Movie of the Day: "Father of the Bride" (1950)

Today's movie dad is Spencer Tracy from the original 1950 Vincente Minnelli version of Father of the Bride. He's the frazzled dad who has to spend a fortune on his daughter's wedding while dealing with the idea of losing his little girl at the same time, and the daughter's played by an 18-year-old Elizabeth Taylor, who had just blossomed from the National Velvet child star into the screen legend she was about to become. The truth is this movie is kind of dated, although it works as a time capsule for another era when upper middle class (although today it looks like straight up wealthy) families had all these enormous pre-wedding rituals, most of which don't necessarily take place now. But it's still charming for the Spencer Tracy/Liz Taylor relationship, and if it's too old-fashioned for you, you can always check out the Steve Martin 1991 remake, which is pretty good in and of itself.

Original Trailer:

Ruby Dee 1922-2014

Oscar-nominated actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee died today at the age of 91. A trailblazer who started acting on stage in the 1940's and first gained film recognition for The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), who then went on to star in A Raisin in the Sun (1961) with Sidney Poitier, as well several other films in the 50's and 60's. She also guest starred on various television shows since the 1960s (Including Peyton Place), and was nominated for eight Emmy awards, before appearing in the Spike Lee films Do the Right Thing (1989) and Jungle Fever (1991). She was finally nominated for an Oscar for her brief role in American Gangster (2007) as Denzel Washington's mother, and was a political and civil rights activist along with her husband Ossie Davis, whom she was married to from 1948 until his death in 2005. Ruby Dee was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors for her long career, as well as a Grammy, Emmy, SAG and SAG lifetime achievement award before she passed away from natural causes at her home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis receiving the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004:

TEASER + POSTER: "Birdman"

The first look at Alejandro Innaritu's highly anticipated Birdman arrived today, along with the awesome poster. For a movie that was supposed to be a comedy, this looks an awful lot more like a drama to me, which makes sense given Innaritu's output so far (can the guy who made Babel, 21 Grams and Amores Perros really pull off a true comedy?) But it looks great anyway and like Michael Keaton is for sure headed to the Oscar race, which is really cool since he's been under-appreciated for pretty much his entire career. Birdman is coming out October 17th, but might show up at the Venice Film Festival in August, so we can look forward to first reactions then.

Poster:

TEASER: "The Interview"

Seth Rogen's really been on a roll lately and this comedy coming out in November could be another big hit for the comedian, as the concept shows it was ballsy enough for them to even make it. Looks like a must see for me anyway. Again co-starring with best pal James Franco and co-directing with frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg (they did This is End together), the two stars are journalists instructed to go on a secret mission to take out Kim Jon-un. That's right, the current dictator of North Korea, played by Randall Park as an actual significant character in the movie. Can't wait to see the reaction this one gets. It's coming out October 10th.

Movie of the Day: "The Pursuit of Happyness" (2006)

It's time to celebrate movie dads this week in honor of Father's Day on Sunday, and we start with this wonderfully weepy tearjerker from 2006. An Oscar-nominated Will Smith turned in a rare dramatic performance in this period set true story of a down on his luck single dad, who must take care of his young son (little Jaden Smith in his movie debut) while unemployed and even homeless for a time, living in various hotels and shelters. In a kind of 1980's Cinderella story twist, he miraculously manages to land a job as a stockbroker despite no experience, creating the ultimate feel good ending (and one likely to leave you cheering through your tears). It's still one of Will Smith's best and most authentic regular guy performances, one that makes you wish he would pursue that dramatic turn a little more often.

Trailer:

TRAILER: "Dumb and Dumber To"

Ok, so, right on cue, after the poster dropped last night, here's the official trailer for the Farrelly Brothers sequel, also coming out November 14th. I don't even know what to think. I should admit right now that I don't love Dumb and Dumber anyway (I know that's like heresy for some people), so fans of the original should probably be the ones to say whether or not this looks funny. I mean yeah, it does look like Dumb and Dumber, so I guess if that's a good thing then you can be excited? But I'm on the outside looking in on that particular fan club, so this wasn't going to be for me anyway.

FIRST LOOK: "Fury"

Brad Pitt's new WWII movie Fury is coming out this November, and here we have the first look at the film along with some behind the scenes footage. Directed by David Ayer (End of Watch and Sabotage) and with a cast that includes Michael Pena, Jason Isaacs, Logan Lerman and Shia LeBeouf, it's set for release on November 14th. It looks pretty generic to me, combining virtually ever war movie trait you've ever seen, but hey I thought that about End of Watch too (for a police procedural), but it turned out much better than that. And Brad Pitt usually has good taste for prestige fare, so we'll see with this.

POSTER: "Dumb and Dumber To"

Harry and Lloyd return in the long awaited Dumb and Dumber To, finally coming out November 14th. Not so sure this will be great though (yes it has the Farrelly Brothers behind it again, but how long has it been since they made an actual good movie?)

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "All That Heaven Allows" (1955)

A classic melodrama from the 1950's is out in a Criterion Collection edition blu-ray today, and you should really see this one, since it's so famous it's been remade twice. First in 1974 as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and then in 2002 as Far From Heaven, with Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid. The funny thing is, all three if these movies are great in their own right, but the original Douglas Sirk version is still a fascinating movie to watch. With Jane Wyman as the older widow who falls in love with gardener Rock Hudson, it's a perfect snapshot of 1950's middle class American values, and anyone who thinks it makes them look good should get their eyes checked. Sirk was a subtle yet harsh critic of that society and used his outlook to create what seemed on the surface like soapy melodramas, but that pretty obviously (at least I think so) spelled out his critique of American shallowness. It's a really good movie, and you should see all three versions in succession, starting with this one.

Original 1955 Trailer:

POSTER: "Guardians of the Galaxy"

The first character poster for Guardians of the Galaxy is here, and it highlights two of the more unknown characters in the Marvel universe, Groot and Rocket Raccoon. These two are obviously CG creations in the movie and will be voiced by Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper, respectively.

I still don't really know what to make of this movie coming out- knowing Marvel and the absolute control they have over their properties (especially after ousting Edgar Wright from directing Ant Man, probably due to the uniqueness of a guy like Wright's vision), I sort of suspect this movie won't be all that weird after all, despite the strangeness of the characters. Anything truly off the wall will likely be stamped out by the studio as being too risky. But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

BOX OFFICE 6/06-6/08: 'Fault in Our Stars' Vaults to #1; 'Edge of Tomorrow' Disappoints

The teen love story The Fault in Our Stars came in a strong No. 1 this weekend, earning $48 million over the three day frame, along with an "A" Cinemascore and an audience that was a staggering 82% female and 79% under 25. Even though the movie was pretty frontloaded (early reports based on sales for Thursday and Friday showings had the movie opening north of $58 million) it's a huge success for a film that cost just $12 million to make. The top two movies this week were both female targeted, as Maleficent came in 2nd with $33 million, just a 52% drop from last week for a total of $127 million, and already over $300 million globally, making the revisionist fairy tale an unqualified hit.

Edge of Tomorrow, the Tom Cruise starring action sci-fi thriller, came in third with just $29 million, kind of a mediocre opening for a film that got some pretty outstanding reviews (89% Rotten Tomatoes), although it did come in number one overseas, with $82 million, proving that Cruise is still a worldwide draw for mass audiences, if not so much here in the U.S. My guess is that people thought the movie looked too similar to last year's Oblivion, another Cruise sci-fi extravaganza, which was okay at best. X-Men and One Million Ways to Die in the West rounded out the top 5, with the former now having grossed $189 million total, which means it will pass The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and the latter still a disappointment, having earned just $30 million.

Top 5:

The Fault in Our Stars- $48.2 million
Maleficent- $33.5 million
Edge of Tomorrow- $29.1 million
X-Men: Days of Future Past- $14.7 million
One Million Ways to Die West- $7.2 million

Another big weekend is just around the corner, with both sequels next week coming in with stellar reviews on top of already huge expectations. How to Train Your Dragon 2 should come in very strong with the family audience, while 22 Jump Street should slide in nicely to the comedy void, especially with One Million Ways disappointing. See you next week!

REVIEW: "Non-Stop" (2014) Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore. Dir. Jaume Collet-Sera

Ever since 2009's surprise hit Taken, Liam Neeson has managed to carve out a niche for himself as a kind of older action star, usually releasing one movie every year that spotlights his rugged, take no prisoners, grizzled old man persona. That persona is entertaining in and of itself, never mind the plot or the characters or even the director (it was certainly the best part of Taken). Here once again, we have our annual Liam Neeson saves the day routine action thriller that manages to be pretty entertaining once more simply because of Neeson, as what else we're stuck with is a fairly ludicrous plot that would never in a million years be plausible in reality, but Neeson brings just enough gravitas to take us with him for the ride.

Which is what this movie is, pretty much a ride all the way through. Neeson is over the hill, paranoid, alcoholic ex-cop Bill Marks, who now works as an air marshal and is scheduled to be on a six-hour flight to London. Once on the plane he makes first contact with several passengers, all of whom have to be introduced with one random character trait so that we have reason to suspect each of them of being the terrorist at some point in the movie. Especially laughable is Julianne Moore, cashing a paycheck as a quirky passenger who just has to have the window seat (for a very special and heartwarming reason, as we'll find out later) and alternately annoys/endears herself to Bill with her incessant chattering. There's also a scared little girl flying alone, a rude passenger who keeps getting his luggage in Bill's way, another paranoid cop (Corey Stoll) who looks immediately suspicious (so he's clearly the red herring) and the nice flight attendant Nancy (Michelle Dockery from Downton Abbey) who's on Bill's side no matter what.

Once the plane takes off Bill starts getting threatening anonymous texts from someone on the flight who claims that a person will die every twenty minutes unless he gets $150 million wired to an account. This sets up the conflict for the rest of the film, as Bill must try to find the passenger and every action he takes seems to implicate himself as the culprit, which follows exactly according to the hijacker's plan. The twists this movie takes in order to get Bill to implicate himself requires huge suspension of disbelief (this guy's plan really had to go exactly right at every single turn and would seem to require his psychically knowing when and how things will go wrong too), and the passengers of course start getting rowdy and screwing things up, but for most of the movie I must admit it's never boring and seeing the dude drive Liam Neeson crazier and crazier as he resorts to even more drastic attempts to find him is pretty fun, almost like an airplane set game of Clue. But then, as the climax approaches things get really out of control and the ultimate third act motivations of the terrorist is so far out of left field that it just feels like a stupid attempt to tie in significant meaning to the devious plan and make the movie feel serious all of a sudden, when it really should have stayed on purely nutty territory all along (plus, the attempts made to turn the character's plot machinations upside down make zero sense and start to make events that happened earlier in the movie seem even more illogical).

But for a strictly mindless action movie, it works well as long as you go into it with fairly low expectations. This the kind of movie I can see playing on cable for years to come, as a purely escapist way to pass the time in the middle of the night when you're channel surfing and nothing else is on. That may sound like some pretty low praise, and to be sure this is not the greatest action movie you'll ever see, but for Liam Neeson's recent output, I actually think it's much better than the Taken series, which took itself way too seriously and had an ugly filmmaking style to go with it, while Non-Stop is fast-paced and unintentionally funny enough to keep you entertained throughout.

* * 1/2