 American Reunion hit Blu-Ray and DVD last Tuesday and as always I’m late on catching up on some of the summer DVD releases. However, the film brought me down memory lane through a franchise I’ve enjoyed and possibly loathed at the same time during my adolescence and young adult hood. In the newest film, directors Jim Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg capture much of the first charm that the original American Pie once had. As we move thirteen years after the “pact” that changed the end of high school, the thirty-somethings are all on different wave lengths in terms of their ambitions, love interests, and social statuses. The film bookmarks the series on a positive note and let’s the story evolve into something pleasurable and not forced with sexual innuendos and slapstick humor.
The film is most worth the watch and a pick up at your local video store but as I think back on the careers of this seemingly great ensemble of decent performers. I’m reminded that some of these actors have all had either strong successes or obvious struggles following their respective roles. Read more on A Look at the Careers of the “American Reuntion” Cast…
Categories: Article, Blu-Ray/DVD, Editor Tags: Alyson Hannigan, American Reunion, blu ray, Chris Klein, DVD, Eugene Levy, Jason Biggs, John Cho, Mena Suvari
 The extraordinary burden placed on director Christopher Nolan to deliver a great film, a good one would disappoint, seems to have fuelled the gifted director to create something simply astounding. Though the film lacks the complex, nightmarish villain of The Dark Knight (2008), Heath Ledger’s Oscar winning turn as The Joker, The Dark Knight Rises is an epic and lifts the comic book film, as the previous picture did to an art form. It is without question the year’s finest film thus far and could land in the Best Picture race. Frankly, Nolan shows everyone associated with The Avengers (2012), a good film, how things are done, by making another masterpiece that finishes his trilogy about the Dark Knight. Nolan has accomplished what George Lucas could not with Return of the Jedi (1983), making a third film that matches the previous two, that takes us further into the characters and the story. Read more on The Dark Knight Rises (****)…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: Anne Hathaway, Batman Begins, Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, DC Comics, Heath Ledger, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Michael Caine, Oscar hopeful, Summer Blockbuster, superhero movie, The Dark Knight, the dark knight rises, Tom Hardy
 M. Night Shyamalan has been much maligned as a filmmaker, but the one thing he’s succeeded at, regardless of the quality of the movie, is finding unique and interesting ways to promote his movies. In partnering with Facebook, Sony has released the first promo for After Earth, Shyamalan’s next film. The video moves through a Facebook timeline (people in 2066 are still using Facebook?), telling the story of earth from a UFO crash in 1908 to the events immediately preceeding the film. It’s a rather interesting promo but there’s one issue. Are we we’re supposed to believe that Will Smith’s character is the descendant of Polish immigrant scientists? Maybe that’s what the marriage photo is meant to clean up, but I’m not sure. Other than that slight implausibility, the promo is worth the watch. Check it out after the jump!
Read more on Watch the history of what happens ‘After Earth’ via new promo!…
It didn’t take long for The Amazing Spider-Man to be dethroned at the box office, though I think some of us were thinking it might last another week before being knocked off by The Dark Knight Rises. Instead, Spidey fell to second place at the hands of the fourth film in Fox’s Ice Age franchise, Ice Age: Continental Drift ($46 million), a film that Michael states is “a way to pass time, but it is likewise a complete disappointment” in his one-and-a-half-star review. It isn’t a mammoth surprise (see what I did there?) that Ice Age would take over number one, being that it was the only wide release film this week. While the achievement is surely to be short-lived, the modest domestic opening weekend gross is the smallest for any of the major animated films this year (The Lorax, Madagascar: Europe’s Most Wanted, Brave). This being said, globally Ice Age: Continental Drift has brought in $339 million to date, so a fifth film - a place no other animated franchise has dared go – seems almost certain.
Read more on Box Office Review: The Calm Before the Storm That’s Rising…
 Trishna, a modern-day reinterpretation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, had me thoroughly engaged throughout the duration of its running time, but had one deep and unforgivable flaw: believability. I realize that when novels are adapted for the big screen, readers expect certain events to play out that either directly mirror — or come as close to replicating — the most crucial narrative moments. However, I believe if you’re going to do a reinterpretation of a story that is so dependent on a specific period in history, its laws and customs, you better come up with a way to tweak that narrative so that it holds up in a 21st century world. Director Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People) gets too caught up in the novel’s climactic ending that he forgets he’s telling us a modern tale of love gone horrible wrong in a time when there are actually options, even in India where Trishna is set. Had Winterbottom not been so completely wrapped up by that love-it-or-hate-it conclusion, we might have seen some originality in Trishna aside from its exotic locales. Read more on Trishna (**½)…
 If you had to place a secure, 100% sure-fire bet on an Oscar nomination for The Dark Knight Rises, which would it be? Think about it clearly, because we will re-visit this post come January to see who was right and who was wrong. Read more on Oscar Question of the Day: “Rise to Oscar”…
Holy time warp, Batman! We are now only four days away from the release of The Dark Knight Rises! And while we all wait with bated breath for the final installment in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, the studios are crossing their fingers on the potential box office gargantuan that we all expect the film to be. The question isn’t whether or not The Dark Knight Rises will rake. The question is where will the film stand on the all-time box office list when all is said and done?
Look at it this way: If The Avengers made enough money to settle in at third all-time in box office revenue, then why would any of us really be that surprised to see The Dark Knight Rises finish as the highest grossing film ever? Now, Nolan insisted on making the film in 2-D (God bless him for that), so the movie won’t have those inflated ticket prices to help boost its numbers, but if the film is as good as many of us expect, then I don’t think it will matter. There is so much anticipation behind this film that the first wave of movie patrons should take it close to breaking the opening weekend box office record (a common trend for a Batman film). And from there, if the word of mouth is strong enough, I believe the box office will grow even stronger. Because hitting those dollar amounts isn’t just about getting people to go out and see the film, it’s about getting them to go see it a second, or even third, time.
Read more on Batman at the Box Office…
 I’ll be seeing ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ tomorrow, but late last night (3AM here on the East Coast, though it was midnight over in Hollywood when the embargo came down) the first critical response to Christopher Nolan’s conclusion to the Batman trilogy came in, and they’re about as enthusiastic as you’d expect. There are some mentions of small flaws, but for the most part just about everyone is raving about this flick. I wasn’t sure the anticipation level could rise (no pun intended) any higher than it’s already been at for what feels like months now, but this first batch of reviews has seemingly done that. I’ll be chiming in on Wednesday with my take on the film, as will Clayton, but for now you can see what some of my fellow critics are saying after the jump, and yes, I’ve made sure not to include any spoilers, so fear not. Behold the initial reactions below and let the countdown continue…
Read more on The first reviews for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ are in!…
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American Reunion hit Blu-Ray and DVD last Tuesday and as always I’m late on catching up on some of the summer DVD releases. However, the film brought me down memory lane through a franchise I’ve enjoyed and possibly loathed at the same time during my adolescence and young adult hood. In the newest film, directors Jim Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg capture much of the first charm that the original American Pie once had. As we move thirteen years after the “pact” that changed the end of high school, the thirty-somethings are all on different wave lengths in terms of their ambitions, love interests, and social statuses. The film bookmarks the series on a positive note and let’s the story evolve into something pleasurable and not forced with sexual innuendos and slapstick humor.
