Film Scenic

Ed Norton Not Doing Publicity for The Hulk Movie?

jonroth — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:37:14 +0000

Edward Norton plays Dr. Bruce Banner in the new The Incredible Hulk movie, opening Fri Jun 13, 2008. Except apparently he hasn’t been doing any publicity, and is supposedly hiding away on some island.

Mark Wahlberg Says No Funking Way to Funky Bunch Reunion

jonroth — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:05:25 +0000

Mark Wahlberg, long an established actor, says no funking way he wants to be part of any Funky Bunch reunion. He will, however, be seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s new Drama/ Sci-Fi movie The Happening, opening Fri Jun 13, 2008.

Angelina Jolie No Longer Face of St. John

jonroth — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:52:24 +0000

Angelina Jolie’s contract with clothing maker St. John has ended, and she’s being replaced with four women.

The Strangers - Movie Review

jonroth — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:38:26 +0000

Writer/Director Bryan Bertino has created a new category of film: Terror. In the IMDB database, The Strangers is listed under the genres of Action, Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller. These tags couldn’t be more wrong. What the movie’s tags should be is Terror. None of the other labels apply. Action? Are you kidding me? The movie drags on and on in the same setting static, boring setting. Mystery? Mystery suggests that for a good portion of a film, you don’t know who the perpetrators are. That’s hardly the case here. Thriller? No. As I said, Torture.

Granted there were a few instances where I jumped out of my front-row seat, this is otherwise an ugly, sadistic film. At least with Saw’s near-gratuitous violence, there really was some “reason”, and there was a story. The Strangers is pure ugliness - like experiencing a home invasion first hand - something that’s seemingly justified by the titling at the very beginning, and not so subtly echoed by the shaky camera. (I’m so damn sick of shaky cameras. It sucked for Blair Witch, sucked for Cloverfield and will suck for any other movie. Future directors: shaky cameras suck. They’re irritating and the scense DO NOT build tension.)

I rarely pan horror films because I love them good or bad, but this one made me sick. Instead of being a horror movie, it ends up being a manual for terrorizing people. The dialog seemed to be an afterthought to the torture, and the character buildup is so slow that I started to despise the lead characters as much as the asswipe villains, hoping it would be over quickly. Fortunately, The Strangers is only 86-90 minutes (varies by country), so if you dislike it as much as me, you won’t have to suffer through much.

Harry Potter Actor Robert Knox Killed

jonroth — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:30:47 +0000

Eighteen year old actor Robert Knox died after being stabbed outside a London, UK nightclub. In some reports it’s said that Knox was defending his brother from a brawl. Knox had already completed filming for his role in the next Harry Potter installment, The Half-blood Prince. He was also to have appeared in the final Harry Potter film.

Director Sydney Pollack Passes Away

jonroth — Tue, 27 May 2008 02:22:50 +0000

The NY Times is reporting that director Sydney Pollack passed away today in Los Angeles at age 73. Pollack is known for numerous movies, including The Way We Were (Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford), Tootsie (Dustin Hoffman, Jessica Lange), Out of Africa (Meryl Streep, Robert Redford), The Firm (Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn), and many others which he was part of as a cinematographer, director, producer and/or actor.

101st Birth Anniversary of Sir Laurence Olivier

raj — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:00:37 +0000

May 22nd, 2008 marks the 101st birth anniversary of another screen legend, Sir Laurence Olivier, who passed away July 11th 1989. Olivier had a long career in film and TV, spanning from 1930 (Too Many Crooks) to the year of his death (War Requiem).

Jimmy Stewart’s Birthday

raj — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:59:29 +0000

Today was Jimmy Stewart’s 100th birth anniversary.

Heath Ledger’s Birthday

jonroth — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 22:34:58 +0000

Today would have been Heath Ledger’s 31st birthday. RIP.

The Harry Potter books and movies have m …

raj — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:22:47 +0000

The Harry Potter books and movies have millions of fans, but Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (who plays an evil witch in The Chronicles of Narnia) isn’t one of them. Why? Because she seems to despise boarding schools and feels that Harry Potter “fetishizes boarding school.”