Mar 30 2007

Movies Opening Mar 30

Category: 2007,Movies,Openingvelveetahead @ 9:50 pm

Nationwide Releases

The Lookout
Directed: Scott Frank
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Isla Fisher, Jeff Daniels

A star high school athlete losing his dreams when a car accident leaves him with certain mental deficiencies. He's working as a janitor at a bank when he gets pulled into a robbery scheme.

RT Score: 87%
RT Consensus: The Lookout is a genuinely suspenseful and affecting noir due to the great ensemble cast and their complex, realistic characters.

It's the characters and what they say and think that matter. The job is only an afterthought.
– Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Tight, taut noirish thriller also creates some memorable characters.
– Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

In a knockout directing debut, Frank cooks up his own mischief. The web he spins will pull you in. Guaranteed.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

A lean, to-the-bone, expertly acted small-town noir that takes unusual care to cast the moral compass of its characters in various shades of gray. There's just no fat on it.
– Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, as a fellow who has suffered serious head trauma, comes up with such a moody Method assemblage of twitches, tics, and guilty Memento mannerisms that he's not much fun to watch.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

Blades of Glory
Directed: Will Speck
Starring: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder

Will Ferrell and Jon Heder get into a fight after an ice skating competition, so they are banned from mens' single competition. They decide to join forces in the couple's skating arena just so they can compete again.

RT Score: 69%
RT Consensus: With a talented cast, Blades of Glory successfully milks its one-joke premise into a feature-length comedy.

The directors make bold choices that keep the audience guessing. For instance, there's no groin-punch joke until 40 minutes in. For a Will Ferrell movie, that's a record.
– Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

Blades of Glory has funny moves even when its characters can barely move, but the film seldom gets past its one basic laugh: that a real man figure-skating is a contradiction in terms.
– Owen Gleiberman
Entertainment Weekly

As silly as would be expected, but, as usual, from this comedy machine, some good laughs along the way.
– Boo Allen
Denton Record Chronicle (TX)

Blades takes a hard fall long before it can even nab a medal for fluff.
– Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

The filmmakers wisely surrounded themselves with people who know how to wring solid belly laughs out of a paper-thin premise.
– Ethan Alter
Film Journal International

Meet the Robinsons
Directed: Stephen J. Anderson
Starring: Angela Bassett, Spencer Fox

A boy gets sent to the future and has to find his way back home.

RT Score: 66%
RT Consensus: Meet the Robinsons is a visually impressive children's animated film marked by a story of considerable depth.

For the beleaguered Disney Animation unit, Meet the Robinsons is indeed a step forward, a step in the right direction.
– Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News

Though state-of-the-art technically, I think you'll find there's a healthy, old-fashioned feel to this movie — one that will make you walk out of the theater feeling satisfied, and all warm 'n fuzzy inside.
– Bill Zwecker
Chicago Sun-Times

A rock-solid piece of animated sci-fi comedy that'll tickle the kids, amuse the parents, and leave everyone walking out of the theater on a sweet little flick-buzz.
– Scott Weinberg
Cinematical

It's certainly one of the more imaginative-looking Disney cartoons in recent memory. It also has one of the better stories for a Disney-released cartoon produced by Pixar, even if portions seem ripped off from the Back to the Future movies.
– Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Most of Meet the Robinsons plays like a movie made by ADD adults for ADD children.
– Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer

Limited Releases

After the Wedding
Directed: Susanne Bier
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Sidse Babett Knudsen

A Danish man who is called back home in order to get a donation for his Indian orphanage, but runs into his past at a wedding.

RT Score: 84%
RT Consensus: The cast brings After the Wedding's melodramatic script to life, creating a movie that is emotionally raw and satisfying.

Talented filmmaker Susanne Bier, armed with an outstanding compositional sense, keeps control over the storms of melodrama that swirl in this rich weepie.
– Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

The storyline is a highly melodramatic, but some solid performances and the relentless intimacy of the camerawork give this a Dogme sense of significance.
– Patrick Peters
Empire Magazine

A paradoxical, if ultimately plausible portrait of a fractured family which deals with baby-daddy drama in a way which puts similar, relatively-flip Hollywood fare to shame.
– Kam Williams
EURWeb

Dark secrets eat away from within, but after 120 minutes of self-loathing this soapy tale fails to engage with either genuine mystery or genuine reconciliation.
– Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

The filmmakers pile on a heap of life's complications but for all the recriminations, the movie remains involving because of its convincing compassion for its characters.
– Glenn Whipp
Los Angeles Daily News

The Hawk is Dying
Directed: Julian Goldberger
Starring: Paul Giamatti, Michele Williams

A guy becomes obsessed with training a hawk, and it unnerves his friends and family.

RT Score: 32%

Giamatti, as always, is great. He brings George to life, which isn't all that difficult for one of the few dumpy, balding actors getting leading man roles in Hollywood.
– Pete Vonder Haar
Film Threat

Isn't anywhere close to perfect, but giving yourself over to its performances is wonderfully rewarding.
– James Emanuel Shapiro
Reel.com

Ultimately, this inscrutable film is just an exercise in self-indulgence.
– Doris Toumarkine
Film Journal International

The film is draining.
– Audrey Rock-Richardson
Tooele Transcript-Bulletin (Utah)

The Hawk Is Dying is a fragile little movie, occasionally ridiculous, but with M. Night Shyamalan's Lady In The Water, Giamatti proved that he can make even the weirdest material believable.
– Noel Murray
Onion AV Club

Race You To the Bottom
Directed: Russell Brown
Starring: Amber Benson, Cole Williams

A couple having an affair go on a road trip where they might figure out that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.

RT Score: 57%

While clocking in at a relatively painless 75 minutes, Brown fails to come up with anything so fresh and bold in his approach as to make a single one of those worth watching.
– Jay Antani
Boxoffice Magazine

Brown's screenplay and direction, both economical and unshowy, sketch character dynamics in crisp terms that resist the temptation to explain all, beg sympathy or – heighten drama for purely histrionic purposes.
Dennis Harvey
Variety

An illuminating glimpse into some of the more challenging complications that contemporary relationships can present.
– Kevin Thomas
Los Angeles Times

While the filmmaking shows natural skill, the movie lacks the energy and passion needed to really engage the audience.
– Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A wisp of a film, dramatically threadbare, and saddled with a brittle and affected performance by Williams.
– Timothy Knight
Reel.com

Live Free or Die
Directed: Andy Robin
Starring: Aaron Standord, Paul Schneider

A small-time crook has dreams of being a notorious bad guy except he really sucks at pulling off crimes.

RT Score: 33%

There are many small laughs, two or three big ones, and a lot of wide open space in between where the film ambles along unremarkably.
– Eric D. Snider
EricDSnider.com

Live Free or Die — opens and closes zippily, but in between frequently stalls out, and the wannabe-hoodlum antics of Rugged and LaGrand — play with diminishing returns.
– Kimberly Jones
Austin Chronicle

Very much like its hapless lead character, a small-town, small-time hustler who yearns to present himself as a dangerous outlaw, Live Free or Die tries too hard, to little effect.
– Joe Leydon
Variety

It just feels contrived when a good comedy like this should feel clever.
– Don R. Lewis
Film Threat

[Live Free or Die] is a mildly entertaining little flick but a slight effort.
– Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews


Mar 27 2007

Music Releases Mar 27

Category: 2007,Music,Releasesvelveetahead @ 1:51 am

Recommended Buy

Artist: Mika
Album: Life in Cartoon Motion

RIYL: Kaiser Chiefs, The Fratellis, Lily Allen, Air, Queen, Jellyfish

Might Buy in the Future

Artist: Kaiser Chiefs
Album: Yours Truly Angry Mob

RIYL: The Fratellis, The Kinks, Wire, Magazine, Bloc Party

Artist: Klaxons
Album: Myths of the Near Future

RIYL: LCD Soundsystem, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, The Good the Bad & The Queen

Other Decent Stuff

Artist: Kate Havnevik
Album: Melankton

RIYL: Air, Aqualung, Amy Winehouse, Arcade Fire, Lily Allen, Bloc Party

Artist: Let's Go Sailing
Album: Chaos in Order

RIYL: Modest Mouse, Air, Elliott Smith, Grandaddy, Iron and Wine, Sufjan Stevens

Artist: Grant Lee Phillips
Album: Strangelet

RIYL: Grant Lee Buffalo, Neil Young, Son Volt, Fountains of Wayne

Artist: Antelope
Album: Reflector

RIYL: Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, The Good the Bad & The Queen


Mar 25 2007

Ghost Rider!

Category: 2007,Movies,ReviewsAmy @ 9:33 pm

 

Dear Ghost Rider,

You are a super fun movie because you have motorcycles and flames and Nic Cage. 

I also like you because you were starting at a good time when Melissa and I wanted to see a movie when she was visiting from Denver. So go you!

Your bad guys were kinda silly – what was up with the one guy always having his head cocked to the side?

Good use of the dad/son relationship angst to drive the story!

One thing that I will copy from you is drinking jelly beans out of a martini glass – that was super funny.

People should see you if they just want a fun adventure movie while they enjoy some popcorn and cherry coke.  I hope you make a lot of friends, but be aware that these will be shallow relationships, no one is going to ask you to be best man at the wedding.

Flame on!

Amy

ps when you are done with the motorcycle of flames, please give to me, thanks!


Mar 25 2007

Current Favorite Songs

Category: Listening,Music,Random Songsvelveetahead @ 8:37 pm

Here is a list of my current favorite songs:

Mika

Mika was born in Lebanon, but raised in Paris and London. He seems a cross between Freddie Mercury, Elton John, and Jellyfish. It is completely catchy pop music. His album, Life in Cartoon Motion, has hit number one in the UK and is released in the US this week. There are a few songs on You Tube that you can listen to. My favorite is Grace Kelly.

Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor was born in Moscow in the former Soviet Union, but her family moved to the Bronx when she was a teenager. The Strokes decided they loved her and had her open up for them on their last tour. The first time I heard Fidelity, it bugged me. The second time, I loved it so I say give it a second shot after you hear it for the first time since the different singing style can grow on you. These songs come off her fourth album, Begin to Hope.

The Kooks

The Kooks hail from Brighton, England. Their name comes from a David Bowie song, Kooks. Their debut album, Inside In/Inside Out, spent more than half of 2006 in the top 20 in the UK. They are just starting to get notice in the U.S. where they are currently touring and selling out gigs all over the place, including the stop in Portland in May. Naive is the first song that I heard from them and loved. I am also a big fan of Eddie’s Gun, which you can hear on MySpace. They are guitar pop goodness.

The Fratellis

The Fratellis are from Glasgow, Scotland. They have been greatly loved in the UK and dubbed as the “next Oasis”, but many other bands have been dubbed that in the UK press. They are fickle there. They won the Brit Award (Grammy equivalent) for Breakthrough Act. Their sound is along the same line as The Kooks with guitar pop, head bopping good times. Their debut album is Costello Music. Their first song, Flathead, was used in an iPod commercial. I never saw it. The first song I heard by them was Chelsea Dagger, which is my favorite. Flathead seems quite catchy too.

Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John are two guys from Stockholm, Sweden. They met in 1999 and have made three albums together. Their third album, Writer’s Block, has the whistling song on it! I first heard the song on a weekend on the radio. I was bouncing my head to it, and Jer said the song was annoying. I said I liked it! I didn’t know who sang it. Then I heard it dancing a week or two later. I kept referring to it as the whistling song, until I finally figured out who sang it. Now I know it is Young Folks and I’m happy.

Sources: Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace, Rolling Stone


Mar 24 2007

TV Shows: Week of Mar 25

Category: TV,Upcomingvelveetahead @ 6:23 pm

King of the Hill and American Dad return from hiatus. Raines moves to its regular time slot of Friday at 9/8c.

New Shows

Planet Earth
Channel: Discovery
Time: 8 E/P
Premieres: Sunday, March 25

Eleven part miniseries covering parts of earth rarely seen.

The Great American Dream Vote
Channel: ABC
Time: 8/7c
Premieres: Wednesday, March 28

People get to voice their dreams and viewers vote to see who will get to realize theirs.

Sources: The Futon Critic


Mar 23 2007

Movies Opening Mar 23

Category: 2007,Movies,Openingvelveetahead @ 9:53 pm

Nationwide Releases

Reign Over Me
Directed: Mike Binder
Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle

Charlie (Adam Sandler) lost his entire family in 9/11 and hasn’t dealt with it well. When Don Cheadle, his old college roommate runs into him, Charlie doesn’t recognize him as someone he even knows.

RT Score: 65%
RT Consensus: Reign Over Me is a charming, affecting tale of friendship and loss, with solid performances from top to bottom.

Cheadle and Sandler bust each other’s chops, share video-game controllers in a preset ritual and trade glances and phrases that hint at inside jokes developed in the study sessions, bar benders and spontaneous road trips of youth.
- Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star

A strange, black-and-blue therapeutic drama equally mottled with likable good intentions and agitating clumsiness.
- Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

As Charlie Fineman, a Manhattan dentist who lost his wife and two children when their jet crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11, Sandler is stuck in a movie that won’t come unstuck.
- Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

Tackles issues of tragic loss, survivor’s guilt, and psychological defense mechanisms with disarming sincerity.
- Nick Schager
Slant Magazine

Binder fumbles in telling a complex dramatic story by adopting formulaic comedic devices. The result is a film that is disjointed, unconvincing and incomplete.
- Angela Baldassarre
Sympatico.ca

Continue reading “Movies Opening Mar 23″


Mar 22 2007

300

Category: 2007,Movies,Reviewsvelveetahead @ 1:56 am

300
Directed: Zack Snyder
Starring: Gerard Butler, Vincent Regan

Based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller (Sin City) about the Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartans fought off thousands in the Persian army to save Greece from Xerces.

For a movie squarely aimed at guys, almost all the guys that were invited to go see the movie, didn't show up. It ended up being me, Amy and Stacy seeing it with Jer. Apparently it is also for women that love violent movies starring scantily-clad buff men. Unlike Troy though, there were no stars in this movie. It was strictly the visuals and story to entertain us. I mostly wanted to see it because it had a great look to it. It was different, but reminiscent of Sin City. There were a few scenes that looked like they came from a comic book panel. I have no idea if they did, but they were staged very well.

I was surprised about how much story the movie had. I had low expectations about it being much more than one fight scene after another, which it did have, and at one point, I was hoping there would be something else besides a fight scene. At that point, it stopped and some strategy came into play, which was more interesting than just stabbing. At times, there was even some light humor thrown in there with two fighter guys saying they were better than the other one. Another point, King Leonidas was talking about how they have some respect for their enemies while walking across tons of his enemy's corpses while chomping on an apple.

I have read about all the "changes" made to history about Xerces, the hunchback, and the very buff Spartans. I didn't mind how much of it was true, and I took what I saw with a grain of salt, but I loved the underdog storyline.

It is a great action movie, with a good, solid story, great acting from people I don't know, and I loved the way it looked. I couldn't tell that the backgrounds were all created and not real. I thought I was in ancient Greece. I'm ready to see it again before I need to be violent. :)

Rating: A


Mar 21 2007

New Show Roundup

Category: Shows,TVvelveetahead @ 1:30 am

I watched new shows that premiered last week.

Andy Barker, P.I.
Channel: NBC
Day/Time: Thursday, 9:30/8:30c

This show is taking place of 30 Rock temporarily, which makes me sad, but I’m glad it was funny. It was a slow start, but it has promise. It mostly made me miss Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Arrested Development (his video clerk buddy is Buster). What I have seen from previews, there are lots of funny stuff coming up. I read that the deadpan lady in the first episode becomes his assistant and I think she was the best part of the pilot.

October Road
Channel: ABC
Day/Time: Thursday, 10/9c

Horrible! I was forcing myself to watch the entire episode when I decided that I should quit torturing myself. I turned it off 3/4 of the way through. Everyone in the show sounded like they were in a critical reading class. They all talked in psychobabble, which is highly annoying. When Hannah (the girl left behind), talks to the author guy that left her and wrote a story about their home town, she recites a passage about herself word for word. Stupid! Then, a college girl asks author guy a question, and she sound like she is part of a book discussion group talking about the book’s “plot contrivance”. What really nailed it for me was when the 10-year-old kid makes a comment about “disengaging [himself] from conversation” between his mom and author guy. That’s when I turned it off. Ugg! On a side note, I have come to learn that Laura Prepon can’t act. I always thought she was awkward on That 70′s Show, and I really believe it is just bad acting.

Raines
Channel: NBC
Day/Time: Thursday, 10/9c

Jeff Goldblum is okay in very small doses. For those that hate him, I can give you some reassurance that it is good in large doses too, on this show. He is fairly calm in his cop character and not so much “Jeff Goldblum”. He does see dead people like Rescue Me. They are the people that have died. He just lost his partner, so it is almost like he’s talking to the dead people instead of a partner to figure things out in cases. I found it entertaining. I did think one part was dumb. He solved a case of a young girl and takes a mixed CD she made to play it in his car. He starts to cry. That was unbelievable and came completely out of nowhere, but I decided to ignore that scene, since the rest of it seemed interesting.

The Riches
Channel: FX
Day/Time: Monday, 10/9c

The show was darker than I thought it would be. I thought it would be a light-hearted story about gypsies impersonating rich people, but there is some drama going on here. Minnie Driver is the mother that just got out of jail on probation and is a junkie. This is supposedly a secret, but her daughter knows her secret. The whole family leaves the gypsy camp after one of the leaders wants to marry off the daughter to another family and Eddie Izzard (dad of the family) is having none of it. I previously thought they found the dead people they end up impersonating, but while watching the pilot, I learned they are the cause of their car crash. Oops! I’m not completely sure what to think yet, but I’m intrigued enough to continue watching to see if I like it or not.

 


Mar 20 2007

Little Miss Sunshine

Category: 2006,Movies,Reviewsvelveetahead @ 1:06 am

Little Miss Sunshine

Directed: Jonathan Dayton
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin

A little girl is a finalist in a beauty contest and her entire dysfunctional family makes the road trip to California.

When I first saw the trailer for the movie that had the dinner scene near the beginning of the movie, I wanted to see this movie. I saw it as a dark comedy, which I love. It also had Alan Arkin and I love him. He cracks me up, no matter what I watch him in.

When watching the entire movie, I found the dinner scene was the strongest one in the movie. There were many other cute, funny moments along the way, but none summed up the family’s dysfunction as much as the family dinner scene.

Continue reading “Little Miss Sunshine”

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Mar 18 2007

TV Shows: Week of Mar 18

Category: TV,Upcomingvelveetahead @ 8:14 pm

Six Degrees returns from hiatus to a new time slot and time of Friday at 9pm.

Returning Shows

Dancing With the Stars
Channel: ABC
Time: 8/7c on Monday, results show 9/8c on Tuesday
Premieres: Monday, March 19

The stars that are dancing this season: Laila Ali, Billy Ray Cyrus, Clyde Drexler, Joey Fatone, Shandi Finnessey, Leeza Gibbons, Heather Mills, Apolo Anton Ohno, Paulina Porizkova, John Ratzenberger, and Ian Ziering.

New Shows

This American Life
Channel: SHO
Time: 10:30 E/P
Premieres: Monday, March 22

Ira Glass tells stories about America just like he did on National Public Radio for 15 years.

Sources: The Futon Critic


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