 The alternate title for this post was going to be ‘Why Channing Tatum is our Next Great Movie Star (and could win an Oscar soon)’ but I decided to spare you all the righteous indignation of it all. I decided to publish this after a lengthy Twitter discussion with Joseph, Joey, Robert, Mark and reader extraordinaire John Rivera regarding Channing Tatum. It started with me asking Joey if C-Tates, who is going to be in the presumed Oscar contender Foxcatcher, would be in a position to be nominated for an Oscar given that most people seem to be predicting big things from the film. It unraveled from there all in 140 characters (you can view the convo here and here) and I thought it might be fun to offer up a defense of the actor and really dig into his awards potential.
Read more on In Defense: Channing Tatum…
I knew this day would come, and it is with a sense of both excitement and sadness. By the end of my long deployment, I will have earned the most difficult and significant achievement of my life – Surface Warfare Officer Qualification, and finally perform the mission that my ship and I have been training toward for over a year. On the other hand, I must sacrifice the time and effort I have placed into a site that has grown so much in such a short time.
As our Editor himself would agree, what makes me value Awards Circuit is the staff – all the different backgrounds and perspectives on film from all walks of life. To proudly welcome Nicole and Tiff into our family, I will be assisting Clay in integrating them into the staff top tens dating all the way back to 2000 before my departure. After that, for operational security purposes, you will not be hearing from me for a while. But I will not be gone forever! One of my shipmates advised me a long time ago not to let the Navy become my sole identity, and I will hold to that. Come late 2013/early 2014, I will be back to resuming my full staff writer duties. Read more on Oscars 2013: Will Win/Should Win (Hamer)…
Categories: Article Tags: Amour, Argo, awards season, Beasts of the Southern Wild, divisive films, great performances, Holy Motors, How to Survive a Plague, Lincoln, Looper, Magic Mike, oscar predictions, Robert Hamer, Tabu, The Turin Horse, Will Win/Should Win
For someone who has a tremendous fear of flying, I can say that the opening act of Robert Zemeckis’ Flight is one of the most terrifying film experiences I’ve had in years, as Denzel Washington flies a malfunctioning plane completely inverted in an attempt to save the lives on board his craft. From here, the film becomes less of a story about the survival of a plane crash and the legal proceedings that follow, and more of a story about a man trying to survive his own personal crash landing as he deals with inner demons in the same vein as Leaving Las Vegas or Days of Wine and Roses before it. Denzel plays Whip Whitaker, a charming and brilliant pilot afflicted by alcoholism, and does so with the usual casual grace and tender ease we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from the two-time Oscar winner. Flight is a capable film about hitting rock bottom, coming to terms with that bottom, and finding a way towards recovery and salvation. Sure, this is something we have seen before, but few times have we seen it carried by such a strong and magnetic performance as we do this time around from one of this generation’s finest actors. (***)
Read more on Snippet Reviews: ‘Flight’ and ‘Wreck-It Ralph’…
Categories: Film Reviews Tags: Channing Tatum, Denzel Washington, Disney, Film, Flight, Flight review, John C. Reilly, Magic Mike, Robert Zemeckis, Snippet Reviews, Wreck-It Ralph, Wreck-It Ralph Review
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…
 Channing Tatum has done his part to change my opinion of him this year. He hit a new low for me with ‘The Vow’ back in February, but a month later he surprised me with his comic aptitude in ’21 Jump Street’. Finally, last month Tatum had what I might call his career high point with ‘Magic Mike’. Of course, he now has even more options in terms of the next step in his acting, and according to The Hollywood Reporter here, 2 of the projects are going to be a sequel to ‘Magic Mike’ and also a biopic of the stunt man Evel Knievel. After the jump you can see the details of these ventures, but I certainly think both (especially if the sequel isn’t just a quick cash grab, which Tatum’s involvement suggests it won’t be) have potential…
Read more on Sequel to ‘Magic Mike’ in the works…
The Semi-entertaining Amazing Spider-Man had a very successful six-day opening, hauling in over $140 million in its first week in release ($65 million for the weekend). Marc Webb’s reboot has now raked in $341.2 million internationally, after two weekends in theatres overseas. While the box office has started off slower than the original three Spider-Man films, the returns are undoubtedly exceptional and almost assuredly will lead to a sequel or two (and then perhaps another reboot??) following the Andrew Garfield/Emma Stone storyline. Have a look at Joey’s 3 1/2-star review here, where he calls the film “ridiculously satisfying” and holds the film to the same level as Batman Begins by saying that it “could be the best reboot of any franchise to date.” Michael, on the other hand, assigns the film a 2 1/2-star review, and calls it “contentedly mediocre,” with a villain that “espouses dialogue and actions that are in all ways too familiar and convenient.” While I fell more on the side of Michael on this one, both critics make excellent points and are well worth your time to read.
Read more on Box Office Review: ‘Amazing’ Amount of Dollars Tangled in Spidey’s Web…
Disney/Pixar’s Brave didn’t have a very long run at the top of the box office. In fact it fell to third in what was only its second week in release. While the film is certainly worth seeing, I still remain in the camp that Brave is not among the storied company’s best films of late. The surprising thing is that the two films to out draw Brave are not the competition the children-friendly film should have had. The dominantly adult male audience for Seth MacFarlane’s Ted ($54.1 million) and the dominantly adult female audience for Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike ($39.2 million) should be an entirely different crowd from that of Brave. So I wonder if word of mouth has pushed some people away from keeping Brave ($34 million) in the number one spot this week. The film has still remained very successful overall, totalling $131.7 million in its two weeks thus far.
Check out the rest of the Box Office Review after the jump…
Read more on Box Office Review: ‘Ted’ and ‘Magic Mike’ Prove That Raunchy Can Sell…
- Hello everyone! I am officially back to bring you the weekly recap on all that went down at The Awards Circuit. I would like to thank Robert Hamer for doing a tremendous job taking over the reins for two weeks during my deep entrenchment in the Los Angeles Film Festival. Speaking of Los Angeles’ most prestigious movie festival, we began the week with my final diary entry (*sobs*) as well as my personal festival awards, highlighting the best at LAFF. Despite Beasts of the Southern Wild being a truly remarkable piece of filmmaking, I had to give my top prize to Rolando Colla’s uncomfortably realistic Summer Games. This film, that most recently won “Best Film” at the Swiss Film Prize (Switzerland’s version of the Oscars®), has been received rather antagonistically by many American critics, so I guess I’m in the minority of stateside film critics that absolutely loved this cinematic gem to pieces — go figure! I am crossing my fingers that this Swiss entry for last year’s “Best Foreign Language Film” will be released in the U.S. so our readers and my fellow colleagues can watch and react to it.
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 7/1)…
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 7/1)…
Categories: Circuit Round-Up Tags: anna belickis, Awards Circuit Power Hour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, clayton davis, Daniel Ashtiany, Joey Magidson, John H. Foote, Joseph Braverman, LAFF, los angeles film festival, Magic Mike, Mark Johnson, Michael Ward, oscar predictions 2013, Robert Hamer, Ted, Terence Johnson
Looks like this weekend will go down in the books as one of pleasant surprises, both financially and quality-wise. Whether that will translate into Oscar nominations may happen for at least one of them…
Steven Soderbergh and Channing Tatum take us into the world of male strippers in Magic Mike, about a seasoned dancer who takes a rookie under his wing and shows him the ropes. Based on the star’s own beginnings as a club dancer, critics have been very positive on the film, including our own Joey Magidson, who praised its writing, performances and direction from Soderbergh. Rather than being a bubbly dance flick aimed squarely at female audiences, Joey instead relayed back an offbeat and surprisingly in-depth character study of men in an odd profession. Nevertheless, the presence of handsome men taking their clothes off will certainly draw in one kind of audience and turn off another, no matter how different the actual film is. Online and Friday ticket sales were strong and should give the film a good $30-35 million haul. The critical acclaim, however, raises even more intriguing possibilities for its awards prospects. Too racy for the Academy, you say? Tell that to The Full Monty. I would not be surprised to see this among the Best Original Screenplay nominees next January. The performances are less of a certainty, and will probably require a focused campaign to give the well-received work of Matthew McConaughey, Channing Tatum or Alex Pettyfer a shot at an Academy Award nomination. My opinion is that good-looking men already have a hell of a time getting noticed by the Academy when they don’t draw attention to how attractive they are, so I am not betting on any of them any time soon, but that could change… Read more on Weekend Openings (June 29-July 1)…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Channing Tatum, Magic Mike, Matthew McConaughey, Oscar hopefuls, People Like Us, Quvenzhané Wallis, Sarah Polley, Seth MacFarlane, Steven Soderbergh, Take This Waltz, Ted, Tyler Perry, Weekend Openings
 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)…
 The Magic Mike promo swing is in full effect. Not only have the stars done a full article and photo shoot in Entertainment Weekly, but a new trailer from the film has been released. The trailer after the jump is much better than the first at giving away bits of the plot but really focusing on what people are actually going to see this movie for, the male strippers. We get glimpses of all the main cast and their routines (Matt Bomer as Ken doll, hilarious) as well as the relationship between Channing Tatum’s Magic Mike and Alex Pettyfer’s character.
Read more on New ‘Magic Mike’ trailer gives us more beefcake and Pettyfer…
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