By spreading the final Harry Potter adventure over two films (with the second part due this summer), you could say we’re being made to pay twice to see one story, but, such is the appetite for the boy wizard, that no one seems to be complaining.
Deathly Hallows Part 1 sees Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) on the hunt for the evil Lord Voldemort (played once more with reptilian relish by Ralph Fiennes), but, before Harry can dispatch his nemesis, he must first destroy the “horcruxes”, the magical receptacles that contain fragments of Voldemort’s soul, thus preserving his immortality.
Since these are scattered across the land, Deathly Hallows becomes, in effect, a sort of wandering wizards’ road trip through dark forests, across wild moors and over bleak, windswept mountainsides. Continue reading »
Sony said you’d get the Heavy Rain demo on PSN on February 11, but it turns out you can actually get your hands on it now.
Quantic Dream has been running a clever mini game on an official Heavy Rain site, Precinct 52, which asks you to get your investigative cap on and submit four pieces of evidence.
Apparently, the right way to go it to submit the Short Cigarette, the Origami bird, The coffee shop C (diner), and item 117h tyre tracks. It should hopefully all make sense when you check out the site (and you get a free t-shirt in Home for registering too).
Kotaku says: “Be care about which coffee shop you pick as there are several, and you must submit the correct one to get the code.” That code being the one that redeems the playable demo.
The demo will let you play two chapters, one featuring Norman Jayden, an FBI agent brought in to help local authorities track down the Origami Killer, and the other staring Scott Shelby, a private detective hired by the families of past victims of the Origami Killer to find the serial killer.
How can I articulate how stoked I am for the “Captain America” movie coming out this summer? Well, I’m more stoked about it than “Thor,” that’s for sure.
Captain America was The First Avenger, after all, and The Avengers are my favorite comic book heroes. So you might say he was/is the original Captain. The rum guy is just a wannabe.
Chris Evans stars as the movie’s main character, Steve Rogers, a weakling transformed into a super soldier during World War II. What’s cool is the way they digitally shrink Evans to make him look skinny before his transformation into the Captain. (I wonder if they digitally enlarge him, too?)
The girl is someone named Hayley Atwell. At first, I thought she looked like Claire Danes, but no dice.
“Captain America: The First Avenger” is due out July 22.
“The Adjustment Bureau,” an enormously entertaining speculative thriller starring Matt Damon, would earn its kudos for ambition alone. An adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story, this is a movie of myriad genres and tonal gradations, including classic science fiction in the tradition of “Blade Runner” and “The Matrix” and the doomed romance of “An Affair to Remember.” Throw in the conspiratorial intrigue of “The Manchurian Candidate” – and a first-time director to keep it all straight – and the singular achievement of “The Adjustment Bureau” becomes all the more impressive.
Working from his own script, director George Nolfi has executed the cinematic equivalent of a twisting, tumbling high dive with precision and finesse. He proves himself just as adept with dazzling feats of visual imagination as with human emotion, which, while less spectacular, entails a higher degree of difficulty.
Granted, to enjoy “The Adjustment Bureau” most profitably, the viewer must engage in some powerful suspension of disbelief. Damon plays a gifted young New York politician named David Norris, who, as the movie opens, is wrapping up a campaign to become the state’s youngest U.S. senator. Handsome, charismatic and hot headed, Norris is practicing a crucial speech in a Waldorf Astoria men’s room on election night when he meets Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) as she steps out of one of the stalls. The fact that Elise is hanging out in the gents’ is but the first tip-off that she’s a free spirit. Within moments, they’re lost in the badinage of two people on the brink of something big.
As a couple, David and Elise are clearly meant to be, but it turns out that David’s future may have other plans. The Fates are aligned in the form of the title outfit, led by a no-nonsense operative named Richardson, played by John Slattery in a crafty, deadpan take. At one point, Richardson explains to David that his life course is being overseen by a shadowy figure called “The Chairman.” The identity of that omnipotent figure is never disclosed, but from the looks of the retro-perfect hats and overcoats Richardson and his men wear, it’s either Frank Sinatra or “Mad Men’s” Bert Cooper himself.
Slattery’s martini-dry turn as Richardson – as well as Anthony Mackie’s doe-eyed performance as a bureau rookie named Harry and the always deliciously malign Terence Stamp as head agent Thompson – injects notes of wry, antic humor into “The Adjustment Bureau,” which in less adroit hands could have become a ponderous exercise in self-serious style. Instead, Nolfi consistently resists the temptation to overreach, tempering David’s fight against destiny with welcome jolts of sprightly, irreverent wit.
As a simple race-and-chase, “The Adjustment Bureau” succeeds on the purest cinematic level, especially in a wowser of a climactic pursuit that recalls “Inception” in its mind-bending tour through multiple doors of perception. (Nolfi clearly knows his way around cats and mice, having written “Ocean’s Twelve” and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” among other films.) Handsomely staged as a valentine to New York at its most timeless, the sequence seamlessly integrates shots of everyday Manhattan with visual effects that suggest the Bronx is down and the Battery’s up.
For all these flourishes, the most gratifying rewards of “The Adjustment Bureau” aren’t in structure and craft alone, but in Nolfi’s grasp of the details, which ground even its most preposterous plot twists in an authentic world. From the outset, the movie smoothly captures contemporary political culture as Norris makes the rounds from “The Daily Show” to the cover of GQ. (The filmmakers of “The Adjustment Bureau” reportedly piggybacked on Damon’s publicity tour for “The Informant!” to film him bantering with Jon Stewart.)
A succession of cameos ensues, including by pundits Mary Matalin, James Carville and Wolf Blitzer and by political players Terry McAuliffe, Mike Bloomberg and Madeleine Albright, with Damon looking every bit the focus-grouped ward heeler throughout. The capper comes when Norris delivers a mini-masterpiece of Sorkinian political rhetoric that, in its savvy, sophistication and self-award candor, could have sprung fully formed from Jed Bartlet’s speechwriting shop. (“The Adjustment Bureau” also understands the peculiarity of political fame: When Norris arrives at a crowded nightclub at one point, he isn’t deluged but politely acknowledged by the few people who know who he is. He’s a rock star, but only in a mediasphere where Scott Brown possesses a Q rating somewhere between Justin Bieber and Richard Lugar.)
As satisfying as it is to watch a movie in which sci-fi speculation on fate and free will co-exists so easily with references to Sarbanes-Oxley, “The Adjustment Bureau” gets the boy-girl thing right, too. As James Franco and Anne Hathaway now know too well, chemistry is everything. And within moments, Damon and Blunt generate sparks that fly not between superbly compatible physical specimens but real people.
When Elise taunts David about his tie or he makes winking reference to the length of her skirt, there’s a giddy, invisible vibration between them, created by the tuning fork of inside jokes and shared references. Even though their relationship is threatened by an utterly absurd existential danger, it’s been established with such real-world gestures and rhythms that, when David decides to fight for it, the audience is right there with him.
What Nolfi understands and “The Adjustment Bureau” conveys so subtlely is that romance is less a function of grand physical passions than the quiet, unmistakable jolt of two sensibilities meeting and recognizing and protecting each other. Even if they’re played out against the most mind-bending alternate realities, those are the affairs we remember.
Using slurs more biting than anything he says on “Two and a Half Men,” Charlie Sheen cut loose Thursday with vicious attacks on his boss, and the results were swift and decisive.
CBS and Warner Bros. Television, which produces the hit sitcom, shut down the show for the rest of the season and minced no words in stating why: The decision was “based on the totality of Charlie Sheen’s statements, conduct and condition.”
It followed a series of interviews in which Sheen excoriated “Two and a Half Men” creator Chuck Lorre, first on Alex Jones’ conspiracy-minded radio show, and then to TMZ.com.
“I’ve spent, I think, close to the last decade, I don’t know, effortlessly and magically converting [Lorre’s] tin cans into pure gold,” he told Jones. “And the gratitude I get is this charlatan chose not to do his job, which is to write.”
Angry that the show didn’t resume production when he felt ready, Sheen slammed Lorre as a “clown” and referred to him as “Chaim Levine,” a Hebrew variation on his birth name, Charles Levine.
“This bootleg cult arrogantly referred to as AA now supports a 5 percent success rate,” he said. “My success rate is 100 percent.” He insisted he cured his problems in “a nanosecond,” using only his mind.
“He’s totally lost it,” a source close to the show told me Thursday night. “This is upending so many lives — the crew members in particular, who have remained so loyal to Charlie through all his ups and downs. But now not only is this the end of the season, it likely means the end of the show.”
A friend of the actor’s father, Martin Sheen, quoted him as saying, “Who will ever want to work with him again? Hollywood’s a small town.”
HOLDING GRUDGE: The royal wedding snub of Sarah, Duchess of York, was not Prince William’s idea. A Buckingham Palace pro insists it was Queen Elizabeth herself who demanded her grandson not invite his aunt.
The British monarch is said to be totally focused on the royals’ future and believes William and Kate Middleton — and their down-to-earth approach to life — will ensure that future. The queen reportedly is really done with Fergie for many reasons, including her infamous “toe-sucking,” her more recent attempt to sell access to her ex-husband, Prince Andrew, and something a bit surprising.
Apparently, the Queen thinks that Weight Watchers ad campaign Fergie fronted was tacky and inappropriate — even for an ex-royal.
JUST THE SPOT: Chicago cabaret star Denise Tomasello headlined frequently at the Pump Room, so it’s great that the bars tools Tomasello bought at the famed eatery/nightspot’s recent auction now reside in her Gold Coast home. The talented singer performs her one-woman show March 9 at Maxim’s.
BOW WOW! Hickory, the Scottish Deerhound that was the first of her breed to win at the Westminster Dog Show this year, will hit town this weekend to compete in the International Kennel Club’s Cluster of Dog Shows at McCormick Place North Saturday and Sunday.
WHO YOU GONNA CAST? Ashton Kutcher is said to be close to signing on to star in the long-brewing “Ghostbusters 3,” directed by Ivan Reitman, who bonded with Kutcher when they made “No Strings Attached” together.
Along with the return of “Ghostbusters” veterans Harold Ramis and (presumably) Bill Murray, Ramis has said this updated sequel will need contemporary young stars to make it score at the box office.
DOWN THE AISLE: Hugh Hefner’s wedding date with 24-year-old Crystal Harris is now set: June 18 at the famous Playboy mansion in Los Angeles.
SEEN ON THE SCENE: Young “Whip My Hair” singer Willow Smith was in our area this week — hosting a VIP roller skating party at the Fleetwood Rink in Summit to boost her “I Love Me” campaign to encourage kids to love themselves and others. … The crowd at Hub 51 went crazy Wednesday night when Miami Heat stars Dwyane Wade and Le- Bron James hit the hot eatery for a late night snack — accompanied by 20 (!!!) security guards.
OSCAR BUZZ: The exact same five actresses up for best actress Sunday at the Oscars will compete against each other Saturday at the Independent Spirit Awards. While “Black Swan” star Natalie Portman is expected to win the Oscar, Jennifer Lawrence is said to be the frontrunner at the Indies for “Winter’s Bone” — given the younger, hipper and edgier aspect of that group’s voters.
President’s Day Weekend at the North American Box Office fielded a crowded collection of films both old and new competing for moviegoers’ financial votes of approval, none of which made any sort of memorable impact. In the end, Warner’s new action thriller Unknown starring Liam Neeson beat newcomers I Am Number Four and Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son to become this weekend’s number one movie.
Once again the top ten box office was down from last year’s numbers. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this weekend’s box office was off a steep 30% from the 2010 President’s Day weekend. The following estimates are for the Friday through Sunday period. The four-day weekend estimates will be announced on Monday.
After wiping out half of the Eurotrash in Paris while looking for his kidnapped daughter two years ago in Taken, Liam Neeson has taken his European Hit Campaign to Germany this time to look for his identity in Unknown. The film opened on 3,043 screens this weekend to an estimated $21.8 million in sales, the result of Warner Brothers selling the film to audiences as if it were the follow up to the actor’s 2009 smash hit. Reviews were mixed (56% on Rotten Tomatoes) but audiences turned out nonetheless to see Neeson kick some more European bad guy ass. The film was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) and co-stars January Jones, Diane Krueger, Bruno Ganz and Aidan Quinn.
Disney finds itself in a unique position this weekend as it has the number two and three films with nearly identical estimated grosses. The studio’s 3D Gnome cartoon Gnomeo & Juliet had a solid second weekend by easing a mere 23.5% from its opening last weekend to earn an estimated $19.5 million from 3,014 screens for a solid ten-day total of approximately $50 million. With the kids out of school for the next week, the film could cruise right along to the magical $100 million mark by the end of its domestic run and even win the Friday through Monday President’s Day weekend race.
The movie originally pegged to land the top spot this weekend, the Disney/Dreamworks sci-fi teen flick I Am Number Four, wound up seceding the throne to Liam Neeson while earning an estimated $19.5 million from 3,154 screens. Based on a popular young adult book series, the film was directed by D.J. Caruso (Disturbia), has Michael Bay listed as one of its producers and stars Alex Pettyfer and Dianna Agron (Glee). Critics pretty much hated the $60 million production (27% approval on Rotten Tomatoes), thinking it was more “I Am Number Two” than it was “Number Four”. Audiences were a little kinder to the film by bestowing upon it a “B+” Cinemascore rating, which may or may not bode well for the film’s run in the upcoming weeks. Surprisingly 54% of the audience were over the age of 25 and 57% were male despite expectations the film would play stronger to young women.
Last weekend’s box office champ, the Adam Sandler/Jennifer Aniston comedy Just Go With It, had audiences once again going along with it to the tune of $18.2 million in sales from 3,548 screens. After ten days of release, the comedy has earned approximately $60 million to date. Thanks to a decent second weekend hold (the film was down only 40% from last weekend), the film should reach the $100 million mark. If that occurs, this will mark the funnyman’s twelfth nine-figure earner.
Martin Lawrence donned a fat suit to return to his popular “Big Momma” series this weekend in the new Fox comedy Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son. The critically-reviled comedy (a whopping 8% on Rotten Tomatoes) opened on 2,821 screens and earned an okay $17 million in estimated sales. In comparison the 2000 original opened to $25.6 million en route to a huge $117 million final gross. The 2006 sequel debuted to an even bigger $27.6 million but wound up grossing roughly 40% less with a final total of $70 million. Considering the debut for part three, chances are pretty good that Fox will see an even bigger erosion in regards to returns. Still, the studio can’t be too upset. The only money they spent on the $32 million production came from advertising and distribution fees.
Bieber Fever cooled off this weekend as the 3D documentary Just Bieber: Never Say Never dropped by 54% from its opening weekend to earn an estimated $13.6 million for a ten-day total of $48.7 million. The $13 million production should find its way to approximately $65 million before heading off to big fan-driven sales on Blu-ray and DVD. Oscar contender The King’s Speech kept up its winning ways in its thirteenth week by easing a tiny 7% for an estimated $6.5 million in sales and a new to-date total of approximately $103.2 million.
Screen Gems’ thriller The Roommate landed in eighth place for the weekend with a $4 million estimated take. After three weeks, the Leighton Meester flick has earned $32.6 million. The film should finish right around the $40 million mark. Ninth place went to the Focus Features’ dud The Eagle which dropped by 59% to an estimated $3.5 million and a weak ten-day total of $15.6 million. A $22 million final gross is expected. Rounding out the top ten was the Natalie Portman/Aston Kutcher romantic comedy hit No Strings Attached with an estimated $3 million in ticket sales. To date, the Ivan Reitman film has earned a solid $66.5 million at the box office.
Liam Neeson’s stolen-identity thriller “Unknown” was a surprise No. 1 at North American theaters over the weekend, gunning past “I Am Number Four,” a science-fiction entry that represented the reconfigured debut of Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios. Made for about $30 million, “Unknown” (Dark Castle/Warner Brothers) sold an estimated $21.8 million, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box office statistics. “I Am Number Four,” which received negative reviews, cost at least $50 million to make and was predicted by some analysts to lead the weekend box office derby, sold about $19.5 million for second place.
It was the first film that DreamWorks has released since refinancing itself and breaking ties with Paramount Pictures in favor of a distribution relationship with Walt Disney Studios. “Gnomeo & Juliet” (Disney) was a strong third with $19.4 million, bringing the two-week total for the 3-D animated comedy to about $50.4 million. The Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston comedy “Just Go With It” (Sony Pictures Entertainment) placed fourth in its second weekend, selling an estimated $18.2 million for a new total of $60.8 million. “Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son,” a comedy from 20th Century Fox and New Regency starring Martin Lawrence in fat-suit drag, rounded out the top five with about $17 million.
I Am Number Four is an amalgamation of every conceivable snare for both the male and female teenage animal. With thematic and visual references to classic teen-angst romances such as Rebel Without A Cause and the contemporary paranormal young-love phenomenon The Twilight Saga, as well as a third act infusion of the Michael Bay-brand action, I Am Number 4 shamelessly grasps for every last leaf on the young-adult movie money tree.
Using a sci-fi (rather than paranormal) template as the backdrop for the story, the film attempts to appeal to the boys and distinguish itself from the popular made-for-girls romances of the day, such as The Vampire Diaries and, of course, the aforementioned Twilight. The film does take advantage of certain romantic conceits found in the paranormal genre, however, such as the biologically-compelled faithfulness of perfectly constructed men.
I Am Number Four tells the tale of Number 4/John Smith, the fourth of nine alien children who were forced to flee their home planet of Lorien, after it was brutally ravaged by the evil (and wretchedly unattractive) Mogadorians. Herein lies the film’s first moral lesson to the youth of the world: Bad folks = ugly, good folks = Abercrombie & Fitch, no guess work required.
The “Mogs” must kill each of the nine children in numerical order (for arbitrary reasons) before the children can manifest their “legacies” (super-powers) and utilize them to stop the Mogs’ attempt take over the Earth (also for arbitrary reasons). You would think the Mogs would be reveling in their recent conquer of Lorien, but no.
Number Four/John Smith played by Alex Pettyfer — truly one of the most gorgeous young men the British Isles have ever produced — has chosen this moment to claim his independence from his mentor/protector Henri, played by Timothy Olyphant. The threat of immanent death, the destruction of a second planet, and failing to fulfill the promise of his destiny, is seemingly not enough motivation for John to discourage a cute girl from taking his photo (repeatedly) and posting it on her website for all the world (and the Mogadorians) to see.
I Am Number Four Featurette
The shutter-bug in question is a recent member of the outsiders portion of the high-school populace. Sarah, played by Glee’s Dianna Agron, is no ordinary nerd, however. No, she is the coveted cheerleader-turned-hispter-artist, who is too deep for the superficiality of high school (kind of like her character on Glee) . She even comes equipped with an array of 35 mm cameras with which to shoot her damning portraits, a knit cap to demonstrate her superior sense of suburban-bohem, and perfect beauty – lest we forget what is really important (please refer to Number 4′s lesson one for the youth).
Sarah has a hangover from her days with the “in” crowd, in the form of an over-zealous ex-boyfriend. Guess which sport he plays? Hint, it’s not figure skating. Leaving no cliche unmolested it’s football. Of course he and his gang of stereotypical Midwest gombas harass the school geek, who our gallant Number Four (shockingly) takes it upon himself to defend.
Sam (Callan McAuliffe), the geek in question, is relentlessly teased due to his father’s belief in, and discovery of, the Lorien alien species. Four quickly becomes best friends with Sam the geek and falls in love with Sarah the sexually serene via the magic of the movie-montage, as well as Four’s previously-mentioned biological imperative to love only one woman forever. Apparently it is not enough to fall in love anymore — now a love story must guarantee the happily-ever-after via the genetic imprisonment of the boy. Apparently this is the bone being thrown to young adult girls, who might otherwise be worried about following their hearts into alien Armageddon.
For the boys, there is a second gorgeous blond female character — a hot girl who kicks mad “Mog” butt and straddles a motorcycle (yep). Six, played by the sizzling Teresa Palmer (Lorien either did not create unattractive people, or did not allow them survive their global Apocalypse), has been on the trail of Four and the “Mogs” in an attempt to bring the fight to the villains. Fortunately Six arrives just in time for the most exiting portion of the film, a genuinely well-construed and entertaining end action sequence in which, in true teen fantasy style, the High-School is wrecked, and entire football field is destroyed. Cue the end credits.
I Am Number Four Teresa Palmer Number Six
Despite the ludicrously manipulative story structure, the young actors deliver fine performances. They are committed to their roles and are perhaps the only people involved in the production (other than director DJ Caruso) who are sincere about their investment in the project. The film is well-made in the sense of being well shot, with mostly well-done effects work and strong action sequences, as mentioned.
The real issue with I Am Number Four is that it so obviously reads as pandering. Movies are incredibly hard to make, and in general there is a lot that can be forgiven in the face of what a film is offering: a simple good-time, a laugh, and/or a daring approach that others are not taking. Some would claim that I Am Number Four was not made for adults as a way to explain and excuse its flaws. Yet, the film’s greatest weakness is indeed its overt and insincere grab at its young adult target demographic.
Given the opportunity to create a coming-of-age story (of a sort), the filmmakers did not choose to make a Stand By Me, an E.T., or even a unique and engaging alien-romance such as Starman (which the filmmakers clearly reference). No, there is no passion in this project, no heart, and little-to-no sincere investment in the story on the part of the creators. There is merely a financially-motivated attempt to spoon-feed regurgitated ideas from poorly constructed sources to an impressionable audience these filmmakers owe more to.
Producers Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay hired Smallville writing partners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar to work on the script, in tandem with I Am Number Four book series authors Jobie Hughes and controversial A Million Little Pieces author James Frey, writing under the pen name Pittacus Lore. (Side note: Pittacus Lore is a character who plays a significant role in the book series, but is not seen in the film.) In other words, screenwriters Gough and Millar worked in concurrence with Hughes and Frey in order to construct a unified version of the book and the film, with each informing the other, rather than adapting the film from a book which was created organically, with story in mind first and foremost.
I Am Number Four movie trailer
It is natural, in any business, to in some ways model or emulate what has been a successful formula for others. This film, however, feels a bit like a group of investors got together and opened a “MacDougals” chain in the hopes that at least some portion of the population would either mistake it for McDonalds, or wouldn’t care that it was a knock-off, so long as they received their high-fat, high-salt, food-product infusion. The original lacks nutrition at best, and is harmful at worst; the copy lacks nutrition, imagination, and integrity.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this film’s formula is that it is likely going to work. Box office projections indicate that I Am Number Four will win as the highest-grossing film in its opening weekend — a feat that will promise us much more of the same hollow and derivative cinema in the years to come.
By spreading the final Harry Potter adventure over two films (with the second part due this summer), you could say we’re being made to pay twice to see one story, but, such is the appetite for the boy wizard, that no one seems to be complaining.
