Beverly Hills, CA – Producer Hawk Koch was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tonight (July 31) by the organization’s Board of Governors. This will be his first term in the office.
Koch, who is beginning his ninth year as a governor representing the Producers Branch, has served as first vice president of the Academy during the past year. He previously served three one-year terms as treasurer and one term as vice president. Read more on Hawk Koch Elected New Academy President!…
I can’t say that I’ve ever been a fan of the Broken Lizard comedy troop’s films. ‘Super Troopers’ seems to be the one that’s most admired by their fans, but it never did anything for me. Director Jay Chandrasekhar has been the man behind their flicks for some time (along with the big screen incarnation of ‘The Dukes of Hazard’…the less said about that one the better, however), and he’s finally found a way to amuse me with ‘The Babymakers’, a raunchy comedy that also manages to get at some heartfelt points. It’s hardly high art, and too often plays it a bit safe, but it’s very entertaining and among the funnier films of the year so far (the recently released ‘Klown’ is both funnier and dirtier, but they’re hardly similar films). The film comes out on Friday, and I can easily recommend it with this Early Review to those looking for a good laugh. Chandrasekhar isn’t doing the best direction that’s ever been seen, but by leaving the scripting duties to others, the humor is a cut above what I’m used to from his flicks, though arguably still not that phenomenal. Don’t go in expecting anything incredible, but I found myself laughing perhaps more than I’d like to admit, and that’s enough for a recommendation here.
AMPAS has unveiled the fifth film in its “The Last 70mm Film Festival” series, and it is Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey(1968). Kubrick was the subject of last week’s Circuit 3, in which I selected this epic film as my personal favorite of his career, so I am glad to see the film being honored and receiving more exposure, and hope that it finds a new generation of fans ready to explore Jupiter space.
Here is the official release:
Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the 1968 science fiction epic “2001: A Space Odyssey” as the fifth film in its series “The Last 70mm Film Festival” on Monday, August 6, at 7 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards®, including Art Direction (Tony Masters, Harry Lange, Ernie Archer), Directing (Stanley Kubrick), and Writing – Story and screenplay written directly for the screen (Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke), and won an Oscar® for Special Visual Effects (Kubrick).
The awards ceremony honoring excellence in production design will be held on February 2, 2013 at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Here is the press release and official timeline for the Art Directors Guild Awards:
BEVERLY HILLS, July 31 — The 17th Annual Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards honoring production design in nine categories of theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials and music videos will take place on Saturday, February 2, 2013, at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, it was jointly announced today by ADG President Thomas Walsh and Awards Producer Greg Grande.
MTV announced the nominees for Video Music Awards, not that they even play music videos anymore, they still like to pretend from time-to-time they care about music.
Rihanna and Drake lead the nominations with five. Check out the full nominees below.
Many of us have been looking for a big film to begin eagerly anticipating now that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is over and done with. Personally, now I’ve got it with the latest James Bond flick ‘Skyfall’. Today we have a new Full Trailer for the movie, and it’s pretty sweet (complete with a few Batman vibes, actually). It’s everything you’d like to see 007 doing, and then some. You can take a look at the Trailer after the jump, and get set to have a new adventure with Bond on November 9th, courtesy of director Sam Mendes (and of course with Daniel Craig still in the lead). Take a gander and enjoy…for me November can’t come soon enough. Behold it below.
This week, it’s again a light slate of releases hitting Blu-Ray/DVD. I prepped everyone last week for this, but we’re right in the middle of it now, so just take a deep breath and make the best of it until things brighten up in a few weeks. Once the summer ends, we’ll be back to top notch (or at least mostly high end) releases, so it’s not the end of the world. I’ll try and make up for it in the Vintage section later on in the column, but for now let’s just take a look at what there is to actually choose from today. For my PICK OF THE WEEK, I really had no choice but to go with the only flick that I particularly enjoyed of the group. Clayton happened to tease it a bit yesterday, but I’ll get into it more now. I bet you all know what it is, but in case any of you don’t, I’ll let you in on the (not so) secret. It’s: Read more on Joey’s DVD Picks of the Week (7/31/2012)…
Great news for our readership! Our “Power Hour” will be moving to a weekly delivery. As the thick of the race heats up and the Awards Circuit begins to move to the next phase of its existence, our conversations are moving to Mondays. So now, every Monday, our “Power Hour” will be up and running for your entertainment. Also, get ready for some wonderful additions and guest spots from some people in the coming weeks. For now, the agenda is listed below:
Mario Van Peebles is not a synonymous name that goes with awards, Oscars, or even groundbreaking acting and/or directing. Believe it or not, Peebles has been in the game for some time. He’s been acting for over forty years and directing for almost twenty-five. Coming from a strong acting family including his father, Melvin Van Peebles, he has featured his way through Hollywood as “hey, that guy looks familiar.” Maybe not a household name, per se.
The Producers Guild of America has created a new website for their members as a way to provide better access to those looking for work. They started working on this back in February, and seem pleased with the final outcome. Here is the official press release:
LOS ANGELES (July 30, 2012) – The Producers Guild of America announced today that it has launched a new, state-of-the-art online job board for Guild members and employers. The new Producers Guild Job Board can be found online at http://jobs.producersguild.org/.
“One of the primary objectives of the Producers Guild is to provide our members with access to good, quality jobs, and this new site will greatly enhance our ability to do just that,” said Chris Thomes, Producers Guild Website Committee Chair and Vice President of New Media Council. “Reimagined and redesigned to be elegant and effective, our new site includes tools, functions and features that distinguish the Producers Guild Job Board as the best one-stop-shop for the highest-quality producing team members in the industry.”
The movie had not gotten a great deal of press coming into the festival, in fact, very few people had actually seen it. The festival programmer for sure had seen the film, and later I learned that Francis Ford Coppola had screened it for his friend, offering some advice. Part way through the picture I knew two things, the first it was going to be a tough sell, the second, the performance within was among the greatest in film history. It came into the festival with no real heat, but when the film festival ended, everyone was talking about The Apostle (1997). Rarely had a film so exploded out of the festival’s ten day run, going from unknown to the single most discussed movie of the event. Read more on TIFF Golden Moments…
The Dark Knight Rises ($64.1 million) repeats as the box office champion in its second week to no one’s surprise. However, after a 60 percent drop from its week one totals it’s looking less likely that Nolan’s final Batman film will catch The Avengers’ incredible box office mass (its running about $84 million behind The Avengers’ numbers after 10 days). So it seems you can toss out my prediction that the film would finish as the third highest grossing film ever. But money isn’t everything, and while the film is still earning a boatload of cash, I’m sure the folks at Warner Brothers are more than proud of the film they are distributing.
For anyone who thought that ‘The Hangover’ was too tame,’Ted’ was too innocent, wish that the Monty Python gang had gone X rated with their films, or dreamed that the Dogme movement would have tackled lowbrow comedy, the minds behind the Danish TV show ‘Klovn’ have filled in those blanks with the hilarious and raunchy road trip comedy ‘Klown’. I haven’t seen the show, but if it’s anywhere near as funny as this movie, I’m clearly missing out. The filmmakers and stars have an uncanny ability to come up with some of the dirtiest jokes and pay them off in such a way that they’re not only filthy, but funny and clever as well. The Monty Python reference is actually very apt, as this is often an immature flick, but it does have moments of surprising depth. Another film that it shares some similarities with is ‘Sideways’, but overall this tale of debauchery is its own distinct animal, all the while fitting in nicely with the bromance sub genre of buddy comedies. Writers and stars Casper Christensen and Frank Hvam have teamed up with co-writer/director Mikkel Nørgaard for a shocking and shockingly entertaining tale. If you like to laugh and don’t offend easy, this is the movie for you. It’ll never happen, but I’d love to see ‘Klown’ score a nod for Best Foreign Language Feature. One can dream, but anyway, this flick is definitely worth checking out, especially before the likely inferior American remake hits in a year or two.
The moment that stunned me in Deliverance (1972), the moment that caused me to jump in my seat in sheer terror comes about an hour into the film. What is remarkable is that it is a simple cut to another character that causes the terror, the knowledge that all of a sudden this film is going to become a very different movie than we initially thought. It had already started when two of the city boys encounter a couple of mountain men and their still in the mountains off the river. Swiftly and without mercy, Bobby (Ned Beatty) is raped, sodomized on a rock, while his friend Ed (Jon Voight) watches at gunpoint. As the second man prepares to force Ed to perform oral sex on him, we see Ed’s eyes widen with horror, yet equally relief. And then we see what he sees. Read more on Historical Circuit: Deliverance (1972)…
A few weeks ago, I was delighted to see Kenneth Longergan’s ‘Margaret’ get a well deserved second moment in the sun. The hype and attention for the Blu-Ray release of ‘Margaret’ has obviously died down now, but a film as interesting and worthwhile as this one deserves an extra moment in the sun, no? Combined with the dearth of DVD/Blu-Ray titles that hit this past week (and will continue to do so without much appeal for the next week or two), I thought it was the right time to dive back into Kenneth Lonergan’s flick and talk a bit about the Extended Cut of the movie that everyone was buzzing about. I’ve now seen this cut and the Theatrical Cut twice at this point, so I think I’m in a good position to get into which one is the preferred cut (though I still wish I’d seen the even longer cut that Clayton was privy to a few years back, but alas) and which version is right for whom. I’ll get into the changes/additions, but mainly I want to focus on what the end result of the new cut of the film is like. What does an additional 36 minutes get you? It certainly has a lot going for it, but is it the “one true” edition? Well, let’s read on and find out, shall we? Here goes nothing…
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to find out that I’m about the only critic out there who thinks that Kimberly Peirce is 2 for 2 as a filmmaker. ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ is obviously a tremendous film, but I actually quite like ‘Stop Loss’ as well. She’s now tackling a remake of ‘Carrie’, and despite it not seeming like the most necessary thing in the world, she’s got a great cast assembled and there’s reason for optimism there. So what’s next? Well, Variety is reporting here that it’s a remake of the French film ‘With a Friend like Harry’, and after the jump you can see what it’s about. Actor and ‘Stoker’ scribe Wentworth Miller wrote the adaptation, so that could be an asset. Read on below for more…
And…we’re back! Coming off a huge week with The Dark KnightRises, you’d expect us to slow down at The Awards Circuit. Hah, not a chance! We began the week with some wrap-up thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s final film in his heavily acclaimed — although polarizing to some — Batman Trilogy. First up was Robert Hamer’s mixed review of The Dark KnightRises, and while his was the lone review on the site that wasn’t effusively praising Nolan’s latest to the nth degree, he raised some very worthy points of contention that had many of our readers nodding their heads in agreement. The debate continued on in our most recent episode of “Power Hour,”where Robert found himself once again the odd man out when it came to his overall impression of The Dark Knight Rises. You have to admire his spirit and unequivocal passion for defending what he believes in and backing up his arguments with sound reasoning. As the longest podcast episode ever recorded thus far, this is perhaps our most lively one yet, so please…do yourself a favor…give it a listen! Also contained in the episode was the announcement of your ACCA 2000 Winners. Let’s just say that Darren Aronofsky is heavily admired on this site…heavily. Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 7/29)…
There was a time when a film directed by William Friedkin was met with excitement, but that was a very long time ago. It was for The French Connection (1971) that Friedkin won the Academy Award for Best Director, a brilliant and tough crime thriller based on a true story about a couple of New York narcotics officers trying to bust a massive French drug operation. Friedkin took to the streets with his cameras and gave the film a documentary-like feel, gritty and real the streets so close to us we could almost smell them, the characters like those one saw every day walking the streets of New York. The main character was Popeye Doyle, portrayed superbly by Gene Hackman in a performance that won him an Oscar as Best Actor, a cop unafraid to bend and break the rules if it means nailing the top men with the drugs. Fearless, even reckless, Doyle is single mindedly devoted to busting this ring in thousands of pieces. The film was met with rave reviews, strong box office and five Academy Awards, a Best Picture award among them. Read more on Killer Joe (**½)…
With the 5-minute trailer premiering this past week, this simple poster has hit. Do we have an Oscar contender on our hands? We shall see. Comment and see the full poster after the jump. Read more on Poster for “Cloud Atlas”…
Yes, believe it or not…you won’t have to wait much too much longer to see Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film ‘The Master’. Originally scheduled to hit theaters during the middle of October, Variety is reporting here that The Weinstein Company now has the film opening in limited release on September 14th, with a theater expansion planned the next weekend. This is obviously exciting news, but it does come with a little caveat in that we won’t be seeing Andrew Dominik’s film ‘Killing Them Softly’ until later than expected. Hit the jump for details on when you can see that movie, but it’s nothing too bad, I assure you. You can see the date below for ‘Killing Them Softly’, and be sure to mark your calendars for ‘The Master’…
“Hilariously quirky,” claimed The New York Times. “A terrific night, a glorious ceremony, a rousing history lesson and far and away the best film that Danny Boyle never made,” said Guardian film critic Xan Brooks. Whilst The New Yorker simply led with “Danny Boyle Wins the Gold.”
Last night all eyes fell on London as the long-awaited 2012 Olympic Games kicked off in style with an impressive celebration of British history, diversity and humour. Oscar winning director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) had the thankless task of arranging the ceremony, and managed to create an event that played to many of his cinematic strengths, whilst also paying homage to a wealth of historical and cultural themes embedded within the British identity, including, of course, its film industry.
After 14 seasons, Dancing with the Stars if finally having an All-Star season. When it was released what season 15 would entail, fans of the famous dance show wondered which of their favorite stars would be brought back to dance once more for the coveted mirror ball trophy. Well, the list of 12 stars has been revealed. Check it out after the jump.
A nightwatchman gets skinned alive and obliterated at a Costco in a suburban town and store manager Evan (Ben Stiller) assembles a neighborhood watch group to find his co-worker’s killer in The Watch, a science-fiction/comedy which, in fits and starts, is an amusing movie. Proudly crude and vulgar, The Watch tells an aliens-attacking-Earth story with an underlying mix of subplots which take the film down tangential paths that never truly lead anywhere. The film lacks a focal point, unless that focal point is to simply throw a little graphic violence, graphic humor, and star power at the wall and see what sticks. And the problem is, little really does.
Seeing Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, and Richard Ayoade riff with one another has intermittent hilarity, but ultimately The Watch suffers mightily from its poorly constructed story which incorporates way, way too much. As a result, the screenplay by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and Jared Stern delivers moments too scattershot to mean anything once the film, or in some instances the scene, comes to an end.
Read the Full Press Release:
