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1-20 of 25 articles from 2009 « Prev | Next »
'Avatar': Does its so-so story matter? It depends on your definition of matter
21 December 2009 11:17 AM, PST
| EW.com - The Movie Critics
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I'll leave it to the box-office gods to decide if the slightly soft opening of James Cameron's Avatar this past weekend was actually the result of a Northeast snowstorm, whether that was just studio spin, or if it's some combination of the two. (I vote for the latter.) What I will say is that the visually shimmery, feast-for-the-eyes 3-D psychedelic action spectacular that I saw a week and a half ago was hampered -- rather obviously, to me -- by a so-so, functional-but-never-more-than-functional storyline, that it still has a so-so storyline, and that it always will have a so-so storyline.
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- Owen Gleiberman
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Avatar Movie Review
17 December 2009 8:00 PM, PST
| MoviesOnline.ca
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Buckle up, partners, it's gonna get pretty nerdy around these parts.
Going into it, I thought Avatar, the long awaited sci-fi epic return to form of James Cameron, was going to be either a) a technological masterpiece and the game-changer the marketing has led us all to believe, b) an amazing visual feast that's long on style if a little lacking in the story department, or c) a complete waste of time that angered me to no end and gave me a headache. I was seriously hoping that it would at least be option B, so I don't have another "Attack of the Clones" or "Matrix Revolutions" on my hands. And now having just exited the theatre where I enjoyed the flick at a midnight showing of Avatar in 3-D IMAX, I'm proud to say that my initial reaction is... Option B.
Before going further, I will say this: It's
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This decade’s film: 2000-2004
14 December 2009 8:08 AM, PST
| t5m.com
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Pottermania, Tolkein-mania, Twilight-mania…it’s fair to say that the noughties have been a strong one for different kinds of mania. Moreover, it’s also been the time for some pretty awesome movies.
2000 marked a particularly promising start: American Beauty, the directorial debut from Sam Mendes was a unique critique on the American dream that attracted widespread acclaim, being nominated for 8 Academy Awards and winning 5; including Best Picture. His next project, Road to Perdition proved this success to be no fluke. Apparently this was a good time for new directors, as further evidenced by Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, and Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich.
Not that the decade was limited to low-budget concept flicks. Box office-smashing comic book adaptations became the name of the game; ranging from the great (Spider-Man, X-Men and Hellboy), to the not so much (Daredevil and Fantastic Four). It became (almost) socially acceptable
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- Uprising
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Interview: James McTeigue, 'Ninja Assassin' (Part 1)
27 November 2009 4:15 PM, PST
| Cinematical
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Director James McTeigue has been working on films since the late 1980s, back in his native Australia. He was second assistant director on Dark City and first assistant director on Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. He started working with Andy and Larry Wachowski as an assistant director on The Matrix, and they've been collaborating on projects together ever since. The Wachowskis wrote the first feature film helmed by McTeigue, V for Vendetta, and he provided second-unit direction on their most recent film, Speed Racer.
Ninja Assassin, which opened this week, is the latest movie McTeigue has directed, with the Wachowskis on board as producers. You can read William Goss's review for more details about the action/fantasy film. Cinematical sat down with the director in late September during Fantastic Fest, just after the movie played the festival. He was very pleased with the fest screening and happy to talk about the film.
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- Jette Kernion
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'Fantastic Mr. Fox': A toast to stop-motion animation
15 November 2009 2:45 PM, PST
| EW.com - PopWatch
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I adored Fantastic Mr. Fox, which opened this weekend in Los Angeles and New York, and expands nationwide on Thanksgiving. We could discuss how working in a new medium has rejuvenated director Wes Anderson's creative juices, or how all of the voice performance were delivered in the same slightly ironic, yet still heartfelt tone, or how composer Alexandre Desplat wrote one of the most delectable scores in quite some time (as part of a soundtrack that already makes exemplary use of the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, and Jarvis Cocker). But really, above all else, it's the film's stop-motion
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- John Young
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'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Episode 2.05: 'Landing At Point Rain'
8 November 2009 7:30 AM, PST
| MTV Movies Blog
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Episode Title: "Landing at Point Rain"
Written By: Brian Larsen
Tagline: "Believe in yourself or no one else will."
The Story: It's like a return to "Attack of the Clones," but in a good way. Ever since the opening shots of the Clone Wars were fired on Geonosis in the rescue of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala, the Separatist forces there have been shoring up their military assets with help from a newly established planetside robot factory. The key to the Republic's assault on the planet rests in the hands of three Jedi generals -- Skywalker, along with Masters Kenobi and Ki-Adi Mundi -- who are charged with leading an advance force to take out the facility's shields, allowing walker tanks to bring it down with their heavier guns.
Continue, These Clone Wars Do: And it's about freaking time. After chasing a child-abducting bounty hunter around the galaxy and outing a traitorous senator,
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- Adam Rosenberg
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Innocent Essay on Vegan Ideals Somehow Makes Natalie Portman a Rape Apologist
27 October 2009 4:31 PM, PDT
| Movieline
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Classy, Attack of the Clones-surviving ingenue Natalie Portman is everyone's unimpeachable dream girl, but apparently the actress has an inner vegan activist waiting to get out (I blame you for this, Devendra Banhart). In a HuffPo editorial, Portman wrote today about how a read of Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals turned her from a timid vegetarian to an ardent vegan who's not afraid to confront her meat-eating friends. Though such a sentiment might be a little insufferable in a "Williamsburg sliding scale" kind of way, somehow, online pundits have divined from this fairly unremarkable argument that Portman loves rape, or something.
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Star Wars and Zombies Combine in New Novel
22 October 2009 11:32 AM, PDT
| HugAZombie
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Is there anything cooler than the blending of Star Wars and zombies? Not for author Joe Schreiber, who wrote Death Troopers, a novel that takes place in the expanded universe of Star Wars fiction.
"I had the time of my life on this one, I have to say," says the author. "I've tried to make it into exactly the kind of book you'd want to read if you were a child of the '70s who grew up with the original Star Wars trilogy and really digs horror in the vein of The Shining and Alien, with a little dose of William Gibson mixed in."
Here's the publisher's synopsis:
When the Imperial prison barge Purge — temporary home to five hundred of the galaxy's most ruthless killers, rebels, scoundrels and thieves — breaks down in a distant, uninhabited part of space, its only hope seems to lie with a Star Destroyer found drifting,
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- (Fulci)
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New 3-D Star Wars Trilogy on the Horizon?
22 October 2009 8:18 AM, PDT
| Reelzchannel.com
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File this one in the "We'll Believe It When We See It" category, but MarketSaw is saying an "absolutely connected," "trusted source" has let slip that, in addition to re-releasing the entire 6-part Star Wars trilogy in 3-D, George Lucas is planning on creating a new trilogy of Star Wars movies, filmed entirely in 3-D.
The article goes on to claim that Lucas is only interested in producing the trilogy, not directing, and that he may tap his friend Steven Spielberg, or perhaps Francis Ford Coppola, to helm one or all of the films.
Again, we'll believe it when we see it.
Next Showing:
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Trailer
A New Chapter in the Jedi Saga
Link | Posted 10/22/2009 by BrentJS
George Lucas | Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
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- BrentJS Sprecher
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'Star Wars' To Venture Into 3-D Territory?
22 October 2009 2:34 AM, PDT
| MTV Movie News
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An source insists a new trilogy is being planned and will be shot in 3-D, but interviews with George Lucas make the possibility seem unlikely.
By Larry Carroll
George Lucas
Photo: MTV News
While a Sarlacc may take over a thousand years to fully digest its prey, the pop-culture news cycle has proven once again to be the complete opposite — devouring and spitting out a new rumor about the "Star Wars" series in less than 24 hours this week. But what makes fans think there would be a new trilogy in the first place? And where should the most successful movie franchise of all time go from here?
The hijinks began Wednesday evening (October 21), when 3-d-movie-focused blog MarketSaw reported that it had an internal source who'd infiltrated the trusted circle of George Lucas like Princess Leia in a Boushh costume. According to the "absolutely connected" source, Lucas is making secret plans
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'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' Episode 2.04: 'Senate Spy'
17 October 2009 6:30 AM, PDT
| MTV Movies Blog
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Episode Title: "Senate Spy"
Written by: Melinda Hsu
Tagline: "A true heart should never be doubted."
Story: Now that the whole Cad Bane affair is sorted out, it's time to get back to some Jedi-on-Sith action, right? Wrong! Taking a page from roughly half of "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones," "Senate Spy" is all about Ani and Padme in love. How touching. The Jedi Council believes there's a Trade Federation turncoat in the Senate, one Senator Clovis, who has a romantic history with Padme. And so the Jedi Order -- with some help from their favorite rising star, Anakin Skywalker -- attempt to convince the Naboo representative to spy on her colleague and former lover, creating tension in the still-relatively-new Anakin/Padme marriage.
You Can Go About Your Business: "Senate Spy" may very well be the worst episode to air in the series so far. It is a throwaway narrative,
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- Adam Rosenberg
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Michael Jackson's This Is It takes on Lord of the Rings
12 October 2009 1:07 PM, PDT
| The Geek Files
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The power of Michael Jackson lives on - and it's proving enough to conquer the mystical might of the Lord of the Rings.
The late singer's upcoming concert movie Michael Jackson's This Is It has overtaken Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - the first film in Peter Jackson's trilogy - in a league table of films with the highest advance ticket sales of all time.
MovieTickets.com said This Is It had knocked The Fellowship of the Ring of the 25th place in the chart.
The Jacko film documents the star's preparations for his planned 50-date concert series and will be released on October 28. Sony Pictures edited hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage to create the movie after paying $60million for the film rights.
A Michael Jackson single and album with the same title are also set to be released.
The highest grossing concert film
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- David Bentley
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Sr Pick: Star Wars Tauntaun Sleeping Bag
8 October 2009 11:43 AM, PDT
| ScreenRant.com
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We all remember the scene from The Empire Strikes Back: Luke Skywalker and Han Solo trying to survive the sub-zero temperatures of planet Hoth by finding shelter in the stomach of a Tauntaun. For you Star Wars enthusiasts out there, your reenactment sessions are about to get a little more “authentic,” as you too can now find shelter from the frozen wastelands (your front yard in winter) inside your very own Tauntaun stomach!
What started out as an April Fools joke has now became a reality for sale; Think Geek is offering Tauntaun sleeping bags to those who want, starting this November.
Here’s the April Fools joke that started it all (it makes for a pretty good press release if you ask me):
In the sub-zero wasteland of the planet Hoth, only the strong survive… and of course those lucky Jedi protected by the thick skin of a Tauntaun.
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- Kofi Outlaw
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Fantastic Fest 09: Review of Daybreakers
4 October 2009 5:33 PM, PDT
| QuietEarth.us
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Year: 2009
Directors: Michael Spierig / Peter Spierig
Writers: Michael Spierig / Peter Spierig
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: rochefort
Rating: 4 out of 10
In "Daybreakers", the latest film by the Spierig Brothers, the year is 2019 and vampires rule the earth. It's ten years after a single bat bite triggered a viral epidemic that transformed the bulk of the human race into undead bloodsuckers, and society has altered accordingly. The streets are mostly empty during the day, blood is the chief economic good, and the purity of your plasma is directly proportionate to how much money you make. Ed (Ethan Hawke) is a vampire hematologist who has spent every year since the transformation trying to synthesize a plasma substitute; he's hoping to give vampire-kind an alternative to blood-farming the few remaining humans left on the planet. After a chance encounter with a group of human resistance fighters that include ex-vampire Willem Dafoe, Ed
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Five Reasons Star Trek is Cooler Than Star Wars
18 August 2009 5:26 PM, PDT
| MovieSet.com
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By Jeff Otto
movieset.com
Five Reasons Star Trek is Now Cooler Than Star Wars
Remember back in early 1999 when Star Wars was still cool and you couldn’t wait for the prequels? After decades of teasing, new Star Wars movies were about to hit the big screen and anticipation was palpable. Pictures from set in Vanity Fair revealed Ewan McGregor in the trademark brown robes, the menacing red and black face paint of Darth Maul and those iconic green and red lightsabers glowing for the first time in decades. Fanboys hearts went aflutter, some going so far as to camp outside the theater for weeks beforehand. Finally, Star Wars was about to make its triumphant return!
Princess Leia?
And then the bubble burst. Phantom Menace hit screens in May of 1999 and something just wasn’t quite right. It was long and slow-moving; it had a racially questionable, highly annoying
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- Jeff Otto
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James McTeigue to Direct The Raven
4 August 2009 9:50 PM, PDT
| TheMovingPicture.net
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James McTeigue, director of V for Vendetta and the upcoming Ninja Assassin, has revealed to the folks over at Slash Film that he will next helm The Raven, which is a fictionalized account of the final five “mysterious” days of Edgar Allan Poe’s life.
Hannah Shakespeare (Loverboy) and Ben Livingston penned the screenplay, which sees the famous writer join the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories. Casting is currently underway.
Poe, an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement and best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, died October 7, 1849. He was found on the streets of Baltimore delirious and in great distress. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital, where he died.
Poe was never coherent long enough to explain how he came to be in his dire condition, and, oddly, was
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- James Cook
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This Week on DVD: Watchmen, Coraline, Pontypool
21 July 2009 9:13 AM, PDT
| FilmJunk
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Finally after weeks of lacklustre DVD releases, we've got a decent assortment of must-buy discs to gorge on including Zack Snyder's Watchmen (both the theatrical version and the director's cut) and the beautiful stop-motion animated Coraline. There are also some interesting indie releases this week including the superhero comedy Super Capers, the surreal Zach Galifianakis flick Visioneers, and Bruce McDonald's cerebral take on the zombie genre Pontypool (unfortunately, only available in Canada at the moment). In terms of TV, we've got the second and final season of Pushing Daisies, the final season of Prison Break, and all three seasons of the cult British comedy The Mighty Boosh. Is that enough for you? What will you be picking up this week?
Watchmen [1]
Watchmen: Director's Cut [2] (DVD, Blu-ray [3])
Coraline [4] (DVD, Blu-ray [5])
Pontypool [6] (Canada only)
The Great Buck Howard [7] (DVD, Blu-ray [8])
Echelon Conspiracy [9] (DVD, Blu-ray [10])
Visioneers [11]
Super Capers [12]
The Mystical
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- Sean
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San Diego Comic-Con: Past, Present & Future
18 July 2009 7:24 AM, PDT
| ScreenRant.com
| See recent Screen Rant news
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I thought the readers of Screen Rant might want to know a little bit about Comic-Con itself. I’ve rooted around and found out a bit about its past, some info on its present and a little bit of conjecture about it’s future.
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The San Diego Comic-Con International event is going to be holding it’s 40th event in the San Diego Convention Center this year. Do you think anyone back in 1970 envisioned what it has become today? I’m not sure, but they definitely hit it out of the park.
The first events in the Con’s history were held in 1970 and had 145 & 300 attendees each, at the U.S. Grant Hotel in downtown San Diego. The first event that was held in March was a fund raiser and market test of sorts, whose guests included Forrest J Ackerman and Mike Royer. Later on, they held the “real” event in August,
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- Bruce Simmons
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Rose Byrne: Star Wars TV Show To Be a Family Drama
14 July 2009 5:00 PM, PDT
| Movieline
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In sitting down with Rose Byrne recently, the Australian star of Damages and Fox Searchlight's Adam, we couldn't resist asking about her involvement in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, in which she played Dormé -- the only of Princess Amidala's handmaidens who survives past the first scene. And having broken news about it before, we thought we'd press her a little further for details about the live-action Star Wars TV series that's long been buried under a Jedi cloak of secrecy -- and we're glad we did! The conversation is after the jump:
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From ‘Deadpool’ To ‘Green Lantern,’ From ‘Harry Potter’ To ‘Twilight’: Franchise Double Dips
13 July 2009 8:00 AM, PDT
| MTV Movies Blog
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History was made on Friday when Ryan Reynolds officially became the first actor to star as both a Marvel and DC Comics character. Fresh off of his spin-off spinning turn as Deadpool in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” Reynolds is now getting to headline a “Green Lantern” film.
The “Van Wilder” star is just one of many actors who have made the smart –- and profitable –- choice to double-dip in the biggest and the best film franchises. Here is a look at a few of Hollywood’s other famous double-dippers.
Harrison Ford: Arguably the most iconic double-dipper, Harrison Ford managed to star as two of the biggest nerd-culture icons ever within a four year period. The debate over who is cooler, Han Solo or Indiana Jones, still rages on (my ball’s in Han’s court -– he has the Millennium Falcon and a Wookiee best friend!) across the Internet.
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- Terri Schwartz
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