 With the success of juke box musicals, this new phenomenon of using pre-existing pop and rock tunes and plunking them into a story, building the plot around the music, films such as Mamma Mia! (2006) and Rock of Ages (2012) have enjoyed both popularity and solid box office success. I say new, however this type of film has been around for some time, as far back as the many Elvis Presley films and the work of Richard Lester and A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and the animated Yellow Submarine (1968). Audiences seem to enjoy hearing these old tunes once again being belted out by movie stars, and in the right story, they conjure up memories often long dormant of our own pasts. Music is instant nostalgia, sweeping us at once into our own past, allowing for a few moments to relive that time in our life when we were younger and had our lives ahead of us. Listening to Meryl Streep belt out The Winner Takes it All took me back to the late seventies, early eighties, and Susan, the girl I went with for much of high school and through a year of college finally outgrowing one another. We liked ABBA, call me crazy. I remember long summers in Port Perry, a small town in Ontario, Canada, walking the streets after work, getting ice cream, hearing the music from the cars, with that ABBA hit often on blaring into the night for all to hear. With that however comes the memory of the pain of the break up, as though I would never find someone like her, though I did of course, meeting the love of my life six years later. It is a moment in time I will never get back other than in memory and hearing the song again. The moment I hear Ben E. King sing Stand By Me, I am swept to my wedding day, as that was our first song, and defined the relationship I had with Sherri for twenty-five wonderful years. I cannot hearing it without tearing up. Read more on Historical Circuit: Across the Universe (****)…
 I don’t think it surprises anyone that Charlie Kaufman was planning a real weird film for his sophomore outing behind the camera. He’s perhaps the most unique screenwriter in the business, and if anything, he goes even further out there when he gets to direct as well. His next project is the musical ‘Frank or Francis’ and centers on the world of online film criticism (with the likes of Jack Black and Nicolas Cage in the cast). It sounds pretty much as interesting as it a hard sell to the general filmgoing public, so it’s maybe not such a surprise that The Playlist is reporting here that would be co-star Elizabeth Banks is saying that the film is at the very least delayed, if not outright canceled. You can read what she said after the jump, but cross your fingers that this film still gets made….
Read more on Charlie Kaufman’s next directorial project is on life support…
 If Robert Altman had chosen to make a film about the lives of male strippers, the end result might have resembled ‘Magic Mike’, a shockingly great flick that’s far better than it probably has any right to be (I’ll talk more about the Altman connection in a bit). A ton of credit goes to filmmaker Steven Soderbergh, who turns in his best film in quite some time. The movie is funny and full of life, but also knows when to get dark, resulting in a rather complete cinematic experience. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to like this film, considering my issues with Channing Tatum and the distinct feeling that the thing just wasn’t aimed at me whatsoever, but boy was I wrong. Tatum gives one of his best performances (though I won’t say that’s amazing praise…but he’s very good here, I swear) as part of this ensemble cast, and the script that he was the inspiration for and that Reid Carolin penned is surprisingly insightful. I won’t call this an Oscar player right now, but it’s likely going to do fantastic business when it opens on Friday, and I wouldn’t be shocked if the screenplay manages to sneak into a few precursors here and there. This is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me.
Read more on Magic Mike (***½)…
 30 Days of Batman
Even without having seen ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ at the time of writing this piece (another week or so for me), I can safely say that the upcoming version of Bane that filmmaker Christopher Nolan has in store for us will be far different from any we’ve seen before…and that’s likely a good thing in my eyes. You see, Bane isn’t exactly a part of the A list when it comes to Batman’s gallery of villains (though his back story isn’t terrible or anything), so Nolan has the opportunity to play with the character known to have broken the Bat’s back in any number of ways. My guess is that the changes he’s almost certainly made are all but exclusively for the better. In fact, when the movie comes out, I think we’ll see almost none of the upcoming history of the character shown in ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, excluding a certain attachment that I’ll get into soon. Much like we dove into the history of the Caped Crusader in the last article for the 30 Days of Batman series, let us now dive into the man they call Bane. I’ll be looking at all the different versions of the character, but we don’t we start where it all began?
Read more on Understanding the Character: Bane…
 Sad news ladies and gentlemen. The cinema world lost one of its voices last night, as filmmaker Nora Ephron passed away from a struggle with pneumonia that was brought on by Leukemia. Ephron was one of the very best at the romantic comedy game and she surely will be missed. She was 71, and after the jump you can see a bit of the lovely obituary that the New York Times has put up for her (the full piece is found here). Take a gander and feel free to share your favorite Ephron movie or quote in the comments section. Here you go…
Read more on Nora Ephron (1941-2012)…
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With the success of juke box musicals, this new phenomenon of using pre-existing pop and rock tunes and plunking them into a story, building the plot around the music, films such as Mamma Mia! (2006) and Rock of Ages (2012) have enjoyed both popularity and solid box office success. I say new, however this type of film has been around for some time, as far back as the many Elvis Presley films and the work of Richard Lester and A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and the animated Yellow Submarine (1968). Audiences seem to enjoy hearing these old tunes once again being belted out by movie stars, and in the right story, they conjure up memories often long dormant of our own pasts. Music is instant nostalgia, sweeping us at once into our own past, allowing for a few moments to relive that time in our life when we were younger and had our lives ahead of us. Listening to Meryl Streep belt out The Winner Takes it All took me back to the late seventies, early eighties, and Susan, the girl I went with for much of high school and through a year of college finally outgrowing one another. We liked ABBA, call me crazy. I remember long summers in Port Perry, a small town in Ontario, Canada, walking the streets after work, getting ice cream, hearing the music from the cars, with that ABBA hit often on blaring into the night for all to hear. With that however comes the memory of the pain of the break up, as though I would never find someone like her, though I did of course, meeting the love of my life six years later. It is a moment in time I will never get back other than in memory and hearing the song again. The moment I hear Ben E. King sing Stand By Me, I am swept to my wedding day, as that was our first song, and defined the relationship I had with Sherri for twenty-five wonderful years. I cannot hearing it without tearing up. Read more on Historical Circuit: Across the Universe (****)…
