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Showing posts from March, 2012

6 Month Rule

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6 Month Rule is written and directed by Blayne Weaver ( Weather Girl ), who also plays the lead character, Tyler. Tyler has a certain philosophy on women: anyone can get over any woman in six months or less, regardless of how serious the relationship was. The film starts out with a montage of Tyler breaking up with various women, who are obviously more crushed than he is that their relationships are ending. Soon, however, he meets Sophie (Natalie Morales, Going the Distance ), an artist, and becomes extremely attached to her. She's "sorta" dating a musician, however (Patrick J. Adams, TV's Suits ), as she puts it, but Tyler doesn't let this deter him. Read the rest of the review on Examiner.com .

Mirror Mirror

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Mirror Mirror is the first of the two Snow White movies coming out this year - the second (and much darker-looking) Snow White and the Huntsman arrives in theaters on June 1st. The trailers for  Mirror Mirror  made it look much more lighthearted than Huntsman and also a little dumb; however, though the movie started a little rocky, it soon began to charm me with its quirkiness, sword fighting scenes, and one-liners. Snow White (Lily Collins, Abduction and daughter of singer Phil Collins) lives in the castle with her father, the king (Sean Bean, Percy Jackson and the Olympians ), and she leads a very happy life. Her mother died in childbirth, but soon her father remarries, to the Evil Queen (Julia Roberts, Larry Crowne ). The king goes into the woods one day and never comes out, and it is then that the Queen becomes Snow White's guardian and never lets her leave the castle. Our story starts on the day of Snow's 18th birthday, where the Queen is throwing a gala - but not a b

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

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With a name like Salmon Fishing in the Yemen , you might expect this movie to be a snore-fest. However, it ended up far surpassing my expectations, and in fact is one of the better movies I have seen in the past few months. The humor was spot-on throughout the film, even in some of the more serious scenes, and it was interesting to see how complicated it was going to be to introduce salmon fishing to the Yemen. Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt, The Adjustment Bureau ) works for a very rich sheik (Amr Waked, Contagion) who wants to introduce the sport of salmon fishing near his home in the Yemen. Her first step is to contact Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor, Beginners ) to see if it's possible. He writes her back a polite but firm letter saying that there is no way it would be possible; however, once the Prime Minister's press secretary (Kristin Scott Thomas, Sarah's Key ) gets involved, his boss gives him a choice: either work on the project or be fired. Smart man that

Behind the scenes on the set of The Avengers

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Disney has released a few "behind the scenes" pictures from The Avengers , and I have some of them to share with you. The Avengers will be in theaters on May 4, 2012. Joss Whedon (director) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) Joss Whedon and Thor! (Chris Hemsworth) Joss Whedon with Captain America's shield Joss Whedon and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.)

The Hunger Games

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I had been looking forward to The Hunger Games for a long time, ever since I read the first book in the trilogy in February 2011, when buzz about the film adaptation was just starting to build. The movie does not disappoint, though it seemed like a bit of a "Cliffs Notes" version of the book, even with its 2 hours and 22 minute runtime. Fans of the book will ultimately like this film, and it's able to stand on its own two feet for those who have not read the novel; however, those who read the book will definitely have an easier time understanding the story. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: First Class ) lives in District 12 with her mother and sister, Prim (newcomer Willow Shields). For a long time now, there has been twelve districts; at one time, however, which the film only alludes to, there were thirteen - District 13 decided to revolt against the Capitol, the ruling power, but lost. Because of this "war," as a propaganda video says, we have th

Bad movies for St. Patrick's Day

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Today I ha d a Y es/No Films reader email me with a guest post which is highly appropriate for this time of year: the worst St. Patrick's Day films. Thanks to Katherine Pierce for the below post. F ilmmakers don't always have the luck of the Irish when it comes to St. Patrick's Day movies. Leprechauns are somehow silly and creepy at the same time, which makes it hard to put those little guys in a film without making the audience cringe. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. If you're the kind of person who loves movies that are so bad they're good, check out one of these titles from the St. Patrick's Day cinematic hall of shame. Getting Lucky This 1990 teenage sex comedy from Troma, the cheese masters responsible for the Toxic Avenger series, is something of a cult classic. That doesn't mean it's a good movie. Getting Lucky is unquestionably, wonderfully bad. The basic plot involves a nerdy teenager who finds a tiny alcoholic leprechaun named Lepky i

21 Jump Street

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What younger audiences may not know about 21 Jump Street is that it's a remake of the 1987-1981 TV show of the same name, which starred a young Johnny Depp. As in the new movie, the cops met at 21 Jump Street and were part of an undercover team. I've watched a few episodes of the TV show and I'd like to watch more of it, especially after seeing the movie remake, which is more hilarious and raunchy than I thought it would be, but which definitely will please audiences. The film starts out in 2005, and we see Schmidt (the newly svelte Jonah Hill, Moneyball ) as a dork with braces. He musters up the courage to ask out one of the prettiest girls in school to the prom, only to be met with a look of pity from her and derision from her boyfriend, Jenko (Channing Tatum, The Vow ). Flash-forward to present day, and both Schmidt (looking decidedly less dorky) and Jenko are in the police academy trying to become police officers. Jenko is great at the physical aspects like running,

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

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Jeff, Who Lives at Home features Jason Segel ( The Muppets ) as unemployed slacker Jeff and Ed Helms ( The Hangover Part II ) as his employed brother Pat, who is having marital troubles. Susan Sarandon ( Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps ) plays their mom, who has assigned Jeff a very important and seemingly straightforward task: to take the bus to Home Depot and pick up wood glue, since one of the window shutters in the house has fallen off. Before Jeff leaves, however, he gets a mysterious phone call, where someone asks to speak to Kevin. Jeff takes this as a sign, and when he sees someone on the bus with a jersey that says "KEVIN" on the back of it, he follows him. Pat finds Jeff wandering around outside of Hooters, where Pat is conducting a "business meeting," as he says, with a friend of his. Pat wants to show off his new Porsche so he takes Jeff for a ride, where they ultimately end up crashing the car. The movie rolls on from this point, with Jeff still foll

Salvation Boulevard rounds out Uptown Film Festival

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Yesterday was the first full day of the Uptown Film Festival, and also the last day of three. Two of the more anticipated films, Bully and Salvation Boulevard , were shown, and movies were playing all day at the Birmingham 8 theater and also the Palladium. For its inaugural year in 2011, the festival had two days of films and "afterglow" receptions at the Palladium, but this year it has branched out, with three days and afterglows at area restaurants. "The festival is going beyond our wildest expectations. Most of our films have been sold out. Over at the [Birmingham] 8 last night, we started off with Brothers on the Line and it was packed, and then today Bully was packed," said Jeff Spilman, co-executive director of the festival. "We added a third night this year and afterglows each night, at South Bar, What Crepe, and Barrio. People are having a great time and the charities are happy – everyone’s happy." Read the rest of the article at Examiner.co

Uptown Film Festival hosts charity VIP event and Machine Gun Preacher

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For its second full night, the Uptown Film Festival did not disappoint. A VIP charity event was held at 7pm, with a screening of Machine Gun Preacher , originally in Detroit theaters in November 2011, to follow. An"afterglow" party following the screening was held at the new What Crepe near the theater. Machine Gun Preacher stars Gerard Butler and Michelle Monaghan, among others, and half of the movie was shot in Detroit. The film is based on the real life story of Sam Childers (played by Butler), an ex-con who decides to reform his life and help children in Africa. He divides his time between there and his family in Pennsylvania, and ends up building a church and orphanage for the children, as well as hoping to fight the LRA, a resistance army that has been massacring large amounts of people in Africa. To read the rest of the article, go to Examiner.com . Uptown Film Festival poster UFF t-shirts being sold Cupcakes at the VIP charity event Charity event-go

Friends with Kids

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With four of the cast members of Bridesmaids returning for Friends with Kids , the movie looked like it would be raunchy and hilarious. However, the trailers are very misleading; FWK is more of a "slice of life" movie, which is not to everybody's taste. The supporting cast also give very good performances, but they are unfortunately underused. Jason Fryman (Adam Scott, TV's Parks and Recreation ) and Julie Keller (Jennifer Westfeldt, TV's 24 ) are childless, but all of their friends are having babies. However, each new baby seems to ruin their friends' relationships. Leslie and Alex (Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd, Bridesmaids ) were happily married but now are super stressed each day because of their kids. Ben and Missy (Jon Hamm and Kristin Wiig, Bridesmaids ) used to have sex all the time, even in public places like restaurant bathrooms, but since having kids have begun to hate each other more and more every day. Both Julie and Jason want a baby, but t

A Thousand Words

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The last movie I saw Eddie Murphy in was Tower Heist , which got mixed reviews but which I enjoyed very much. The premise of A Thousand Words sounded a little strange - a man isn't able to talk because his lifeline gets connected to a tree's, and one leaf falls for every word he speaks - but I figured since Murphy is in it,  A Thousand Words  was bound to be funny. Unfortunately, there weren't a ton of funny moments throughout it, although the message the movie gives is a nice one. Jack McCall (Murphy) is a book agent who excels at convincing authors to sign with him. His boss, Samantha (Allison Janney, The Help ) wants him to sign Dr. Sinja (Cliff Curtis, Colombiana ), a guru of sorts who is extremely popular and who has written a book. Jack goes to talk with Dr. Sinja, and bruises his hand on a tree there; the next day, mysteriously, that exact same tree pops up in his backyard. Every time Jack says a word, a leaf falls from the tree, and Sinja hypothesizes that when t

Rampart

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I am guessing that Rampart is going to be one of the "critics darlings" of 2012, but other than a good acting performance by Woody Harrelson, I really didn't like it that much. The movie focuses on a troubled cop in the LA Police Department during the midst of the Rampart scandals in the late 1990s, specifically 1999. The LAPD is cracking down on dirty cops, and bad behavior that might have usually been overlooked in the LAPD is brought to the forefront. David Brown (Woody Harrelson, Friends with Benefits ) is one of the officers drawing more attention than usual at the LAPD. His nickname at the station is "Date Rape," because he allegedly killed a suspect a few years back who had been date-raping women. David finds himself in another situation, too, where he stalks a group of guys who were fleeing a crime scene - a robbery at a grocery store - and he shoots the suspects and tries to pass it off like they were shooting at him first. Basically, David is not the

The Lone Ranger: first look!

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The first image from Disney's The Lone Ranger was released today, and it's pretty cool! (at left: Johnny Depp, at right: Armie Hammer) Photo credit: Peter Mountain From the release: From producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski comes Disney/Bruckheimer Films' THE LONE RANGER. Tonto (Johnny Depp), a spirit warrior on a personal quest, joins forces in a fight for justice with John Reid (Armie Hammer), a lawman who has become a masked avenger. THE LONE RANGER will be released in May 2013.

The Lorax (2012)

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The Lorax is based on the 1971 children's book by Dr. Seuss, and has a very talented voice cast that includes stars like Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Taylor Swift, Zac Efron, and Betty White. The film is actually more than just a kids movie: it's also a cautionary tale about environmental destruction, and has PG-type humor geared toward adults. At the same time, The Lorax has colorful visuals and 3D effects that will appeal to kids. Ted (voiced by Efron, New Year's Eve ) has a major crush on his older next door neighbor, Audrey (Swift, Valentine's Day ). He buys a model plane and intentionally flies it into her backyard so that he can knock on her door and talk to her; Audrey invites Ted inside and shows him a picture she's drawn on the back of her house. It's a picture of the truffula trees, which used to grow everywhere, until they disappeared. Audrey tells Ted that her goal in life is to find a real, living tree, and that she would probably marry anyone who bro