A Present From The Easter Bunny

Since I wore the damn costume yesterday at work, entertained some kids, made some parents happy, impressed my bosses and genuinely enjoyed myself (fuck it, I love kids dude) I figured I'd continue the spirit of things today, and drop a present down onto you fools.

And yes, I made it maself, son.

                                                                                                                                                            Click for larger image

Alexis Bledel Is Violet In 'Violet & Daisy'

As I previously reported, Violet & Daisy is being shot by Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious), who also wrote the script based on his own original idea.

And it seems the cast of this awesome idea is now rounded out. Via Movieweb, Alexis Bledel is in, supposedly as Violet.

Saoirse Ronan And James Gandolfini 2/3's of 'Violet & Daisy'

Violet & Daisy is a teenage hit girls movie about, well, a pair of teenage hit girls. Via /Film Writer and recent Oscar winner for his adp. screenplay for Precious, Geoffrey Fletcher, has penned the script and will step into the shoes of a first time director as well.

Gandolfini and Ronan are the only two confirmed for the project, with two rumored actresses taking the part of the other teenage killer.

Joie' De Vivre On Celliloid: District 9

Sharlto Copley plays the South African with no real street smarts and a smokin' wife, Wikus van der Merwe. He gives us a real character with thoughts, feelings, functions, and a working brain. A brain that reasons and eventually steers him away from earlier, poorer, and less kind and understanding thoughts and default answers to his situations. Or maybe it's because he has no choice but to pair up with an alien buddy and take the control back in his life?

Here is my review on the Sci-Fi/drama/black comedy/action/thriller/political/morality-tale film, District 9.

A Review: Harry Brown

"To them out there, it's just, entertainment. . ."

Michael Caine is easily, without a doubt, indisputably, an actor not only in his prime, but the incarnate of a performer's dedication and the ease of realism we all strive for in our roles. The kind of power Sir Caine possesses has been swimming through his veins since his emergence in the 60's and hasn't ever let him down. 

And Harry Brown is a very well placed example of just that. 

Daniel Barber, the British born director coming hot off his 2008 Oscar nomination for his 35 minute short film, The Tonto Woman , a western. I've yet to see this film, entirely, but from what I've watched so far, the guy followed his footsteps and formula from Tonto and bought that beauty and subtly to Brown.

   

This film starts off with the initiation (via cell phone footage, we're officially in 2010) of a new gang member. Which means he has to get high as fuck and tote a gun around, then use it on someone, completely random. They eventually choose someone in broad daylight, single mom, complete with stroller and a 2 year old son inside it. She gets a few bullets to the face and they speed off on the bike, only to get hit by an oncoming truck. The video phone spills into the street, filming the mess left behind. The next morning Harry Brown's eyes open, head drollfully resting on the pillows, as the news reports the story on his radio. This is the daily life around him, and pretty much how it really goes in that section of England today.

Harry's only attachments to a life with love and comfort are his dying wife, and his longtime mate, Leonard Attwell (David Bradley). They spend their days in the local pub, playing chess attempting to speak of things lite in topic. The pub is run by Sid, a man taking kickbacks from the local punks who run guns and drugs around the way. Harry chooses to ignore this, Leonard however, has extreme distaste. Harry is the man who regularly takes the longer routes to avoid the worst of his part of town. This also causes him to miss his wife's last minutes, afraid to pass under the tunnel. After the funeral Leonard revels to him he cannot take it and shows him a giant ass bayonet from WWI. Seriously it was huge (that's what she said). The next day, the police arrive at Harry's doorstep to inform him Leonard was murdered the previous night. That's now 2/2 the thugs have taken from Harry. Completely destroyed, Harry eventually snaps after a heavy night of drinking. On the way home, his muscle memory from the Royal Marines kicks in and he turns a knife on a local punk attempting to rob him. There is now no turning back and Harry decides to rid the whole area of them all.

Michael makes us cry, ponder and feel invigorated with power and finesse. Daniel Barber's approach to this film was real, scary, and grity. A 21st century English Death Wish, only better. Caine doesn't go out of his way to look cool, or perform some silly stunt. His age bleeds through all his heroics like a mustard stain on a white shirt. He is not that fast, he not that strong. But make no mistake, Harry Brown is still sharper than every knife at the store. 

Emily Mortimer plays "Mom" Detective Inspector from the department of redundancy, Alice Frampton. D.I. Frampton slowly starts to realize that the sad, lonely widower she's come into contact with might be none other than the catalyst behind the escalating violence, fear, and thug hits around the bend. Mortimer's pain for Harry's losses and newly secluded lifestyle is brought to life, in just the right sort of way a cop with a heart should do it. I sorta of thought of Mariska Hargitay from S.V.U., where at times, she feels the morality in the crimes and losses of the stories, just enough. 

This film gives us the feeling that the very real violence that exist on the streets of the Elephant And Castle housing estate can be brought into our own living rooms and we either fight or fold under the pressure. Harry fought, and Michael gave us something special to prove why he's the not just a Knight, but a king as well. 

Munki Out.

Helen Mirren Added To Russell Brand 'Arthur' Remake

The '81 Oscar winning film Arthur, is being remade with Russell Brand set to star in title role that had Dudley Moore almost winning an Academy Award and Steve Gordon, picking up a best screenplay nod.


And now the great, the wonderful, the ever lovable and stupendous British actress Helen Mirren, is being added the cast as his longtime nanny/valet/driver. John Gielgud won the gold statue for the role in the original. So I'm sure she see's the capabilities to succeed in this role. 


In the original, Arthur turned to Hobson the butler (Gielgud) for advice after his family threatened to cut off his inheritance if he did not marry a woman he didn't love.


We'll see how this plays out. I've heard rumblings that Modern Family episode director Jason Winer could be helming the project. 

The original movie centered on a boozy playboy who is set to inherit a fortune if he marries an heiress his family thinks will make something out of him. However, he falls in love with a working-class woman and turns to his valet for help when his family makes him choose between money and love. The script is set scribbled by Peter Baynham. Baynham was a writer on Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat and Bruno. The start date for principle photography is set for July in New York City. 

Be keeping tabs on this potential Oscar bait. Looks like the Warner Bros. is trying to keep the remake in the same vein of prestige as the original did, maybe better? 


Munki Out.

Aronofsky Directing Wife Weisz In 'Jackie' Onassis Biopic

Recently this project simply titled Jackie, has been getting the pre-work done on it to become an HBO special movie, with none other than Steve Spielberg behind it all, ushering it in and producing from a script by Noah Oppenheim based on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. But now it would seem, Steve isn't involved and HBO is not the medium they want to release this thing on.

/Film is reporting that Darren Aronofsky (Requiem For A Dream, The Wrestler, Hopefully the Robocop Remake) is planning on directing and produce for his company Protozoa Pictures. 





And better yet, he's also using his lovely, wonderful, beautiful, talented, precise and Academy Award winning wife as the first lady.  

The screenplay centers on the Jackie O’ perspective on the four days immediately after the assassination and before the burial of her husband, President John F. Kennedy. Entertainment Weekly says that the story shows “the beloved Kennedy at both her most vulnerable and her most graceful.” 

If the world was perfect, Aronofsky, would use the peril and anguish and media scrutiny "choking the first lady out" in the form of his Requiem devices and the solitude and dreariness and heart-tugging sympathy in the ways of Wrestler. But we'll see what he does, he loves his wife very much, you can tell that much from watching The Fountain. But either way, these two always give you something you didn't know and you wanted and everything you did. So I'm excited about the film, and this is my official pick for any major Oscars. These two don't fuck up, ever, so it should be interesting to see them, hopefully, stomp out competition. I'll be backing it. 

Anymore news on this ofd course I'll be reporting it.

Munki Out.

Another George Clooney Photo From Anton Corbijn's 'The American'

Anton Corbijn gave us a great biopic about Joy Division back in '07, very appropriately titled Control. And more specifically, about Ian Curtis, the front man, beautifully underplayed by English Badass Sam Riley. Their brand of dark indie rock is habitually compared to the sound of bands such as Echo & The Bunnymen, Interpol, and The Editors. But anyway, as I finish digressing yet again, another photo has been released of The American, starring George Clooney and directed by Anton Corbijn.

And Wait! There's more!

A Review: What Goes Up, Must Come Down, But Not This Film

In recent years, there isn't many directors who can say their movies went 3/3 out of the gate. Now, Jason Reitman (son of Ivan Reitman) didn't grab any Academy nod's for 2006's Thank You For Smoking, but that doesn't mean that he didn't grab the attention of everyone or it wasn't a great film. Then he hit it big with Juno in '07 with a best director nod. And now he's done it again with Up In The Air and pulled of well deserved Best Pic, Director and Adapted Screenplay nod's. 

Rietman is quickly establishing himself as the go-to for mainstream dramedys that don't suck. And for films that will stick with us, and always leave a lasting impression. Here is my review on a film that actually deserves it's Best Pic nod.

A Review: From Blog To Blister, I Mean Uh, Blockbuster (Actually It Wasn't A Blockbuster, I Just Typed That Cuz It Rhymed)

Julie & Julia opens in France, 1949 as a car is being lowered from of a ship into the country. We watch as the blue (Ford?) travels down the tree-lined countryside road on it's way to Paris. And then we hear them, the first words Julia Childs bellows out in a painstaking attempt to learn the beautiful French language. We knew that this is Meryl doing what she does best: the real thing, no cheap imitations, only transcendentals of self to character.

A Review: This Villiage Is An Underated, Misunderstod Place To Live

Yesterday a friend of mine told me how disappointing he thought that The Village was and how bad it was and blah blah blah, he pissed all over this thing. But I myself had only watched it the one time I dragged my mother to see it when it came out in theaters. So I decided to see how I felt after a few more years, a few more hairs on my face, and some more acquired knowledge of film. I just finished watching an copy and these are my sentiments of said film.

I was four years old when my mother bought me my first video tape and I saw the my first live action film (not counting Godzilla movies of course). Needless for me to say, that film was what did for me. You could have stuck a fork in me right then and there. And ever since, I've been following and pouring my heart, soul, and brain into film. So I say to you, with eighteen years of film scrutinizing, The Village is an extraordinary piece of film making and a true experience. All you need to obtain this outlook I have captured is to sit back, open your mind, and un guard your heart.

Why there's 10 of 'em now (Probably)

There's ten of these things in one category now?
Damn son.

HMMM.... I WONDER WHY? I SAY ALOUD IN FRONT OF TOM SHERAK (President of the AMPAS) AND THE REST WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA. Is it because Wall-E and The Dark Knight got a bukkake of shit worse than the worst German porn? I believe it is. Usually when films get snubbed out for best pic, the Academy doesn't get the kind of backlash it got that January. They practically got out there rain coats and umbrellas and tried looking for George Clooney in wake of how big that shit storm was boy-o.

Why have they all of a sudden, after sixty five years of doing it five's company, are they now going with the ten's a crowd decision? Probably because last years awards was the ALL TIME low for the ceremony and they need to do something before the Nielsen people step in and slap them up. But it does beg the first question: Are there really ten films out there even worthy of it? No. Maybe there are ten, sometimes there's more (but those don't get the marketing and promotion they deserve 'cuz studios can be XL bags of douche). I'll agree with ten real good ones, but after the nitpicking's done with, you just get back down to five, seven maybe.

I mean, doesn't it kind of sound like, "We're going with the top five best candidates for this position. Uh... Well... that is unless a whole bunch of people around the country get super pissed about two other dudes and/or chicks who should have also been in the running. And then we'll just open it up to hell, why not five more people who now will get blown up ego's and undeserving recognition while others get smudged out for the press of the whole debacle! Yeah!"

We'll have to wait and see how this turns out. I've seen four out of ten, and have the other six in pipe ready for me to watch and review the shit out of. So stayed tuned for more. Then I'll get back on the track of which of the ten does and does not deserve arguably the most coveted spot in film for the past eighty three years.

This guy's got the idea. I follow his stuff every now and then, he knows what's up. http://boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2666&p=.htm