Movie of the Day: "The Bad News Bears" (1976)

Walter Matthau and Tatum O'Neal make quite a pair in this 70's classic, one of the best movies about kids you could ever see. He's the prickly alcoholic loser who takes the job of coaching a god awful Little League team because he needs the money, and she's the daughter of one his ex-girlfriends, whom he taught to pitch better than any of the boys. The best thing about this movie is how utterly frank and unsentimental it is. This is the '70's, so there's a complete lack of political correctness- Matthau is never without a beer can in his hand and manages to triumph without once softening any edges to his personality, and the kids are a bunch of rude, shit talking little twerps who actually resemble real kids and not precocious "movie kids" that you see so often in other films. O'Neal is at the peak of her child star glory and steals all her scenes as the tough girl pitcher who can take any challenge thrown at her, and the barbed rapport between her and Matthau is terrific. The fact that you could never make this movie today was seen in the awful 2005 remake, that was forced to dumb down so much of what people loved about the original. It makes this a time capsule for the ages.

Original 1976 Trailer:

Disney to Remake 'Pinocchio'

Is this set to become a weekly announcement? Now Disney has hired Peter Hedges (who wrote and directed Pieces of April and Dan in Real Life) to write a new live-action version of Pinocchio, which will of course be loosely based on the 1940 movie, and has been done before in many other versions as well (remember the horrifying Roberto Benigni 90's one starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas?). Guillermo del Toro is also in the midst of adapting a stop-motion animated Pinocchio movie that's currently seeking foreign financing. The 1940 Pinocchio is really one of the darkest Disney movies ever, maybe the one that comes closest of all their fairy tale adaptations to capturing the true, kind of twisted nature of those stories to begin with. It's also of course one of the most dazzling pieces of pure animation ever made, and every bit of it can still take your breath away when you watch a restored version. As one of the best from Disney's Golden Age, it can't be topped in any way, really.

Just to freak you out all over again, here's the scene where Pinocchio and Lampwick are turned into donkeys because of their bad behavior. This is seriously freaky stuff you'd never see in a kids movie today:

New Poster for Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Maggie'

I have to admit, I'm kind of curious about this movie, even though it's scheduled to come out on Video on Demand (not necessarily a good sign) alongside its theatrical release in May. The trailer made it look like a slightly different kind of movie for both Schwarzenegger and the zombie genre, so we'll see if it's any good soon enough.

Movie of the Day: "A League of Their Own" (1992)

On deck today is one of my very favorites. It's the story of the 1940's All American Girl's Professional Baseball League, which was formed during WWII when the men were off at war, and it stars Geena Davis and Lori Petty as sisters with a deep and abiding sibling rivalry, who join the Rockford Peaches under the management of boozing ex-ball player Jimmy Dugan, played by Tom Hanks in one of his all time best performances (I'm not kidding, he should have won an Oscar for this). It's funny, the ensemble is great (including Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell), and it holds up today as unbelievably, still one of the very few sports movies of any kind to center around women (I think Bend it Like Beckham is probably the one other I can think of). Hollywood needs to do some work on that, don't you think? Once a decade is not a great track record.

Original 1992 Trailer:

Behind the Scenes with 'The Avengers'

A couple of new featurettes are out there for the new Avengers movie, the first one introducing the new additions of super-siblings Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, played by Elizabeth Olsen and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and the second goes behind the scenes with the cast as they hang around goofing off on set. I've never been totally convinced that these guys like each other that much, frankly. They're more like a bunch of actors who get paid a lot of money to pretend to have some rapport, but unlike, say the old Ocean's Eleven or Star Trek casts, nobody believes these guys hang out with each other in real life, do they?

Trailer for "Me and Earl and the Dying Girl"

So this is another Sundance movie that apparently got positive notices and was picked up for a summer release, but is it me or does this look exactly like The Fault in Our Stars 2.0? Is this a new fad, the weepy teen melodrama involving terminal illness (and voiceover narration acknowledging movie cliches)? I tend to give Sundance movies the benefit of the doubt on principle, but this just looks way too cheesy.

Movie of the Day: "42" (2013)

Baseball season's opening week continues, and today we have this Jackie Robinson biopic from a couple of years ago, starring Chadwick Boseman in a nice, understated performance as the man who changed the game. In many ways this is a straightforward telling of the story, which also stars Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers who recruits Robinson to integrate America's pastime, but the nice thing about this movie is that it shows you how moving and powerful the story itself really is. It may not be surprising, but the true nature of the events still holds tremendous power so many years later, especially when it's so well acted and sensitively told.

Trailer:

New Poster for "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Here's a cool poster for the new Mad Max, which apparently has star Tom Hardy signed on for three more sequels. That may be jumping the gun a little bit (it has been thirty years since the last Mad Max movie, after all), but maybe the studio just has that much confidence in this. Can't wait to hear how it is.

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "Cries and Whispers" (1972)

Now on blu-ray is Ingmar Bergman's 1972 masterpiece Cries and Whispers, which is one of the most powerful, gut-punching films I've ever seen- it's an experience unlike any other, although I do have to warn you that it may not be for everyone. It's about three wealthy sisters in the early 20th century, two of whom have to watch over the third as she's on her deathbed, suffering from a crippling illness that will kill her in just a matter of time...but how much time? Obviously, this is intense, existential material- even though it's incredible filmmaking, the word "fun" is probably the last one you'd use to describe watching this, but it gets under your skin and provides you with an emotional roller coaster ride you'll never forget.

Criterion Collection's 3 Reasons to See:

Movie of the Day: "Bull Durham" (1988)

In honor of the MLB's opening day, it's baseball week here on The Movie Seasons, and so our Movie of the Day series is back with appropriately related titles. We're starting with one of the very best of course, this 1988 classic starring Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon in their prime. Costner is veteran catcher "Crash" Davis, who has to teach dumb rookie pitcher Tim Robbins everything he knows, even though Robbins has already got what Crash wants most, baseball groupie Sarandon, who's also teaching him everything she knows (in other areas). This is a great baseball movie brimming over with love for the sport, but also a steamy romance, as Costner and Sarandon have amazing chemistry and some of the sexiest scenes together from any movie. A perfect start to baseball week.

Original 1988 Trailer:

Movie of the Day: "Ben-Hur" (1925)

That's right guys, on this Easter Sunday I'm recommending the greater of the Ben-Hur movies, which is the 1925 original silent version starring Ramon Navarro in the title role. It's better than Charlton Heston's because it's over two hours shorter and it's more exciting- I'm not kidding, the action scenes in this silent epic are masterful, and all you can think about while you're watching it is how they managed to film all this in the 1920's. The chariot race is so thrilling it was remade shot for shot in the '59 version, so why not check out the original? And, this was in the days pre-censors, so there's all kinds of nudity and violent shots you probably never thought you'd see in silent film, like someone's head getting cut off and attached to a spear as a weapon (reports are that some of the extras actually drowned for real in the chaotic pirate attack sequence). Give it a chance at least- as one of the greatest and most influential epics ever made, it deserves to be given that much.

Original 1925 Trailer:

BOX OFFICE 4/3-4/5: 'Furious 7' Demolishes the Competition over Easter Weekend

Well, we knew it was coming, but few predicted it would be this huge- the latest installment in the endless Fast and Furious series saw its biggest opening yet, as it pulled in $143 million over the weekend, shattering records all over the place. It crushed last year's Captain America sequel to become the biggest April opener of all time, the ninth biggest opening weekend ever, and of course it sets the record for the franchise itself, with the last movie opening to $97 million in 2013. It was helped by some fairly kind reviews, but I'm at a loss over the appeal of this series myself. I saw the first one in 2001, and to me it was a total guy movie and utterly forgettable, so I never saw another. I'll never be on board this particular train, sorry guys. Worldwide the record was even more impressive, as it earned $384 million over the weekend, placing it behind only the Harry Potter and Avengers movies in terms of global totals. Pretty insane, right?

In other news, Home held up reasonably well for second place, falling just 47%, on track with the recent SpongeBob movie's trajectory, which ended up with $160 million overall, so that's good news for the DreamWorks animated feature. But Get Hard dropped a harsh 62% to earn just $12 million this week off its $33 million debut- not a good sign, and possibly an indicator of negative word of mouth. In fourth place was Cinderella, chugging right along with another $10 million for the weekend, as it just whizzed past $400 million worldwide in another Disney success, and right behind it was Insurgent to round out the top five.

Top 5:

1. Furious 7- $143.6 million
   
2. Home- $27.4 million
   
3. Get Hard- $12.9 million
4. Cinderella- $10.3 million
5. Insurgent- $10 million

In limited release, Noah Baumbach's While We're Young expanded well, earning $493k from 34 screens for a $14k per screen average, making it on track to earn at least $10 million, while It Follows held just outside the top five for a new total of $8 million. Next week there's no big release on the horizon, just the sci-fi film Ex Machina and the Scott Eastwood drama The Longest Ride, so expect Furious 7 to keep a tight hold on the box office for a while, maybe even until Avengers comes out on May 1st. Until then, Happy Easter everybody!