The Weinstein Co. has released two pictures of Amy Adams in Tim Burton's Big Eyes, coming out in December. Big Eyes is a biopic about Margaret Keane, the 1950's painter who painted children with notoriously "big eyes" that were taken credit for by her husband (played by Christoph Waltz) for years. Hopefully it's another good leading role for Amy Adams, who's already amassed five Oscar nominations and is starting to be seen as overdue for the win.
BOX OFFICE 8/01-8/03: 'Guardians' Stuns With $94 Million
Marvel has created yet another mega-franchise, as Guardians of the Galaxy opened to an amazing $94 million, the biggest August opener ever (the record had been held by The Bourne Ultimatum with $69 million). It's also the third biggest opening of the year, behind Transformers and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and what it really shows is that as a brand, Marvel can sell just about anything. This was an obscure comic book property with no big name stars in it, and it still made nearly $100 million on its opening weekend. It was helped by great reviews (91% Rotten Tomatoes) and it got a terrific "A" Cinemascore, so it could make a play for the biggest movie of the year, which so far hasn't seen any film reach $250 million. But with no real competition for weeks ahead and great word of mouth, this might be the one.
The other new release this week was Get On Up, the well-reviewed James Brown biopic starring Chadwick Boseman (whose performance was highly praised and reportedly Oscar-worthy), but it only opened in third place to $14 million, lower than past August openers The Help and The Butler, so it could be considered a bit disappointing. It did get another "A" Cinemascore though, so it may be able to hold in the coming weeks. Last week's champ Lucy fell to No. 2, with a 60% drop, but has already earned $79 million and will easily cross $100 million for its star Scarlett Johansson (who now with her newly proven box office prowess, along with Marvel's capability to sell absolutely anything, should at least be given her own Black Widow movie, don't you think?). The rest of the top five was filled out by Hercules, which came in fourth with $10 million, and Dawn of the Apes in fifth with $8.7.
Top 5:
- Guardians of the Galaxy- $94 million
- Lucy- $18.3 million
- Get On Up- $14 million
- Hercules- $10.7 million
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes- $8.7 million
In limited release, A Most Wanted Man continued to do well, expanding to 700 screens and pulling in another $3.3 million, while Boyhood took in $2.5, bringing its total to $7.5 million as it continues its slow rollout. Magic in the Moonlight also did fairly well this weekend, earning another $700k for the Woody Allen comedy. Next week it's the big TMNT movie, which will have to compete with Guardians' word of mouth, plus Helen Mirren in The Hundred Foot Journey and the disaster flick Into the Storm (which seems like it's been advertizing for months now).
REVIEW: "Life Itself" (2014) Dir. Steve James
Life Itself, like the memoir it's based on, is a very personal and moving tribute to the beloved film critic Roger Ebert. Steve James, the director of Hoop Dreams (which happened to be one of Ebert's most championed films) pours his heart into this project, and Ebert would have been proud of the result, which gives audiences a complete portrait of America's most famous movie critic, and does so without descending into hagiography. For me it meant a lot to see the life of one of my own biggest influences celebrated in such a way, for as anyone who aspires to write about film would know, Ebert- both on television and especially later when he brought his voice almost entirely online- provided the framework and model for what the internet can be to a writer.
Steve James filmed his documentary at a time when Roger Ebert was in the last stages of his life, when he had been struggling with cancer that had destroyed his jaw and left him with no ability to speak. He'd been fighting this battle for the last 6 years and was likely approaching the end, as he even admits to in the film. Still, his own belief was in full disclosure, a principle he seemed to have embraced in light of Gene Siskel's death in 1999, when he had hidden the severity of his own illness from nearly everyone who knew him, including Ebert. The suddenness of Siskel's death from a brain tumor seemed to shake Roger to his core, and he vowed at the time that if anything similar ever happened to himself, he'd be open and honest about everything. Unfortunately it did happen, and not so many years later. Ebert allows the cameras to get up close and personal as we are let in on his struggle to rehabilitate after a recent hip injury, and his daily battles with the practices of simple tasks like eating and drinking. His devoted wife Chaz seems to be more uncomfortable with this kind of exposure than he is, and it may be a bit tough to watch at times, but you are never any less than admiring of his eternal bravery, even as he knows the end is near.
These hospital and rehab set sections of the film make up just a part of the documentary overall, as James goes back to the beginning to document Roger's upbringing and childhood, and goes on to relay how he got his start, almost accidentally, as the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. You get to know his personality, his politics, and his ideals through his own words from his autobiography and from interviews with his friends, colleagues and admirers. It doesn't shy away from personal demons like his alcoholism, or even the negative traits that plague just about everyone (Roger was often full of himself and argumentative, although regarding the latter, I mean, come on- he was a critic, after all). But some of the most interesting bits come from his relationship with Gene Siskel and how the two of them created the forum for movie criticism that pre-dated the future of film blogging and social media. When we hear from admirers and current critics who point directly to their influence it's hard to imagine any of the online world that exists today in that area without their contribution. Many of the tidbits about their famous and hilariously testy collaboration are probably well known to Ebert fans in general, but they do provide for some of the most entertaining segments in the documentary.
The other area the film serves to highlight is the depth to which Ebert as a critic encouraged new filmmakers and writers to pursue their own dreams, and the fame and influence that he had as a writer regarding the way people think about movies cannot be overstated. It's a real loss to the industry to lose such a figure who was able to champion lesser known films (the most important role a critic can serve, as Ratatouille spelled out for us) and who held the kind of megaphone that he held. His voice was a loud and powerful one, even when he lost the ability to project it, and it is very likely to be irreplaceable since his fame came in an era where there were far fewer critics and aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes were unimaginable. He encouraged discussion and argument from everyone (even his twitter followers) about movies because he loved them so much, and he had that kind of rare voice that was able to reach both the common moviegoer as well as the elite film snob. As a critic, his influence was deeply felt in his field, and as a man, his optimism, his intrepid determination in the face of his illness, and his willingness to embrace innovation and challenge his mind no matter how sick he got, will only make you admire him more. And even though he's physically gone, his words remain, his thousands of reviews there for anyone to discover, and in that fashion, his legacy lives on. Like the films he loved so much that keep stars and directors immortal in a certain kind of way, so too has his own voice cemented his status as such in the eyes of the millions of movie lovers he so inspired.
* * * 1/2
Josh Brolin as Thanos
Marvel's released the first picture of Josh Brolin as Thanos, from Guardians of the Galaxy.
Supposedly, Thanos is set to show up in one of the Avengers movies, but we'll have to see. Do you guys like his look though?
11 Movies for the Month of August
For August, we've got eleven foreign language films to keep you busy all month long. More people travel this month than any other, but in case you're one of those who don't, you can use this list to make your way to more different countries around the globe than you could ever hit in a two week vacation. We've picked a different film for each country, and it includes such diverse choices as La Dolce Vita, Seven Samurai, Amelie and one of my personal favorites, Run Lola Run (above) from Germany. Click here to scroll through the list, with trailers included, and have fun going on your global cinematic vacation this month to close out the summer of 2014. Happy movie watching!
TRAILER #2: "Interstellar"
Finally, the much talked about Comic-Con trailer for Interstellar has leaked. This is by far the best trailer for the movie, since it actually seems to show some of the plot along with a longer look at what might be happening in the space set section of the movie (which, one presumes is the majority of it). We also get to see Anne Hathaway finally, who had appeared until now, to be hidden in all these trailers (that can't really be because people don't like her, can it?), but she's got at least a substantial supporting part in this. Well, I think it looks pretty good, and early buzz is that it's Nolan's best movie. The studio seems to think so, since they gave it a very awards friendly release date of November 7th. We'll find out soon enough!
TEASER: "Nightcrawler"
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this new thriller that's set to screen at the Toronto Film Festival this year. Written and directed by Dan Gilroy (who wrote The Bourne Legacy), it looks kinda like a Taxi Driver inspired story, with Gyllenhaal as a disgruntled, psycho member of society. Creepy.
TEASER: "Into the Woods"
Disney's finally put out a look at their big Christmas Day release, Into the Woods, based on the famous Broadway smash. The movie's been plagued by reports of massive reshoots lately (it is kinda late for that), but there's no real sign of disaster in this teaser. There's also no singing in it, so it's a bit hard to tell from this what's it's going to be like. I hope it's good, but Rob Marshall's only decent movie was Chicago, which of course was a big success but still- that was twelve years ago now. We'll see, I guess.
TRAILER: "Birdman"
I cannot wait to see this. Looks pretty out there, doesn't it? Adding to the intrigue is the recent revelation from Innaritu himself that this whole movie was filmed to make it look like one long tracking shot (the trick that Alfred Hitchcock tried to pull off in 1948's Rope). The whole cast looks great, but hopefully this is the forever underrated Michael Keaton's big comeback. Funny that he could be said to be playing a version of himself, after his Batman movies more than twenty years ago. I guess it's perfect casting.
TRAILER: "Night at the Museum 3"
I can't imagine there was any need (or demand) for a third Night at the Museum movie, but here it is anyway. Even Ben Stiller looks bored in this trailer. Seriously, doesn't he look like he'd rather be anywhere else? Adding the appallingly unfunny Rebel Wilson to the cast is not a boost in its favor, either. Ugh. I don't know how she gets hired for anything. It's coming out December 19th, but it already looks like a bomb to me.
TRAILER: "Horns"
This looks different. Daniel Radcliffe, again trying out his American accent, stars in a supernatural fantasy-horror movie about a guy who grows horns. Yeah, looks like that's about it for the plot. Actually, it seems to be some kind of a black comedy, at least at first. It premiered at Toronto last year and is coming out this year on Halloween. He's sure trying as hard as he can to shake off that Harry Potter image, isn't he?
COMIC-CON TRAILER: "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For"
A special 3-minute red band trailer for the new Sin City movie was released by Comic-Con the other day. I don't know what more of this movie we can see at this point- even the trailer starts getting repetitive by the 2:30 mark. But the look is cool, as always. For some reason I didn't even realize Lady Gaga was in this before now.
