loud lines in this one).
Anchorman 2 could have settled for a simple reunion movie that repeated the jokes of the first one, but happily, Ferrell and director/writer Adam McKay decided to aim higher- they had a point to make about the state of TV news, and used Ron Burgundy as the vessel through which to do it. When Ron's fired from the news desk by Mac Tannen (a grizzled Harrison Ford) in favor of his wife Veronica Corningstone (a returning Christina Applegate) for being the "worst anchorman he's ever seen," he's recruited by the upstart GNN, the network to invent the 24-hour news block, and from there the movie proceeds to take aim squarely at the likes of CNN and Fox News, essentially blaming Ron and his news team for every bad thing that's happened with cable news in the last ten years. It's sharp, pointed satire about our current news era, but without sacrificing the absurd nature of the Anchorman universe in the slightest (the way they top the news team fight from the first movie is a pretty awesome sight to behold).
For anyone who loved the first Anchorman, I can't see why you wouldn't be taken with this one as well, and with any luck, maybe in another ten years Ron, Veronica and the rest of the gang will come back to make fun of whatever the current status of TV journalism is at that time. Until then, we have this to enjoy, and whatever his faults, Ron Burgundy shows more conscience at the end of this movie (albeit thanks to a stint of blindness and bonding time with a baby shark) than most of the corporate cronies that anchor our television screens on a daily basis today- which is quite a sad state of affairs indeed.
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TRAILER: "Sex Tape"
Cameron Diaz and Jason Segel reunite with their Bad Teacher director Jake Kasdan for this raunchy comedy coming out July 25th. The premise seems a little thin, but it looks like they might be able to wring some laughs out of it- although that dead dog joke is straight out of There's Something About Mary.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Once" (2006)
An absolute gem this week in John Carney's Once, from 2006. A low budget film made with amateur actors about a brief tryst with falling in love and being in love with music. Real life musicians Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova star as two struggling artists who meet up to make a quick record in a week's time. It's hard to find a movie more charming than this one- the only reason you wouldn't like it is if you somehow didn't like the songs, which Hansard and Irglova composed themselves. The main track "Falling Slowly" won the Oscar for Best Original Song that year too.
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Happy April Fools!
Welcome to April! The start of a new month means a new batch of movies of course. So for this month we've added ten of our favorite, hilarious, knockout comedies- a perfect ten for April Fools Day, as you have it. We've got everything from classic screwball (His Girl Friday) to men in drag (Some Like it Hot, Tootsie), and a couple of Bill Murray classics, including the above, one of my favorites of all time. As always, head on over to the Movie of the Month page to check out the description for April and click here for the list of ten great comedies. Have a good laugh everyone!
Movie of the Day: "Hoop Dreams" (1994)
Our last entry for March Madness is Hoop Dreams, the iconic documentary that every basketball lover and film lover should see at least once in their lives. It followed the day to day struggles of two inner city teens, Arthur Agee and Williams Gates, over their four years of high school as they tried to follow their dreams of playing basketball even as real life drama and every day problems got in the way, as it does for us all. A powerfully absorbing film that made you feel a part of these kid's lives in every respect, and eventually becomes about so much more than the sport they want to be part of. A perfect end to the basketball movies celebrated over the last few days of March.
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REVIEW: "Noah" (2014) Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly. Dir. Darren Aronofsky
Noah is a dark, imaginative, thought-provoking and not so faithful re-telling of the biblical tale everyone's familiar with- but maybe that's not such a bad thing. You may go into this movie wanting a certain kind of traditional epic, and if you do you will likely be confronted with some major challenges to your belief system, especially if yours is a literalist take on popular Bible stories.
Darren Aronofsky is a director who likes to challenge an audience, and usually brings his own, bold ideas into his films, which range from Requiem for a Dream to Black Swan and The Fountain- given that filmography, the tale of Noah's Ark may not be obvious material for him to tackle, but that's likely exactly why he did it. Always a visual filmmaker, the images in Noah are some of its best qualities, which show off desolate landscapes and bleak skies painted in bold, striking colors. There's always something to see onscreen in this version of the story, and that's a good thing, because the approach to the subject matter takes on a harsh, bleak tone that really borders on depressing for much of the running time.
In some ways that's appropriate- in this universe, the Creator is one who reigns punishment and death down upon mankind, and all of it is the fault of weak and selfish humans who must be obliterated for their sins. As someone who's almost entirely unfamiliar with all but the most basic of Bible tales, in this movie God comes across as a real hardass who hates everything he's created. And Noah, as played by Russell Crowe, is a tortured, soul-searching man who must find it in himself to let all of humanity vanquish except for his own family members (and the animals of course, who still look impossible to fit onto that boat), and then goes through an evolution that sees him become first a dagger-wielding maniac and then a drunken bum. Those passages are actually more entertaining than the early slogs through the building of the ark, and Crowe gives a very convincing turn as a sort of anti-hero forced to do God's bidding.
Other elements in the film that no one will be expecting, and some of my favorite things about it were the fantastic and surreal touches, such as the fallen angels who watch out for Noah taking the form of gigantic rock monsters. The leader of the stonehenge gang is voiced by Nick Nolte and they're reminiscent of creatures who might have walked off the set of Lord of the Rings. Other neat moments are the colorful montage of Creation as explained by Noah and the magic inexplicably pulled off by his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and Methuselah (Anthony Hopkins, who else?) The performances are good all around, especially Logan Lerman as Noah's conflicted son Ham and Emma Watson as adopted daughter Ila. But while I liked and appreciated parts of Noah throughout, the film overall was a heavy and quite dreary experience. It may be appropriately so- this an apocalyptic depiction of a vengeful God and his suffering servants after all- but it takes an unpleasant toll on an audience as far as entertainment value is concerned.
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Movie of the Day: "Space Jam" (1996)
Today's March Madness movie is Space Jam, from 1996. In it, Michael Jordan, the world's greatest basketball player, teams up with Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes to challenge the invading aliens in Toon Land to a basketball game. This was a lot of fun, but now it works best as a kind of time capsule movie, one that shows you just how massive a superstar Jordan was at the time (in case you don't remember). He was so famous that the movie can easily poke fun at his recent real life stint in baseball before making his dramatic return to the basketball court, and it's not supposed to be played as an inside joke. Everyone was following his every move back then- rarely could one athlete command the whole world's attention like Michael Jordan did when he was on top (sorry LeBron James- there's really no comparison in terms of cultural impact). This one also has cameos from comedians like Bill Murray and Wayne Knight, as well as other famous basketball players from the 90's NBA craze.
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BOX OFFICE 3/28-3/30: 'Noah' Comes On Strong
Darren Aronofsky's Noah was the week's winner, coming in with an above average $44 million, which is pretty good, although the budget was $125 million and the studio will want it to hold on strongly to turn a profit. All the various controversies associated with the film seemed to help sustain interest in it, but it did get a bad "C" Cinemascore from audiences (we'll see if that means anything though, since we know how that worked out for Wolf of Wall Street last Christmas). With Easter coming up it may attract Christian audiences in a big way, if word of mouth isn't too bad in the end. In second place was Divergent, which fell just 51% from last week (a smaller drop than the Hunger Games and Twilight movies), and Muppets Most Wanted took third, also falling just a small amount, to pull in a decent $11 million for a $33 million total. It may hold on to make its budget back in the States, while scoring more overseas to turn a profit in the end.
Mr. Peabody and Sherman took fourth, on its way to a $100 million dollar total, while the real shocker of the weekend was God's Not Dead, which came in fifth but made another $9 million, exactly the same as its debut opening last week. This might turn out to be the big underdog success story of the year so far, as the movie's obviously playing very well in middle America.
Top 5:
- Noah- $44 million
- Divergent- $26.5 million
- Muppets Most Wanted- $11.3 million
- Mr. Peabody and Sherman- $9.5 million
- God's Not Dead- $9 million
In other news, Frozen just passed Toy Story 3 at the worldwide box office to become the biggest animated movie of all time with over $1 billion, and Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel expanded nationally this weekend, coming in at No. 6 with $8.8 million, and well on its way to becoming Anderson's highest grossing film ever. Next week it's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which has already made a hefty $75 million from overseas markets since opening on Wednesday, and is expected to do huge business here as well. See you then!
Movie of the Day: "Love & Basketball" (2000)
Another great basketball movie for today is this romantic drama from 2000, which stars Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps as childhood sweethearts who go on to become a couple as young adults, while both figuring out how to pursue their respective basketball careers. One of the few sports movies ever to focus on a female athlete's quest for success, both in her professional and personal life (tellingly, it was also directed by a woman, Gina Prince-Bythewood), and the chemistry is terrific between Epps and Lathan.
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Movie of the Day: "Glory Road" (2006)
Due to March Madness, we'll be posting some great basketball-centered movies over the next few days, and this feel-good story from 2006 is the first. The sports movie in general tends to follow a now cliched formula of overcoming obstacles on the way to gaining unprecedented success, but this one really moved me, and as it pertains to college basketball, it couldn't be more appropriate. Based on the true life story of the team that changed the sport by integrating college basketball in the 1960's, Josh Lucas stars as the coach of the small school of Texas Western, and Derek Luke is one of the star players of the 1966 season. It's a heartwarmer.
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TRAILER: "Begin Again"
The new film from the writer/director of Once, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year, and is now set to come out in July. Keira Knightley (who does her own singing) and Mark Ruffalo star in this movie, which got ecstatic reaction from the Toronto crowd and was picked up by Harvey Weinstein, so it definitely has potential. Looks to me like it will depend on how good the music is, much like Once did:
