Well, that's a nice change isn't it? Not many 50 year old women get named Most Beautiful, although, like with People's Sexiest Man Alive, this often seems to be more of a popularity or relevance contest than anything else.
'The Little Prince' Brings the French Novel to the Big Screen
Now this looks more interesting that your usual animated fare, which I'm sure has something to do with the fact that it's a French production. Even though it's packed with celebrity voice actors as usual, maybe the most significant thing about this movie (which employs stop motion animation for the The Little Prince story and computer animation for the narrative surrounding it), is that it doesn't look like an action film. It's set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month and open in France in July, but we'll have to wait and see when Paramount chooses to distribute it here in the U.S.
Final 'Tomorrowland' Trailer Shows Off VFX
Well, Disney sure knows how to market a movie. The new (and presumably last) trailer for Tomorrowland makes it look as action-packed as possible, giving us nearly the whole getaway scene with George Clooney and Britt Robertson, as they run from the bad guys and escape off to the fantasy world. Is it me or does Britt Robertson look like she could be Jennifer Lawrence's doppelganger? Tomorrowland comes out May 22nd.
Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "42nd Street" (1933)
This week I'm recommending a movie that's also listed in our January movie month, but now that it's finally out on blu-ray it deserves another boost. The 1933 Busby Berkeley extravaganza set the template for the backstage musical, and has some of the most spectacular numbers ever seen on film. It also benefits from its pre-production code era by being able to address some of the more serious issues of the early days of the Depression. It's a fantastic, dark musical that still holds up more than 80 years later, and there's not many you can say that about. Look for an early appearance by Ginger Rogers in the ensemble cast.
Original 1933 trailer:
Movie of the Day: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982)
Happy 4/20 everybody! With more and more states legalizing weed (four and counting, including my home state of Washington), this is bound to become a national holiday sooner or later, right? Well, maybe not, but to celebrate I'm recommending this 80's classic for one reason only: Jeff Spicoli, the surfer played by Sean Penn who single-handedly created the stereotype for every stoner in movie history from this moment on. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of this film overall (it's funny, but the Jennifer Jason Leigh storyline casts a dark and creepy shadow over everything else), every scene with Penn is gold, and it's well worth seeing for him alone. And Judge Reinhold is funny too, but Jeff Spicoli is the movie. He's pretty awesome, and iconic for a reason.
Original 1982 Trailer:
Sherlock Holmes Returns for One Last Case in 'Mr. Holmes'
Ian McKellen takes an aging Sherlock Holmes back into the field one more time in this new, somewhat more interesting look at Mr. Holmes, coming out in July. This might be something of a surprise this summer- it doesn't look too bad actually, and McKellen can be a great actor when given the right role, as we all know.
Chris Pratt Tracks Dinos in New Look at 'Jurassic World'
There's a couple of callbacks to the original in this new trailer for Jurassic World, but mostly it looks kinda silly. I still think the novelty factor is completely gone for this series- once you've seen three Jurassic Park movies, what more can you do with it, really? Unless you go for something totally wacky, like humans teaming up with intelligent dinosaurs to go after wild ones or something, but that'd just up the silliness even more.
'Fantastic Four' Reveal Themselves in New Trailer
Could this movie look any more generic if it tried? Talk about boring- there's nothing special about this trailer, in tone, story, look, anything. I'm also sensing a really low energy level with this cast- none of the jokes look delivered with any spark. Not looking forward to this one. I bet it's going to be the bomb of the superhero movies this summer.
BOX OFFICE 4/17-4/19: 'Furious' Tops Once More; 'Paul Blart' Comes in 2nd
Furious 7 held off Paul Blart 2 to come in first for the third weekend in a row, with a $29 million haul, falling 51% from last week. It's on its way to pass $300 million soon, while internationally it zoomed past the $1 billion mark in 17 days, the fastest movie to do so. While its domestic gross was relatively frontloaded, similar to the performance of the previous films, the overseas total is just astonishing. Seriously, what's the appeal? The fact that this franchise can break the record for fastest to $1 billion on its seventh time out, with no major movie stars in the cast, is mindblowing. People like watching cars explode and crash that much? This will forever remain a mystery to me.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 came in second this weekend, despite the hilariously awful reviews (it's sitting at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the few to hold that honor), and earned $24 million, just $7 million less than the first one's opening. Yeah, that's another one whose appeal is inexplicable. But it will disappear soon enough (that's not a movie that's going to earn a billion dollars worldwide). The other new release Unfriended, did relatively well with $16 million for third place, while Home and The Longest Ride rounded out the top five.
Top 5:
- Furious 7- $29.1 million
- Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2- $24 million
- Unfriended- $16 million
- Home- $10. 3 million
- The Longest Ride- $6.9 million
In limited release, the story continues to be Ex Machina, which brought in another impressive screen average of $20k (it opens wider next week), while the Disney nature documentary Monkey Kingdom, opened with $4.7 million. Just a couple more weeks to go until The Avengers explodes now, with Blake Lively's The Age of Adaline opening next week, alongside Russell Crowe's The Water Diviner (which already had a successful run in his home country of Australia). Until then!
New Trailer for Sundance hit 'Dope'
The teaser didn't show much of anything, but this new trailer does, and I have to say- it looks cute! Well, not sure what I was expecting it to be, but a comedy about geeks in the 90's isn't exactly how I heard it described. I'll be on the lookout for this one in June. And isn't that the kid from The Grand Budapest Hotel?
Batman and Superman Square Off in New Trailer for 'Dawn of Justice'
Well, that looks...dark. And I mean that in the literal sense, like someone forgot to turn on the lights. Okay, I hated Man of Steel a lot, so I admit I am not primed to like this movie, especially with the untalented hack that is Zack Snyder once again at the helm, but frankly this looks just as awful as I thought it would look, and kind of like a chore to sit through. I'm hoping it's a glorious mess, but I get the feeling that it's more likely to be simply a grim, unpleasant one. Ugh. And Ben Affleck as Batman? Not feeling it.
First Look at Tarantino's 'Hateful Eight'
Okay, so this isn't really a first look. No, instead it's an all animated teaser that gives us the premise of the movie and the character names in nifty typeface. It's a very Tarantino "cool' thing to do, but it's also a bit of a cheat. Then again, the movie just wrapped filming, so I guess it'd be unfair to expect footage so early. I always look forward to his movies, even though they all tend to be in kinda the same vein, no matter which genre he's playing with. This time it's a western (although Django Unchained was more or less of a western too, wasn't it?) It's coming out in November.
