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January 28, 2012

The Nominees Are:

Michel Hazanavicius – “The Artist”
Alexander Payne – “The Descendants”
David Fincher – “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Martin Scorsese – “Hugo”
Woody Allen – “Midnight in Paris”

Prediction: Michel Hazanavicius for “The Artist”
Alternate: Martin Scorsese for “Hugo”
Read more on Directors Guild of America Predictions…

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January 28, 2012

A well intentioned film with little going in its favor, ‘Big Miracle’ wastes its potentially interesting subject matter on a plot and characters that go nowhere, and slowly. A true story more fit for a documentary than a romantic comedy, the tale of a group of people trying to save some trapped whales in Alaska keeps opting to focus on the humans when they have nothing at all interesting to say or do. It’s never offensively bad, but everyone just seems to be going through the motions, and especially in the case of leads Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, you simply expect more out of them. Director Ken Kwapis has always been a thoroughly mediocre filmmaker, and this continues the trend, only now with a slight downward spiral. The script keeps jamming new and pointless characters into a story that couldn’t be calling for an ensemble less while shoehorning in a romance that just doesn’t work. Characters do things for no reason at all except that the film just randomly decides that they should. The flick is a mess. It’s got its heart in the right place, but the execution is just way off. For that main reason and plenty of others, it’s not coming anywhere close to a recommendation from me.

Read more on Big Miracle (**)…

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Author: Robert Hamer
January 28, 2012

Whoa, where did I go?  Well, duty called for the last few weeks, and in my stead Joseph graciously stepped in for me to inform you all of January’s openings.  For this week I’ll be able to “drink to the foam” as they say and preview the new releases for the last week of January to distract us from, ahem, some news that hit last Tuesday.  Gadzooks, one of them might even be good:

Liam Neeson vs. the elements. A winning combination if ever I’ve heard one.  Successfully reinventing himself as a kickass action star with Taken and capitalizing on that with mixed results in Unknown, Neeson’s struggle to survive the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash looks to continue that formula.  And why not?  With so many blank-faced, talentless hunks headlining action pictures (but more on that in a minute), isn’t it nice to see audiences clamor for a cerebral, seasoned actor in these roles?  Even better is that this film has been praised by critics as an almost unbearably intense survival thriller with surprising philosophical rigor.  Its low-key marketing and extreme subject matter won’t make it a bonafide hit, but its star should propel it to the top of the box office with $13-18 million. Read more on Weekend Openings (January 27-29)…

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