Standing all by itself on the movie release calendar, Oblivion has a lot riding on it. For starters, the film predates After Earth, another science fiction film coming out in May 2013, dealing with two people stranded on a post-apocalyptic Earth long after mankind has escaped an uninhabitable home planet. After another steady stream of PR headaches, Tom Cruise has seen his once unparalleled box office run begin to come back to (ahem) Earth in the last few years. If you ignore Cruise’s work with the Mission: Impossible franchise, Cruise has not had a movie earn more than $83 million domestically since War of the Worlds in 2005. And from 1992 to 2005, Cruise saw 12 of his 14 films clear $100 million. So, after Valkyrie, Knight and Day, and last December’s Jack Reacher underwhelmed audiences, has the mighty truly fallen?
The great people at SoundWorks Collection have once again delivered a treat for those interested in what goes on behind-the-scenes during filmmaking, especially as it pertains to the mixing and editing of sound and score. The new Tom Cruise film, Oblivion, is in theaters today, and so SoundWorks put together a featurette including interviews with director Joe Kosinski, film score composer Joseph Trapanese, sound mixer’s Gary Rizzo and Juan Peralta, and more. Watch the featurette after the jump.
Shrouding Earth’s future in mystery, supplying Tom Cruise as the hero, and branding the adventure with a great title are all sure-fire ways to generate box-office buzz for Oblivion. Tom Cruise’s latest thriller, this of the stylistic sci-fi variety, from TRON: Legacy (2010)director, Joseph Kosinski, pretty much has this weekend at the movies in the bag. No other serious contenders–not even an ill-timed Rob Zombie horror picture–threaten to obstruct the gravitational force of Cruise this week.
This has to be the best score of the year so far. That might seem rather hyperbolic but the score for Oblivion is just that good. Joseph Trapanese seems to really flourish in his collaborations with electronic bands and he teamed up with M83 to craft a wonderful score for the new Tom Cruise film about a veteran assigned to extract Earth’s remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself. It’s got a Tron Legacy-type feel to it and a really great sense of forward momentum. Check it out after the jump! Read more on Beautiful score for ‘Oblivion’ arrives online…
“I am a star. I’m a star, I’m a star, I’m a star. I am a big, bright, shining star. That’s right.”
With this ending pep talk, Dirk Diggler reclaims his rightful place in the limelight as Paul Thomas Anderson burgeons onto the scene as a formidable filmmaking talent. Since Boogie Nightstook critics and viewers by surprise and effectively cemented itself as his breakout film, Anderson has trickled out a handful of films, all of which he’s written and directed. A self-taught student of the art, he’s come into his own as a modern American auteur in the vein of Stanley Kubrick and Orson Welles before him. Taking pride in generating a truly original narrative (all of his six films are based on his original screenplays with the exception of the loose adaptation that drives There Will Be Blood), Anderson is of the lesser-populated writer-director breed in the species of film-helmers in Hollywood. Read more on Writer’s Block: Paul Thomas Anderson…
Happy holidays, fans of The Awards Circuit! I hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying the time with friends and family this holiday season. This past week was another busy — although slightly less chaotic than last week — one for us at the site, but we carried on with grace and gusto as always! Starting things off, the African-American Film Critics Associationannounced their winners, where Zero Dark Thirty and Middle of Nowhere both won huge. For the latter film, the momentum it’s built throughout the awards circuit now puts it firmly in contention for a “Best Original Screenplay” slot. Zero Dark Thirty’s Mark Boal, however, is a shoo-in for the category. Other critics groups that unveiled their yearly champions include Houston Film Critics Society, San Francisco Film Critics, Kansas City Film Critics, Florida Film Critics Circle, Chicago Film Critics Association and Dallas Fort-Worth Film Critics. The Golden Satellite Awards also gave a ginormous boost to Silver Linings Playbookwith multiple wins (including “Best Film”), which now could be a very, very major threat if it steals the presumed Globe win away from Les Miserables. Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 12/23)…
Having emerged as somewhat of the frontrunner in the awards race in recent weeks, Zero DarkThirty opens to special limited engagements this week before nationwide release in January. It’s a pretty strong week in terms of variety, with Judd Apatow’s latest, This Is 40, foreign drama powerhouse, Amour,and Walter Salles’ adaptation of On the Road. Add a natural disaster survival drama, a case of double-dipping with a popular animated feature, and Tom Cruise reaching for justice for a well-stocked long weekend of cinematic entertainment.
Zero Dark Thirty
Language: English
Rating: R
Genre: Action/Drama/History
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke
“The greatest manhunt in history” follows the decade-long efforts to find Osama bin Laden, spanning from the September 11 attacks to his death at the hands of Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May 2011. See Clayton and Joey’s early reviews. Read more on Weekend Openings: (12/19-12/21)…
Much like the title character, the film ‘Jack Reacher’ gets in, does its job, and gets out. Tom Cruise’s potential new franchise is a decidedly low tech detective story that offers audiences some old school entertainment. It’s hardly original, but I’m pretty sure that’s intentional on the part of Cruise and writer/director Christopher McQuarrie. They know the kind of movie this is, and in adapting Lee Child’s popular series of books about the title character, they seem to have effectively achieved their goals. Cruise is sufficiently charismatic and carries the movie from an acting standpoint, while McQuarrie plays around with the tone a little more than you’d expect. Paramount seems to be confident in this as a new franchise for Cruise (despite having a review embargo in place until opening day, normally the sign of a film with something to hide), and I think they’ve got a winning formula in place. I can see this flick playing on TV for the next decade, and I mean that as a compliment. It’s never revolutionary and does have its problems, but for pure entertainment this is a solid holiday outing at the movies. If you like action movies starring Cruise, this is another one to check out…
It’s rare that we hear at the staff get surprised by a film existence, but I had no idea this movie even existed. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the trailer for Oblivion is so good it’s now on my radar as one of next spring’s must see films. The sci-fi film stars Tom Cruise as Jack Harper,one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs. When he rescues an attractive female stranger from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands. Check out the trailer after the jump!
Stanley Kubrick is a genius and as such, he claims the right to make movies that warp the mind and puzzle the senses. Similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) before it, The Shining (1980)is one of his most mentally arresting works, and naturally inspired a plethora of theoretical explanations since it first blew minds more than 30 years ago. Rodney Archer’s documentary, titled after the infamous room of horrors which terrifies little Danny and feeds on his father, Jack’s, inner demons, explores a number of theories on the secret symbols and messages carefully encoded into the film by the late mastermind. Read more on AFI Day 7: ‘Room 237’ and ‘Barbara’…
The AC Team comes together this week to try and decipher many question marks about the season. We also celebrate our 25th episode. Thanks for listening all these months. Here’s the 25 more! The agenda for today’s episode is listed below:
Tom Cruise stars as the title character in Jack Reacher, an action film that on the surface appears to steal the best parts of Drive, the Bourne films, and Taken. The most attractive element of Christopher McQuarrie’s (The Usual Suspects) thriller (aside from Rosamund Pike co-starring) might be seeing legendary documentarian Werner Herzog as the villain. Robert Duvall and Richard Jenkins add to a pretty interesting cast, but I have my reservations on the film working after watching this trailer. Jack Reacher opens December 21st. Watch the trailer after the jump.
‘Moonrise Kingdom’ is hitting Blu-Ray shelves in time for Oscar…
Since film aficionados are always looking for something to watch, we decided to round up some Blu-ray and DVD releases for you to seek out. Some of these titles are already out, some will be out soon – the one thing that can be said for sure is that this is quite the eclectic bunch. Read more on The Blu Circuit…
Besides the recent news about his split from Katie Holmes (which I’m proud to say we’re not interested in covering here at The Awards Circuit), most of the talk in regard to Tom Cruise of late has been his return to the A-list after the terrific box office and reviews for ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’. His supporting turn in ‘Rock of Ages’ was the best thing about a disappointing movie, and now he’s continuing to do the action hero thing by starring in an adaptation of the Lee Child novel ‘One Shot’, which Christopher McQuarrie has adapted and directed. It’s now called ‘Jack Reacher’, with Cruise playing the title character. A trailer has dropped, and after the jump you can check it out. It’s a bit of a tease, but it suggests a potentially entertaining film later on this year. Give it a look below…
His new film Savages, I must admit excites me a little. It’s been quite some time since Oliver Stone, two-time Academy Award winning Best Director has made a picture that really stunned audiences, the stirred things up and got people talking. At the height of his career, the years spanning 1986-1995 Stone could be counted on to anger conservatives, to challenge beliefs held sacred, and to purely piss people off. He has been called gifted, maddening, infuriating, annoying, hard-hitting, and much more, and his films get under people’s skin, get people talking, debating the events within. You walked out of Stone film talking about not just the film, but the ideas within the film. Man, after seeing JFK (1991) the first time, I remember going to the bar with other critics to discuss what we had just seen, and that rarely happens. The day it opened I took my wife and some friends to see it because I felt they should see it, and again we hit a place afterwards to discuss the film and the ideas within the movie. It was interesting that we all the same film, but so many of us took different aspects away with us. One thing was always clear, no one believed Oswald was the lone shooter, if a shooter at all. Read more on Ten Best Moments of Oliver Stone…
Adam Shankman is not much of a movie director. His last film of any note was Hairspray (2007) which used the gimmick of casting John Travolta as a Jewish mom in the role created by gay legend Harvey Fierstein on Broadway. Hairspray (2007) had its moments, Christopher Walken was terrific (as always) and the songs were curiously upbeat and toe tapping but for me there were one too many shots of the chubby (sorry) lead actress dancing with a silly smile on her face, looking like a too happy gremlin, as though she could believe her good luck to be the lead in a movie. The film had its moments, Amanda Bynes was wonderful as the nerdy white girl who falls for a cool black boy, and James Marsden was outstanding as, Corny Collins, the host of the goofy TV show the kids watched. I think where the film goes off the rails is when it becomes overly preachy about Civil Rights, because up to that moment we have been watching a musical comedy and suddenly we veer into another area. Don’t judge a book by its cover, right, be it a chubby girl or by the color of one’s skin. Read more on Rock of Ages (*)…
As Clayton mentioned on the recently recorded podcast, one of the films on the endless list of remakes is MGM’s Magnificent Seven. The film, itself a remake of Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, has long been on MGM’s docket and is now likely to become a reality. Variety is reporting that Tom Cruise has entered negotiations to star in the remake of the 60′s Western. Cruise is not fully signed to the project as it is still looking for a writer and director, and the actor has other projects he would have to complete before this movie. The original film starred Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter and Horst Buchholz as a group of American gunmen hired to protect a small Mexican village from a group of savage bandits led by Calvera (Eli Wallach).
I’ve always wanted Tom Cruise to play a President one day (and he came close at least once), and while I won’t be getting that anytime soon, Vulture is reporting here that Cruise might be protecting the POTUS in an upcoming comedy playing a member of the Secret Service, and the politician could be played by none other than Robert Downey, Jr. If that doesn’t sound like a film with lots of potential, I don’t know what is. After the jump I’ll talk a bit more about the project and my obsession with Cruise as a head of state, but just that casting alone has me incredibly interested…
This story flew under the radar earlier this week, but it looks like Gary Ross isn’t the only filmmaker to be leaving a successful franchise for supposedly greener pastures. Brad Bird is also taking that path and won’t be returning to direct the next installment of the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise, saying so in an article found here. It’s arguable that his film ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’ is the best in the series (a statement seconded by myself), so it’s a shame, but considering no one has returned to this world for a second spin in the director’s chair, it’s not incredibly surprising. Also, considering that Lionsgate seems to have gone with the least interesting choice possible to replace Ross, I was wondering what kind of choice might be made here in regards to replacing Bird, though it really seems to be Tom Cruise’s selection, not the studio’s (Paramount in this case). So far, Cruise has gone with big names, and while they’ve mostly been mixed bags, the films were never poorly directed, suggesting he somewhat knows how to pick his filmmaker. There’s no indication of who he might go after, but after the jump I’ll suggest some names that I think are a good fit for the probable sequel (since nothing’s a sure thing in Hollywood, as we know), and no, I won’t say Kevin Smith, in case anyone is expecting me to.
Directed By: Adam Shankman Written By: Justin Theroux, Chris D’Arienzo, Allan Leob
Cast: Tom Cruise, Bryan Cranston, Julianne Hough, Malin Akerman, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Will Forte, Diego Boneta, Mary J. Blige
This week Editor-in-Chief Clayton Davis is joined by Joey Magidson, Michael Ward, and Anna Belickis speaking about everything entertainment. Here’s the profile of what is discussed:
March blues?
Any contenders so far? “The Grey” “The Lorax” “The Hunger Games”
Box Office Numbers (The Artist crossing 40 million)
Big weekend for 21 Jump Street – Golden Globe?
News & Trailers (Dark Shadows, Promethus, World War Z pushed back)
Oscar Night is February 24 (Nominations on 1/15)
TV Talk (American Idol, DWTS, Emmy and Critics Choice Television Awards)
Awards Profiles: Contenders (Gravity, Brave)
Veterans looking for some due in 2013! (Frank Langella, Billy Crystal, Julianne Moore, Laura Linney, Tom Cruise, Ian McKellen, Gena Rowlands, Kristin Scott Thomas)
NEW! Editor Movie Pick of the Week – Junebug (2005)
If you have not heard the news already, NBC’s new drama thriller, The Firm, has just been taken off NBC’s Thursday night lineup to make room for a new series, Awake. While the show has yet to be confirmed as canceled, its move to Saturday is a death sentence that’s just waiting for the guillotine to release. Therefore, I thought I’d push out a review of the series in light of its soon-to-be demise, and perhaps discuss why the series spiraled to such low viewership. I mean, this is NBC we are talking about, so low viewership is almost a certain guarantee, but with Josh Lucas taking over Tom Cruise’s Mitch McDeere role, Grisham’s personal involvement in the rebooted sequel as executive producer, and a suspenseful plot to boot, this show should have been a formula for somewhat of a moderate success. So what went wrong and what can we learn about unsuccessful, high-produced shows such as these, with strong investment and big names attached to them? Find out after the jump. Read more on TV Review: The Firm (**1/2)…
When people used to tell me that action films are the reason they go to the movies, I tended to smirk in slight disapproval and questioned their taste. Yes, a film is meant to ultimately entertain in any way imaginable as long as the viewer’s emotional response is kicked into overdrive, but I always felt that a strong and compelling story should be the defining attribute for a film’s greatness. An incredible plot, I had long believed, was the catalyst from forgettable escapism to masterful art. In 2009, a film I think everyone has heard of, Avatar, was the first to make me see the error of my ways. The plot may have been unoriginal and lacked great depth, but the journey I took as a moviegoer in the world of Pandora was something no great story could ever hope to match in the way I was feeling. It was my favorite film of that year, and the naysayers can try to convince me otherwise, but I cannot deny the feeling of jumping into an adventure and never letting it release me, even after the last of the credits had ended. And now a second film comes along, and completely kicks to the curb that naive notion I had that a great film means having a great story. Simply put — I was a moronic fool for thinking this way. I am not discounting the power of a riveting plot, but when you have a film where the action scenes transcend into a kind of poetic rhythm, I tend not to question the feeling of the adrenaline rush inside me as the action unfolds in front of my eyes, so severe in its grasp that not only do I never want it to let go, but I never want such kinetic energy on screen to cease. This is how I felt when watching the greatest action film of the past ten years — Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol.
Tom Cruise returns as agent Ethan Hunt in the entertaining spy sequel ‘Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’. It’s the best installment of the franchise and one of the better action flicks of the last year or two. It’s mostly dumb fun, but it’s just so much fun that you’ll likely be having a blast with it. Director Brad Bird makes a seamless transition to live action and keeps things moving mostly at a great pace. Of course Cruise is his normal reliable and heroic self, so there was never any doubt this would be at least a little entertaining. What we have is a frantic, energetic, and exciting spy flick that never quite takes itself too seriously (a plus when things get ridiculous like they do here at times). It’s only decently written and the best parts of the film occur during the first two thirds, but none of the issues are major or hurt the movie too much. Overall it’s a great time at the movies and a nice change of pace from some of the Oscar fare currently in theaters while not dumbing things down too much. Especially in IMAX (the way that I saw it), it’s an adrenaline rush and a visual treat. This is escapism at its best!
Standing all by itself on the movie release calendar, Oblivion has a lot riding on it. For starters, the film predates After Earth, another science fiction film coming out in May 2013, dealing with two people stranded on a post-apocalyptic Earth long after mankind has escaped an uninhabitable home planet. After another steady stream of PR headaches, Tom Cruise has seen his once unparalleled box office run begin to come back to (ahem) Earth in the last few years. If you ignore Cruise’s work with the Mission: Impossible franchise, Cruise has not had a movie earn more than $83 million domestically since War of the Worlds in 2005. And from 1992 to 2005, Cruise saw 12 of his 14 films clear $100 million. So, after Valkyrie, Knight and Day, and last December’s Jack Reacher underwhelmed audiences, has the mighty truly fallen?
This has to be the best score of the year so far. That might seem rather hyperbolic but the score for Oblivion is just that good. Joseph Trapanese seems to really flourish in his collaborations with electronic bands and he teamed up with M83 to craft a wonderful score for the new Tom Cruise film about a veteran assigned to extract Earth’s remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself. It’s got a Tron Legacy-type feel to it and a really great sense of forward momentum. Check it out after the jump! 
