Selig Film News

DUE DATE – A Review by Gary Murray

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November 5, 2010

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DUE DATE

By Gary Murray

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis and Michelle Monaghan

Written by Alan R Cohen and Alan Freedland

Directed by Todd Phillips

Running time 100 min

MPAA Rating R

Selig Film Rating Cable

The road comedy has been around almost since the beginning of movies. Stories of different people trapped in the mundane sameness of going across the fruited plains just promises the building of laughs. Crosby and Hope were on the road so many times one had to wonder if they could ever stay in one place. The latest paring is Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis in the comedy Due Date.

The story starts at the Atlanta airport where Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) is trying to get back to LA and his pregnant wife Sarah (Michelle Monaghan). Peter has an estranged non-relationship with his dad and wants to be the father that he never experienced. Very early on, Peter is shown as a tough as nails man with little compassion or concern for his fellow human beings.

While being dropped off, he bumps into Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) and his dog. Ethan is just the opposite in every way, a man-child who lives life more with a degree of luck than of planning. The dog becomes more of a fashion accessory ala Paris Hilton.

The first mishaps begin at the airport where Peter is screened by airport security. They find a Mad Magazine and a pipe in his luggage. In bumping into Ethan, their things became mixed. On the plane, Ethan and Peter are sat behind one another. An offhand remark by Ethan and corrected by Peter brings attention to the US Marshall on the aircraft.

Peter is shot with a rubber bullet and both men are escorted off the plane. The big problem is that his wallet and suitcases are still on the plane. The agent on the ground lets Peter know that he is now on the ‘no-fly’ list.

In Atlanta without money or ID, Peter cannot rent a car. Ethan shows up and offers him a ride out to LA. It seems that Ethan is on his way to Hollywood to become an actor with a goal to be on Two and a Half Men. Ethan carries with him the ashes of his father and wants to let them go at the Grand Canyon. Before we can say fill’er up, a road trip movie is born.

The first adventure takes them to off-route where Ethan has to get some medical marijuana from Heidi (Juliette Lewis). As Ethan gets high, Peter has to watch Heidi’s kids. There we see how of an out-of-touch parent Peter is going to be. The scene is supposed to be funny but it comes across more as cruel.

Mishaps happen as they make their way to Texas. Peter contacts his college buddy Darryl (Jamie Foxx) who is also a former college friend and former beau of Sarah. Ethan plants seeds of doubt in the mind of Peter, another scene that was supposed to bring huge laughs but again comes across more cruel.

The two men fight and argue, bonding along the way and finding some common ground. Along the way, our main characters get hurt, get high and get in trouble with Mexican Border guards. In one scene, Peter gets into a losing battle with a disabled vet which brings more shocks than laughs. The high scenes go into hallucination, an idea funnier in the Tenacious D flick.

We know where Peter and Ethan are going to end up, in LA and as friends. The supposed joy of Due Date is watching it happen as they make the long trek West.

As much as I think Robert Downey Jr. is one of the premiere actors of his generation, he never finds the right rhythm with his reading of Peter. There are so few scenes of compassion that one has to wonder just how he has a wife and friends. He comes across as relentlessly bitter and angry, a person who just keeps the chips of life stacked on his shoulders. Any little week and those chips come tumbling down with a ferocious zeal.

As much as Zach Galifianakis is becoming the new Hollywood ‘it’ funny man, he is beginning to show that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Where he has had small parts that brought a load of laughs, the more screen time he gets, the less humorous the character. He is like a spice, something that should be used sparingly. The more Hollywood uses his talents, the more of the flavor of the month he is going to become. He is just too much in Due Date.

In the nick picking department, Michelle Monaghan is just too young to be the college sweetheart of either of the men in her life. In the screenplay, both Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx claim that they knew Sarah twenty years ago in college. That means Michelle should be in her forties, something that takes quite a stretch to believe.

The film does look great with majestic sweeping vistas and shots framed as if they were paintings. Director Todd Phillips makes ‘fly over’ country more of a character than a backdrop. It is just he has so little to work with in the screenplay. Every comic bit is shown in the trailers and two minutes of solid laughs are a far stretch in a 100 minute film. Some of the jokes that worked so well on the small screen with quick editing lose their punch when placed in the slower paced. The fault of Due Date falls squarely on the shoulders of the writing team which failed to turn a good premise and a fair series of skits into a collective whole movie.

The best way to describe Due Date is that is is a psychotic film, going all over the place and never finding a solid center to generate comedy. While it has a few moments here and there, it is not as funny as you think it is going to be and doesn’t live up to the hype.

MEGAMIND – A Review by Gary Murray

Gary Murray

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November 5, 2010

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MEGAMIND

By Gary Murray

Starring the voice talents of Will Ferrell, Tiny Fey, Jonah Hill, David Cross and Brad Pitt

Written by Brent Simons and Alan J. Schoolcraft

Directed by Tom McGrath

MPAA Rating PG

Running time 100 min

Selig Film Rating Matinee

The computer animated film has grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades. Where once we given a very short taste of how a series of programs could take the place of hand drawn cels, today we are almost constantly bombarded by cinema ‘1’ and ‘0’ creations. The latest is from Dreamworks Animation and it titled Megamind.

The film starts with Megamind plunging to his death, contemplating the errors of his ways. Then we go back to the beginning. Baby Megamind is being placed in a spaceship by his parents. It seems that the planet is about to be destroyed and Mom and Dad want to save their little one. At the same time on the next-door planet, another set of parents plan to send their little one off. As the planets are destroyed, the babies rocket to Earth. When they enter the atmosphere, one baby falls under the Christmas tree of a wealthy family and the other is sent to a prison for the criminally insane.

A few years later, the two boys attend the same elementary school, each showing super powers. One fits in and the other doesn’t. So our misfit decides that if he cannot be the good guy, he will become the bad guy. So soon are born bad guy Megamind and super hero Mega Man.

It is again a few years later and Megamind (Will Ferrell) is the master villain and Mega Man (Brad Pitt) is the reigning super hero. Caught in the middle is reporter Roxanne (Tina Fey) followed by her cameraman (Jonah Hill). The film hints more than once that all three have different degrees of affection for the lovely lass. As our play opens Metro City is planning to open the Mega Man Museum with a towering statue of the super man. Everyone know that Megamind will capture Roxanne and be rescued by Mega Man. It always happens and has become a rote experience

During the latest epic battle, Mega Man gets caught in a sphere of copper, his weakness metal and before all the explosions send their last fodder, the hero has met his demise. Much to the shock of the city, Megamind has won the day. After a few days of plundering and destroying, Megamind finds that he is bored and that a super villain needs a super hero as much as a super hero needs a super villain. So Megamind, in Dr Frankenstein fashion, decides to make his own super hero so he can have a foe to fight named Tighten

The making of the hero, with its unforeseen conclusions drive the story of Megamind. Along the way Megamind finds that he can be a different person, both physically and emotionally.

The biggest problem with the film is with the screenplay. It is manic without being funny, as if lots of stuff going on is just good enough. While the images of Megamind are stunning, with awe inspiring explosions and perfectly rendered hair, the script never delivers on the funny. There are some very long lulls without a laugh of solid plot point. It almost feels like a good 30 minute idea stretched into a 90 minute plus feature.

The other major problem is with the cast. While all do a fine job, the don’t do a different job. All the leads sound like themselves and not characters. With such a famous voice cast, the suspension of disbelief is just harder to achieve. Lesser known voices would have made a world of difference.

While there have been a few rumblings about the film being un-Christian, I just found the film a basic super hero story turned on its head. Megamind basically parodies and parallels the Superman story. While not on the level of some of the best of the year, it is a decent diversion. It is no where the classic film in the way that every Pixar film has become to viewers.

FAIR GAME – A Review by Gary Murray

Gary Murray

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November 5, 2010

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FAIR GAME

By Gary Murray

Starring Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Ty Burrell

Written by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth

Directed by Doug Liman

Running time 104

MPAA Rating PG-13

Selig Film Rating Cable

During the build-up to the Iraq War, there were massive failures of intelligence. With different parts of the government wanting different outcomes from facts, details that proved one side over another were coincidentally covered up or lost. While some lobbied for a full-front attack others wanted to give sanctions more time. Caught in the middle of this mess was Valerie Plame who was (according to differing newscasts) either a CIA super spy or just a glorified secretary in the Agency. In the new movie Fair Game, the creators take the former position.

The film starts in the days after 9/11 and the CIA playing catch-up. Valerie (Naomi Watts) is a field agent playing different parts in different countries, getting foreigners to agree to supply intelligence to the US government. After a few successful missions, she is asked to run the budding Iraq covert operations. We see that much of what the CIA knows about the country is based on hearsay and outdated intel. One of the big contentions is about a huge shipment of yellow-cake uranium from Africa to Sadam. Since her husband Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) knows the area well, Valerie suggest that he be sent to investigate.

While this is going on, the Vice President’s office begins to build a case for war. They start to hand pick different reports and facts to create a case that Sadam was on the verge of having WMDs with the US as the main target. Even though many in the CIA know that the justification for war is wrong, the warmongers prevail.

After the initial attack, no weapons are found and the blame game begins. Joe realizes that his report is being co-opted, he writes an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times. The retaliation is a leak where Valerie Plame is outed as a CIA spy. This destroys her career and puts her family and her contacts in grave danger.

The film really works in the last act when Valerie and Joe are up against the wall and have to basically take on the rest of the world to restore their honor. They lose almost everything when taking on the White House. There are some true moments of emotion as the two have to make decisions that will impact not only their lives but those of their families.

Director Doug Liman truly uses a scattershot approach to telling the tale in Fair Game. He takes every tool in the directing toolbox, giving us steady-cam shots jammed against extreme close-up next to that shaking camera cinema verite then mixed with actual news footage. While the hodgepodge way of making the film might be visually appealing to some, it does not make for a coherent film.

Writers Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth build a film that is part All the Presidents Men and part bad melodrama. The most honest thing in Fair Game is the depiction of spies, not as James Bond figures with shoot outs and sex but as individuals who easily blend in and coerce weak people to help out in covert causes.

This is an Oscar push for Naomi Watts and she just may get it with Fair Game. She shows some subtlety in a role that was put all over the 24 hour news. If feels as if one is watching a real person rather than an actor doing an interpretation. One can see how she can get people to do her bidding just by being nice and reasonable.

Sean Penn is all over the place with his interpretation of Joe Wilson. At times he a manic and others he is the calm family man. There are moments where he grabs ahold of the scenery and chews it for all it is worth, overacting to the point of parody. For a guy who can hide inside a character with a solid degree of believably, here he just all over the place.

Fair Game is a very liberal interpretation of the facts of the 2003 New York Times op-Ed piece. It is based on the books written by Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson so it naturally makes them out to be the heroes and victims of the system. The actual truth of this incident is probably something for future historians to decide. Liberals will flock to Fair Game just to have another bashing of George Bush and conservatives will just roll their eyes over what is now another part of history. The film itself, for all it posturing, is kind of a dull exercise. The way I look at Fair Game is much the same way I look at a couple breaking-up. There is her side, his side, and the truth. With this movie, it feels as if one is only getting one side.

Turner Classic Movies Announces Slate of Classic Films and Panel Discussions to Air in Conjunction with MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD

Film News

Dev Shapiro

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October 28, 2010

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Turner Classic Movies Announces Slate of Classic Films and Panel Discussions to Air in Conjunction with MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD

TCM to Screen Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Bonnie and Clyde, Sunset Blvd. and More Following Each Week’s Installment of the Groundbreaking Original Documentary Series

Discussions with TCM Host Robert Osborne, Writer/Producer Jon Wilkman and Renowned Film Experts to Follow Encore Screenings of MOGULS & MOVIE STARS
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is set to present a robust slate of films and panel discussions that will air in conjunction with the network’s original seven-part documentary series, MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD. TCM’s epic journey through the history of the American movie industry premieres Monday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. (ET), with encore presentations airing on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. (ET). Every installment of MOGULS & MOVIE STARS will be followed by films from or about the eras covered each week, including The Birth of a Nation (1915), Citizen Kane (1941), Casablanca (1942), Sunset Blvd. (1950), Singin’ in the Rain (1952), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and more. A brief panel discussion with TCM host Robert Osborne; MOGULS & MOVIE STARS writer and producer Jon Wilkman; and film commentators and historians featured in the series, including Cari Beauchamp, David Thomson and Jeanine Basinger; will air after each Wednesday encore, enhancing the epic story of the people, power and periods that created the Hollywood dynasty.

TCM’s seven-part MOGULS & MOVIE STARS features rarely seen photographs and film footage; clips from memorable American movies; and interviews with distinguished historians and major Hollywood figures, including Sidney Lumet, Richard Zanuck, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., Peter Bogdanovich, Gore Vidal, Robert Osborne and Molly Haskell. The project is narrated by two-time EmmyÒ winner and 2009 Academy AwardÒ nominee Christopher Plummer (The Last Station) and is produced by TCM in association with Bill Haber’s Ostar Productions and Turner Entertainment Co.

TCM’s MOGULS & MOVIE STARS premiere episode “Peepshow Pioneers” will feature a wide array of revolutionary work by Thomas Edison, D.W. Griffith and Georges Melies, with such titles as Edison’s The Great Train Robbery (1903) and Melies’ A Trip to the Moon (1902). The Nov. 3 encore will be accompanied by movies about the era, including Nickelodeon (1976) and The Magic Box (1952).

On Monday, Nov. 8, the series will look at the rise of the movie industry in “The Birth of Hollywood.” It will be followed by such silent masterpieces as Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) and George Loane Tucker’s Traffic in Souls (1913). The Wednesday, Nov. 10, encore will be accompanied by silent classics, including The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917) and The Squaw Man (1914).

The MOGULS & MOVIE STARS episode “The Dream Merchants” on Monday, Nov. 15, will tackle the 1920s, when cinema began to come into its own as an art form. The night’s films include Sunrise (1927), Flesh and the Devil (1926) and Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921). The Wednesday, Nov. 17, encore will be featured alongside comedy classics like Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928) and Safety Last (1923).

Both the advent of sound on film and the economic pressures of the Depression brought many changes to Hollywood, as revealed in the Monday, Nov. 22, episode “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream?” TCM will showcase frothy musicals and gritty dramas that became popular during this era, including Footlight Parade (1933), The Public Enemy (1931), Little Caesar (1930) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). The Wednesday, Nov. 24, encore will be presented along with 1930s gems, including Duck Soup (1933) and Top Hat (1935).

Bringing the series to the 1940s, the Monday, Nov. 29, “Warriors and Peacemakers” installment of MOGULS & MOVIE STARS will be featured alongside the wartime films Casablanca (1942), The Great Dictator (1940) and They Were Expendable (1945). The Wednesday, Dec. 1, encore will be joined by such masterpieces as Stagecoach (1939), Citizen Kane (1941) and Mildred Pierce (1945).

With the arrival of television, movies once again had to adapt to changing tastes. The “Attack of the Small Screens” episode of MOGULS & MOVIE STARS will premiere Monday, Dec. 6, with films including Marty (1955), A Face in the Crowd (1957), Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). Classics like Sunset Blvd. (1950), Singin’ in the Rain (1952), It Happened One Night (1934), Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917), The Kid (1921), North by Northwest (1959) and The Defiant Ones (1958) will air in conjunction with the Wednesday, Dec. 8, encore.

TCM’s MOGULS & MOVIE STARS will wrap up its look at the history of movies with “Fade Out, Fade In,” premiering Monday, Dec. 13. The episode looks at the fall of the big studio moguls and the rise of independent filmmakers who were determined to speak with their own voices. TCM will celebrate the decade with such films as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) and The Magnificent Seven (1960) on Dec. 13, as well as independent films like Night of the Living Dead (1968), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1969) and Easy Rider (1969) on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

About Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies is a Peabody Award-winning network that presents great films, uncut and commercial-free, from the largest film libraries in the world. Currently seen in more than 85 million homes, TCM features the insights of veteran primetime host Robert Osborne and weekend daytime host Ben Mankiewicz, plus interviews with a wide range of special guests. As the foremost authority in classic films, TCM offers critically acclaimed original documentaries and specials, along with regular programming events that include The Essentials, 31 Days of Oscar and Summer Under the Stars. TCM also stages special events and screenings, such as the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood; produces a wide range of media about classic film, including books and DVDs; and hosts a wealth of materials at its Web site, www.tcm.com. TCM is part of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

Complete Schedule of Series Premieres, Encores,
Films and Panel Discussions

The following is the complete schedule for TCM’s MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD premieres and encores, plus the films and panel discussions supplementing each night’s presentation (titles in bold indicate TCM premieres):

Monday, Nov. 1
8 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 1 – “Peepshow Pioneers” (1889-1910) – Premiere
9 p.m. The Films of Thomas Edison
Blacksmithing Scene (1893)
The Barbershop (1893)
Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze (1894)
Sandow (1894)
Boxing Cats (1894)
Annabelle Butterfly Dance (1894)
Sioux Ghost Dance (1884)
Annie Oakley (1894)
Roberta and Doretto – Chinese Laundry (1894)
Fire Rescue Scene (1894)
Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1895)
The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895)
The John C. Rice – May Irwin Kiss (1896)
Shooting the Chutes (1896)
Fatima, Muscle Dancer (1896)
Fifth Avenue, New York (1897)
Mr. Edison at Work in His Chemical Laboratory (1897)
What Happened on 23rd, NYC Pan American Exposition by Night (1901)
Life of an American Fireman (1903)
What Happened in the Tunnel (1903)
The Great Train Robbery (1903)
The Kleptomaniac (1905)
The Little Train Robbery (1905)
The Dream of a Rarebit Fiend (1906)
Three American Beauties (1906)
Films of the San Francisco Earthquake (1906)
The “Teddy” Bears (1907)
The Rivals (1907)
Rescued from an Eagle’s Nest (1908)
The Lone Game (1915)
11 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 1 – “Peepshow Pioneers” (1889-1910) – Encore

12 a.m. D.W. Griffith with Biograph
Those Awful Hats (1909)
Corner in Wheat (1909)
In the Border States (1910)
For His Son (1912)
The Sunbeam (1912)
The Girl and Her Trust (1912)
The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912)
The Mothering Heart (1913)
2 a.m. The Films of Georges Melies
Card Party (1896)
The Vanishing Lady (1896)
A Nightmare (1896)
The One Man Band (1900)
The Trip Conjurer and the Living Head (1900)
Excelsior! Prince of Magicians (1901)
The Devil and the Statue (1901)
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
Gulliver’s Travels Among the Lilliputians and the Giants (1902)
The Infernal Cake-Walk (1903)
The Kingdom of Faries (1903)
Jupiter’s Thunderballs (1903)
The Cook in Trouble (1904)
A Crazy Composer (1905)
The Eclipse, or The Courtship of the Sun and Moon (1907)
The Conquest of the Pole (1912)
4 a.m. Silent Shakespeare
King John (1899)
The Tempest (1908)
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1909)
King Lear (1910)
Twelfth Night (1910)
The Merchant of Venice (1910)
Richard III (1911)
5:30 a.m. Ramona (1910)

Wednesday, Nov. 3
8 p.m. The Magic Box (1951)
10 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 1 – “Peepshow Pioneers” (1889 – 1910) – Encore
11 p.m. Episode 1 Panel Discussion – Robert Osborne and Jon Wilkman
11:15 p.m. Nickelodeon (1976)
1:15 a.m. When Comedy Was King (1959)
2:45 a.m. Hearts of the West (1975)
4:30 a.m. Show People (1928)

Monday, Nov. 8
7 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 1 – “Peepshow Pioneers” (1889 – 1910) – Encore
8 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 2 – “The Birth of Hollywood” (1907-1920) – Premiere
9 p.m. Traffic in Souls (1913)
10:30 p.m. The Indian Massacre (1912)
11 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 2 – “The Birth of Hollywood” (1910) – Encore
12 a.m. The Birth of a Nation (1915)
3:15 a.m. Within Our Gates (1920)
4:45 a.m. The Blot (1921)

Wednesday, Nov. 10
8 p.m. The Immigrant (1917)
8:45 p.m. Yankee Doodle in Berlin (1919)
10 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 2 – “The Birth of Hollywood” (1907-1920) – Encore
11 p.m. Episode 2 Panel Discussion – Robert Osborne, Jon Wilkman and Cari Beauchamp
11:15 p.m. The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917)
12:30 a.m. The Coward (1915)
2 a.m. The Squaw Man (1914)
3:30 a.m. The Mark of Zorro (1920)

Monday, Nov. 15
7 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 2 – “The Birth of Hollywood” (1907-1920) – Encore
8 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 3 – “The Dream Merchants” (1920-1928) – Premiere
9 p.m. Sunrise (1927)
11 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 3 – “The Dream Merchants” (1920-1928) – Encore
12 a.m. The Iron Horse (1924)
2:30 a.m. Flesh and the Devil (1926)
4:30 a.m. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)

Wednesday, November 17
8 p.m. The Kid (1921)
9 p.m. The Pilgrim (1923)
10 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 3 – “The Dream Merchants” (1920-1928) – Encore
11 p.m. Episode 3 Panel Discussion – Robert Osborne, Jon Wilkman, Cari Beauchamp and David Thomson
11:15 p.m. One Week (1920)
11:45 p.m. Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
1 a.m. Safety Last (1923)
2:30 a.m. It (1927)
4 a.m. Show People (1928)
6 a.m. Fool’s Luck (1926)

Monday, Nov. 22
7 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 3 – “The Dream Merchants” (1920-1928) – Encore
8 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 4 – “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream?” (1928-1941) – Premiere
9 p.m. Footlight Parade (1933)
11 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 4 – “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream?” (1928-1941) – Encore
12 a.m. The Public Enemy (1931)
1:30 a.m. Little Caesar (1930)
3 a.m. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
5 a.m. Red Dust (1932)

Wednesday, Nov. 24
8 p.m. It Happened One Night (1934)
10 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 4 – “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream?” (1928-1941) – Encore
11 p.m. Episode 4 Panel Discussion – Robert Osborne, Jon Wilkman, Cari Beauchamp, David Thomson and Jeanine Basinger
11:15 p.m. Duck Soup (1933)
12:30 a.m. Top Hat (1935)
2:15 a.m. Heidi (1937)
3:45 a.m. Little Women (1933)
5:45 a.m. Of Human Bondage (1934)

Monday, Nov. 29
7 p.m. MOGULS & MOVIE STARS: A HISTORY OF HOLLYWOOD (2010)
Episode 4 – “Brother, Can You Spare a Dream?” (1928-1941) – Encore

8 p.m. MOGULS & MOV

CONVICTION – A Review by Gary Murray

Gary Murray

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October 21, 2010

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CONVICTION

By Gary Murray

Starring Hilary Swank, Minnie Driver, Sam Rockwell, Peter Gallagher and Juliette Lewis

Written by Pamela Gray

Directed by Tony Goldwyn

MPAA Rating R

Running time 107 min

Selig Film Rating Matinee

Hilary Swank is easily the most important actress of her generation. The two-time Oscar winner has given audiences characters that resonate on a very personal level, with a “commoner” theme, ordinary people who do extra-ordinary things. Her latest is in the high drama Conviction.

The movie starts with a murder in a trailer in Ayers, Massachusetts. The locals lock up petty criminal Kenny (Sam Rockwell) for the crime. His sister, Betty Anne (Hilary Swank) totally believes in his innocence. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn how close the bonds between the two are with them supporting each other through the roughness that is childhood. A couple of years after his original suspicion, Kenny is re-arrested for the crime, with two witnesses admitting that Kenny bragged about killing the woman. Also, the blood type matches Kenny. He is convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Betty, a woman who has not graduated from high school, comes up with a plan. She is going to get her GED, then her undergraduate degree finally making it to law school. After passing the bar, she will be Kenny’s attorney and work to get him free.

In law school she befriends Abra Rice (Minnie Driver), a fellow ‘long in the tooth’ student who doesn’t take no for an answer. While she is in school, Betty reads about this new technique of testing blood called DNA and contacts Barry Scheck (Peter Gallagher) and his law firm for help,

Conviction is about the difficulty of finding all the twelve year old evidence and the struggle for new techniques to be introduced into courts. It is also a search for all the witnesses and the truth behind their testimony. As the plot drives forward, Kenny becomes more despondent about being in prison.

Hillary Swank just hits it out of the park with her reading of Betty Anne, a woman who sacrifices years of her life for the love of her sibling. She believes against all odds that she can prove her brother’s innocence. It is real and touching.

Minnie Driver shows a comedic side in her reading of Abra Rice. Where Betty Anne is our serious actress giving emotive conviction, Minnie gives a much needed human element to the entire proceedings. She believes in Kenny being innocent because she believes in Betty.

Even though she has a few scenes, Juliette Lewis just nails her small role of Roseanna Perry, one of the women who accused Kenny of the crimes. On first seeing her, she is a flake but one soon realizes that she has a sharp mind and know what admitting to perjury would do to her life. Juliette lets the make-up people age her to a frightening degree.

Sam Rockwell has the hardest part with Kenny and shows some serious acting chops in the role. We care for this convict, even though there are hints that things in his life may not be as cut and dry and Betty Anne thinks they are. The doubts fuel the prowess of the performance.

Director Tony Goodwyn does the smart thing by not trying to make the camera do all the swoops and twirls. By keeping it simple he gets more from his characters. We get a real sense of time and place, with camera work being used to a modest degree.

The word ‘conviction’ has two distinct meanings. First is being proven guilty and the second is the act of being persuaded. The movie Conviction is about both. Though it comes across a bit heavy handed at times, it does show that a true and just course is worth fighting for. This is another Oscar contender and will probably make some critics ‘Best of the Year’ list. I didn’t like it as much as some other critics but it has some importance.

HEREAFTER – A Review by Gary Murray

Gary Murray

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October 21, 2010

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HEREAFTER

By Gary Murray

Starring Matt Damon, Cecile De France and Bryce Dallas Howard

Written by Peter Morgan

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Running time 129 min

MPAA Rating PG-13

Selig Film Rating Matinee

Clint Eastwood is truly an auteur in the cinema. He has directed film after film that examines the human condition and how people in different situations have do deal with very human emotions. His latest is about what happens when we leave this mortal bond and is called Hereafter.

There are actually three stories in Hereafter. The first story is of French television reporter Marie (Cecile De France) a woman on holiday with her married producer boyfriend. As he sleeps, she goes into the seaside resort town to shop for presents for his kids. As the morning breaks, there is a rumble from the ocean. A tsunami breaks toward shore, with sweeping water destroying everything in its wake. She tires to run but in caught in the tow, hitting her head losing consciousness and discovering something on the other side of life.

The second story is of a reluctant psychic George (Matt Damon) a once famous clarviont now working at a factory. His brother (Jay Mohr) keeps using George to to better business, pushing the frail young man to contact the dead. All George wants is to be left alone. To meet new people, he takes an Italian cooking class paired up with Melanie (Bryce Dallas Howard) a recent transplant to San Francisco, leaving bad things back in Pittsburgh. He doesn’t want her to know his secret. He calls his gift a curse

The last story is of twin boys living in England with their junkie mother. One twin, Jason, goes to the store and is chased into the street by a group of young thugs, killing the boy. After the tragedy, the other brother Marcus (Frankie McLaren) is sent into foster care while his mother goes into rehab. Marcus becomes obsessed in talking to Jason and goes to different lengths, finding out the fakers that milk people of their money while offering hope of talking to a loved one.

Everyone knows that eventually these three stories will converge with each individual meeting the others and how they all have connections begat the basic premise of Hereafter.

To be honest, Hereafter is a very mixed bag of a film with parts of this film being wonderful and other parts just dragging along. The opening special effects scene of the water coming onto the seaside shore is just breathtaking in its magnificent destruction. At the same time, the afterlife looks like an out of focus film school experiment. The film is framed in such a manner that it almost feels like three different movies, made by three different directors, all cut together and hoping to make sense.

The performances are great but again all over the place. Matt Damon gives it his low key best, but one has to wonder how much of a curse he claims his situation actually has become and how much of it is in his own making. When he does a reading for Melanie, he has to know how it is going to turn out because one must assume that it has happened before. He could have kept the girl by just coming up with a little white lie.

Cecile De France was just amazing as Marie, the woman who lost her world but gained her soul. By experiencing the near death experience, she goes from reporting others lives to living her own life. As she takes time off to recover from her experience, she begins writing a book. Not the book promised to her publishers but a book on what awaits for us on the other side. Her research is clinical but her determination is passionate. The reporter in her want to report on the afterlife and the human in her wants to understand it. This is one of the stronger performances of the year.

Bryce Dallas Howard is so hidden behind her character that it becomes almost impossible to see the real person behind the acting mask. Though she is only it the film for a few scenes, she makes the most of the character. We see through eyes the absolute pain that George can unwilling submit someone to. She is the audience’s personification and we see hidden pain that moves to the core.

Clint Eastwood is a master behind the camera. taking the audience on a mystic journey that doesn’t seem that farfetched. He is a master at mood but the material just isn’t up to what we have come to expect from him. The general precis of the Hereafter is ‘a life that is all about death is no life at all’. Hereafter sums itself up with forced final connections. It just seems a bit too pat and too clean in what is a messy world.

Conviction Press Tour–Director Tony Goldwyn

Gary Murray

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October 21, 2010

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Conviction Press Tour–Director Tony Goldwyn By Gary Murray

Tony Goldwyn is a man of many talents. He is an award winning actor, director and producer. As a director, he helmed The Last Kiss and Someone Like You. Appearing in film, he as had roles in Ghost, The Last House on the Left and Tarzan. Tony has had roles both in television and in New York theater. He is in town for Conviction his latest film that he directed. Accompanying him are actress Juliette Lewis who plays the part of Roseanna Perry and the woman the story is based on Betty Anne White. The story of Conviction concerns Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank), a high school drop out who goes back to school and on to law school just to be the lawyer for her brother Kenny Waters who is eventually exonerated from the accusation of murder. It is an eighteen year journey of faith and devotion with Minnie Driver playing Abra, Betty Anne’s friend and fellow lawyer. On tour with him are the real Betty Anne Waters and Juliette Lewis, who plays Roseanna Perry, a woman who testifies against Kenny. Tony first heard of the story of Kenny on Dateline, told to him by his wife. “I thought that this woman spent eighteen years of her life on an act of faith of her brother when he easily could have been guilty . ‘What is that bond?’, I thought.” The sibling love story drove him to it and he was pursuing the rights with producers Andrew S. Karsch and Andrew Sugerman. Written by Pamela Gray, Tony had some very specific ideas on the script. “It is very important for me to avoid melodrama and sentimentality,” he said. “I wanted the direction not to call attention to itself. I wanted to do it simply. My intention was a subjective reality so that we get sucked into Betty Anne’s experience and not be very conscious of the camera and what it was doing Not to do pyrotechnics of the story and trust the story and the actors to tell it.” When asked about the hardest part of putting Conviction on the screen, Tony answered, “The trickiest part was for me creating the balance of casting doubt on Kenny. It was very important to me from the beginning in the way we told the story we weren’t doing this conventional thing of this is great heroine, look at this great injustice and look at how she beats the system. I wanted at a point for the audience to think ‘What a minute, he might have done it.’ To not be sure and to certainly believe that he could have. That to me was walking that balance with Kenny’s character where you fell in love with him in a way or at least understood or emphasized her love for him. At the same time you realize that he was scary, violent and not a Boy Scout. That duality in Kenny was a critical element in the story I knew that I had to be successful at that to make the movie I wanted to make. Tony was direct about casting even the smaller roles. He said, “When I first read this scene that Pamela sent me about Roseanna Perry, I thought it was such a fabulous character. Pam had written a scene where Betty Anne and Abra interview Roseanna. The scene was very good but Betty had found a tape of the real Roseanna Perry and you couldn’t believe the tape. When Pam heard the tape she threw out her scene and literally transcribed that interview into that scene. Everything that comes out of Juliette’s mouth, came out of that real persons mouth, all that syntax or lack there of. I read this and thought ‘Oh my God, whoever plays this part, which is such a great part even tough it is only two scenes, I said ‘I hope an actress will appreciate what a brilliant role this is’. The right actor will.” He met with Juliette for the role of Abra and after the meeting, he thought she would be perfect for the smaller role When the casting director wondered if Juliette would take such a small role, Tony said, “I think Juliette Lewis will appreciate what a great part it is” And within a day or two she accepted the rule. She was the only person he considered for the part “and I could not have done better.” Since many of the scenes were taken verbatim there was little fear of portraying anyone in a negative light. “We have the depositions and the public record of that happened and what was said,”explained Tony. “There is little grounds for libel.” Though he is a stage and screen actor, he never thought of giving himself a role. “I didn’t feel that I was right for anything in this movie. When I put on a director’s hat, it is about the movie, I would only cast myself if I felt that I was really suited for the part.” The film has been generating Oscar buzz for the last few months. Though Tony is grateful for the Oscar speculation, he’s truly grateful for the actors who worked on the film. “I’m thrilled that people are talking about that because it speaks to the fact that people are resonated with it.” He finished the interview by saying, “For me the movie is about the transcendent power of love. Despite what ever life throws at you, if you have that, you have everything.”

Conviction Press Tour–Betty Anne Waters

Gary Murray

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October 21, 2010

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Conviction Press Tour–Betty Anne Waters

By Gary Murray

If someone would tell you the life of Betty Anne Waters, you would think ‘How tragic’. The high school drop out was working at a bar. slinging drinks in Massachusetts. Her rough and tumble brother is accused of murder, a crime she knows he didn’t commit. In prison, after her bothers attempted suicide, she vows to get her GED, go to college, get a law degree, pass the bar and become Kenny’s attorney. Her story of freeing her brother was turned into a story on Dateline. After a few struggles the story of Betty Anne is now the Hillary Swank feature Conviction. Betty Anne was in town recently with director Tony Goldwyn and actress Juliette Lewis who appears in a small but pivotal role.

On Hillary Swank playing Betty Ann, she answered, “How lucky am I?” with a laugh. “I saw her in Boys Don’t Cry and Million Dollar Baby and I thought I’d be so lucky if she’d play me. And I got lucky.”

To get the screenplay right Betty Anne talked to Tony for fourteen hours, Pamela Gray the writer for fourteen hours and with all three for another 14 hours. “I felt like I was in therapy,” she laughed.

She is a woman with an infectious laugh and bright smile, nothing one would think a lawyer looks life. The path of Betty Anne was a long road from enrolling in community college, to passing the bar in two states. “I had to do it to keep him alive,” she said. “The worst part of my life was when my kids lived with their father. Its hard to open a book when you’re depressed.”

The film doesn’t mention it it but Kenny was killed in a car wreck a few months from his release. Said Betty, “This movie is about freedom and proving Kenny’s innocence. It is not about his death. You want to walk away from the movie feeling good that Kenny won. That’s what Kenny would have wanted.” One can tell by her voice that she loved her brother. She said, “If Kenny walked into a room you would want to just to be around him. He was a trouble maker but not that kind of a trouble maker, killing people for money.”

Sam Rockwell physically looks nothing like Kenny but Betty Anne did like his portrayal. At first she said, “How is Sam Rockwell going to be Kenny? (But) When I saw him on screen I really felt he got the many sides of my brother.” She described Kenny as a loveable person who wouldn’t walk away from a fight–not an aggressor but not afraid.

After Kenny was released, Betty Anne filed a civil suit against the police and prosecutors. “DNA evidence proved my brother was innocent and exonerated him but it didn’t prove what Nancy Taylor and the town of Ayers did to him. If I didn’t bring the civil suit, no body would have ever found out. From day one, (Investigating Officer) Nancy Taylor knew that there were bloody fingerprints in this case and that my brother was not a suspect. He was on the list of elimination. She went to the grand jury and told them there were no useable fingerprints, only fingerprints of the victim.” Then during the trial it was mentioned that a different suspect was eliminated due to fingerprints. Betty Anne added, “I’m not a genius or a scientist but I think if one person can be eliminated, everybody can be.”

Even though she’s proud of the movie, she is more proud of freeing her brother, She said “Barry Check is my hero.”

She’s seen the movie three times always through tears. “I don’t know if I’ve seen the real movie.” A scene of Kenny and Betty jumping on her grandfather’s truck was exactly like she remember it. “It brings me back like it was yesterday,” said Betty Anne.

Conviction Press Tour–Juliette Lewis

Gary Murray

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October 21, 2010

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CONVICTION PRESS TOUR–JULIETTE LEWIS

By Gary Murray

“I love to do the unexpected,” is how Juliette Lewis described her acting philosophy but the first thing one notices about her is how simply normal the woman comes across. In a cream print dress and flowing locks she looks more like a young mother than a serious actress. Known for playing challenging and dark characters, she was in Natural Born Killers, From Dusk Til Dawn and Kalifornia. Lately she has been focusing on her music career, appearing on the Warped Tour and taking small roles here and there between gigs. Juliette Lewis was recently in town to discuss her latest role of Roseanna Perry in Conviction.

The story of Conviction is of Betty Anne Waters and her brother Kenny. He is accused and convicted of a murder, a murder that Betty Anne knows he didn’t do. She goes from high school drop out to bar certified lawyer with a single goal, to prove her brother’s innocence. Her journey leads to Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project, a group of lawyers who work to overturn wrongly convicted individuals.

With DNA evidence, Kenny is proven innocent but the prosecutor will not overturn the conviction because two different women testified that Kenny admitted to committing the crime. Juliette plays Roseanna Perry, one of the women. Even though she appears in only two scenes, it is a powerful award-winning turn. The two scenes take place years apart and we see the ravages of life on Roseanna Perry, with gray skin and broken teeth.

On playing a character that is so different from standard Hollywood beauty, Juliette said, “I loved it and it is sort of what I live for. I didn’t start making movies to play myself. This is actually a unique role for me because I have never transformed so completely. There is absolutely nothing like me in the role.” She claims that she didn’t grow up with a lot of vanity and she rebels against it. “This is a real person and a real personality in our world.”

To prepare for the role, Juliette worked with a dialect coach with breaking down the accent, listening to the deposition tapes that Betty Anne obtained She also relied on Director Tony Goldwyn and his ‘director’s eyes’ to make sure she was landing in the right place.

“When doing the role, you want it to disappear,” she said. “I don’t want the audience to ever think about my accent or my aged skin and teeth. I want to integrate it all into this organic seamless character. And that is the challenge for me, ‘Can I do it?’ At the end of that big scene, you get that she is manipulative–she’s conscious of her intentions–but all within it, she bounces around. You think she’s a bit out to lunch but then you realize that’s she not. That is what is interesting about it.”

Juliette was completive on playing such a little part. “It was funny to do a role that was so small but have so much in both of those scenes. I wanted to to have such a complete presence in both places. It is an eighteen year life-span. You start with the eyes showing this damaged soul and that she’s vindictive. You meet her eighteen years later and she lives in a world of her own fiction. She is faced with her own nemesis of a person who she wronged the most. I wanted you to make sure you really got a sense of her.”

Since she was playing a real person, she wanted to be exact in the role. She said, “Everything I say in the movie, about 98% of the movie, is from transcripts and interviews she gave. The bad use of grammar and the bad use of phrases is all her. I got an idea of what kind of a mess the person is. Roseanna Perry and Nancy Taylor were not in the process of making the movie because they committed crimes, At the end of the day, I’m intuiting and I’m putting together all these ingredients and realizing the part.”

She then added, “This is one of the most unique experiences and the reason you make movies is to shine a light on such an important subject about people being wrongly convicted. We don’t often hear about this. It is also to participate in a story that has such a heart. It is a love story about family, love, faith and conviction.”

Though she never met with Roseanna Perry, Lewis said, “I like seeing the person and getting a sense of that person but you want to be true to that particular film. The writer and director are taking an eighteen year saga and putting it into two hours. It is my job to explore what a damaged, destructive soul looks like and how do they behave. That has always interested me.”

On being a working character actress she stated, “I was never conditioned to think ‘Will they like me or not? or ‘Will I be pretty? I really wanted to get into the skin of that kind of destructive personality. She’s been on a really bad destructive path. I wanted to get into that energy.” She summed up by saying, “I wanted to vibe the audience out.” The she added on, “You can illuminate many different sides of a character in a small amount of time.”

Juliette had nothing but praise for her cast. She calls Sam Rockwell as one of her favorite actors. “I was so happy” she stated, “to see him in this role.” On Hillary Swank she said, “Hillary is a force of nature because she is so committed and such a live wire. She has no vanity and her priority is her family and not Hollywood.”

Juliette doesn’t mind being on press tour, talking to reporters about her role and the Innocence Project, the Barry Scheck group of lawyers trying to use DNA evidence to free the wrongly accused. “We are all doing our part to get this film out because we all believe in it and think it is important. I am honored to be on such a great team.” She would love love to see her cast members to be acknowledged by the Academy but on her being nominated, she coyly said, “That’d be neat.”

The next couple of jobs are meatier roles and she considers this a next chapter in her life after her music career. “There are a lot of incredible filmmakers I’d love to work with and new talents.” Then she added, “I’m open to all things and all possibilities.” She is working on her own screenplay based on her life and imaginations.

Even though she is thought of for her more dangerous roles, she has a special place in her heart for one different role. “The Other Sister goes down as one of the most remarkable love filled and challenging experiences I have ever had. I wanted to do a good job and not a cliche.” She still gets responses about it to this day.

JACKASS 3D – A Review by Gary Murray

Gary Murray

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October 15, 2010

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JACKASS 3D

By Gary Murray

Starring Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, and Chris Pontius

Directed by Jeff Tremaine

Running time 100 min

MPAA Rating R

Selig Film Rating Cable

Jack Ass 3D starts with Beavis and Butthead talking to the audience and explaining how the 3-D effects are used in the film. Beavis beats Butthead and Butthead is amazed by how realistic the effects work. It is truly one of the high points of the film.

Then we meet the cast with a rainbow background. Soon they are attacked and beaten and splattered with paintballs. This is all done in real time, much like a documentary. The emphasis is to see how much pain they can inflict on each other and how funny it is to see your friends beaten and humiliated.

The opening stunt is a giant high-five hand on springs. Different members of the cast are unexpectedly hit with the artificial digits, some holding soup and some with flour. We get a series of stunts with the boys jumping into a giant pool using a slingshot and various wheeled devices. Another stunt is bee hive tetherball which is exactly as it sounds, resulting in very angry African honey bees. The most cleaver bit of stunt work happens when the guys decide to reenact the Evil Knievel stunt of jumping over the Snake River Canyon. Their mini-bike version has much the same outcome as the original.

While the majority of Jack Ass 3D is made up of dangerous stunts there are breaks of foul silliness. We get a train set diorama with a volcano and as soon as it erupts. The joke is that the volcano in someone’s backside and the exploding lava is fecal in matter. The most cleaver set up involves a midget cast starting a brawl and little people cops and tiny paramedics who arrive at the scene. The duped tall cast of the bar looked truly shocked.

There are odd bits there the guys hit each other Rocky style and in slow motion. Johnny gets run over by buffalo and clocked by an NFL player. It is backyard hi-jinks and rough house frat boy stunts that carry warnings at the front and back of the film that these stunts should not be tried at home and that the crew are professional stuntmen.

The film ends with a vile stunt of a sling shot port-a-potty full and launched into the sky. Steve-O takes the abuse like a deranged man, throwing up again and again as crap flies around his face and body. I guess no one is afraid of hepatitis in the world of Jack Ass 3D.

Jack Ass 3D is a movie for the kind of people who think that vomit and feces and urine are the three most ingenious comedy props of all time. More than once we see the cast and crew throwing up in 3-D glory. For the intended audience, frat boys and simpletons, this is comic manna. I just found the entire exercise disgusting.

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