Thursday, December 31, 2009
Nicole Kidman: The Actress of the '00s
By Michelle Orange on 12/04/2009, IFC.COM
If time is an avenger, then the Naughts have had it both ways with Nicole Kidman. In the span of a decade, Kidman was transformed from arm candy into an artist -- the rare movie star who made genuinely interesting choices -- eclipsing her ex-husband, Tom Cruise, who filed for divorce in 2000, with an Oscar win and the embrace, finally, of her peers on her own terms.
However, as the '00s limp to a close, Kidman seems to be succumbing to a personal vendetta against time: by manipulating her face into a mask -- a waxworks ideal of "Nicole Kidman" -- rather than continuing to deploy it as a functional instrument, an artist's tool, Kidman is taking perhaps the most surprising risk of her career: she has chosen to age into glacial iconicity. In this, she exemplifies a decade that treated actresses with ambivalence, waving all the flags of empowerment and agency at the post-Julia Roberts cohort, who wanted to have it all without having to play the charming prostitute, only to corral them into the same old pens: ingénue, mother, old maid.
Kidman, of course, showed signs of life during her pre-Naughts career, most notably in her 1989 breakthrough "Dead Calm," and again in "To Die For" in 1995 and "The Portrait of a Lady" in 1996. Maligned as often for her mannered, on-screen frigidity as she was dismissed for her off-screen attachment to Herr Cruise, audiences gave her her due, particularly for her turn in the Van Sant film, a blackly comic media farce, but it was grudging, as though the director had tapped into a neat utility for Kidman's innate chill and deserved most of the credit.
The Naughts: The Actress of the '00s Read more!
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
U.S Box Office: December 25-27, 2009
| # | Title | Dec 25 - 27 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | ||
| 1 | Avatar | $ 75,617,133 | -1.8 | 3,456 | 2 | $ 21,880 | $ 212,711,184 | ||
| 2 | Sherlock Holmes | 62,390,000 | 3,626 | 1 | 17,206 | 62,390,000 | |||
| 3 | Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel | 48,875,415 | 3,700 | 1 | 13,210 | 75,589,048 | |||
| 4 | It's Complicated | 22,100,820 | 2,887 | 1 | 7,655 | 22,100,820 | |||
| 5 | The Blind Side | 11,470,000 | 14.5 | 2,766 | 6 | 4,147 | 184,127,000 | ||
| 6 | Up in the Air | 11,275,000 | 251.2 | 1,895 | 4 | 5,950 | 24,038,000 | ||
| 7 | The Princess and the Frog | 9,004,610 | -26.1 | 3,475 | 5 | 2,591 | 63,679,289 | ||
| 8 | Nine | 5,452,513 | 1,412 | 2 | 3,862 | 5,830,605 | |||
| 9 | Did You Hear About the Morgans? | 5,000,143 | -24.4 | 2,718 | 2 | 1,840 | 15,600,328 | ||
| 10 | Invictus | 4,045,000 | -3.8 | 2,160 | 3 | 1,873 | 23,020,000 |
Source: Box Ofice Guru Read more!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
U.S Box Office December 18-20, 2009
| Title | Dec 18 - 20 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | |||
| 1 | Avatar | $ 77,025,481 | 3,452 | 1 | $ 22,313 | $ 77,025,481 | |||
| 2 | The Princess and the Frog | 12,185,949 | -49.7 | 3,475 | 3 | 3,507 | 44,717,721 | ||
| 3 | The Blind Side | 10,021,280 | -33.4 | 3,407 | 5 | 2,941 | 164,725,525 | ||
| 4 | Did You Hear About the Morgans? | 6,616,571 | 2,718 | 1 | 2,434 | 6,616,571 | |||
| 5 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | 4,407,598 | -44.6 | 3,035 | 5 | 1,452 | 274,598,319 | ||
| 6 | Invictus | 4,203,171 | -51.2 | 2,125 | 2 | 1,978 | 15,877,956 | ||
| 7 | A Christmas Carol | 3,443,464 | -49.6 | 2,070 | 7 | 1,664 | 130,813,354 | ||
| 8 | Up in the Air | 3,210,132 | 34.1 | 175 | 3 | 18,344 | 8,216,051 | ||
| 9 | Brothers | 2,889,121 | -42.4 | 2,009 | 3 | 1,438 | 22,350,518 | ||
| 10 | Old Dogs | 2,340,575 | -46.9 | 2,630 | 4 | 890 | 43,625,471 |
Source: Box Office Guru Read more!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
James Cameron: Terminator has run its course
"I've moved on creatively from The Terminator, so I'm not really interested in that imagery and even those ideas anymore—and I'm not sure the world is that interested either. It's run its course, I feel."
As evidence of this, he points to this summer's disappointing Terminator Salvation, which attempted to continue the series without Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"His persona was part of The Terminator, and when you uncouple those, you get Terminator Salvation, which is actually a fine film from a pure filmmaking standpoint—it just doesn't gel up into anything mind-blowing."
Some additional comments from a recent interview with Total Film
TF: What did you make of Terminator Salvation?
JC: It didn't quite have the emotional power that it should have had.I thought Sam [Worthington] was great, very powerful, and Christian [Bale]...people have criticised him for being one-note but that's part of the character.He was playing a guy who's furiously deicated to the survival of the human species.Maybe more could have been done with that.In T2 we showed the consequences.It drove Sarah insane.
TF: Was McG the man for the job?
JC: McG's a strong shooter and he honoured the iconic touchstones of the first two movies-almost too much so.I actually felt Salvation is like Aliens, in that it's a fan making a sequel to a movie they loved.
Sources: Sci Fi Wire/The Toronto Sun/Total Film #162 (King of the World: The Complete Works of James Cameron)
Read more!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
U.S Box Office December 11-13, 2009
| # | Title | Dec 11 - 13 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | ||
| 1 | The Princess and the Frog | $ 24,208,916 | 3,434 | 3 | $ 7,050 | $ 27,088,786 | |||
| 2 | The Blind Side | 15,055,258 | -24.9 | 3,388 | 4 | 4,444 | 149,816,797 | ||
| 3 | Invictus | 8,611,147 | 2,125 | 1 | 4,052 | 8,611,147 | |||
| 4 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | 7,960,394 | -48.4 | 3,635 | 4 | 2,190 | 267,320,977 | ||
| 5 | A Christmas Carol | 6,833,190 | -12.0 | 2,402 | 6 | 2,845 | 124,426,097 | ||
| 6 | Brothers | 5,014,426 | -47.4 | 2,088 | 2 | 2,402 | 17,416,217 | ||
| 7 | Old Dogs | 4,409,772 | -36.0 | 3,090 | 3 | 1,427 | 39,996,273 | ||
| 8 | 2012 | 4,351,565 | -35.7 | 2,838 | 5 | 1,533 | 155,288,405 | ||
| 9 | Armored | 3,504,374 | -46.2 | 1,919 | 2 | 1,826 | 11,750,895 | ||
| 10 | Ninja Assassin | 2,707,470 | -46.5 | 2,100 | 3 | 1,289 | 34,304,761 |
Source: Box Office Guru Read more!
Golden Globe Nominations 2010
Best Motion Picture -- Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
Up in the Air
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sadibe, Precious
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Drama
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up in the Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Tobey Maguire, Brothers
Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Sandra Bullock, The Proposal
Marion Cotillard, Nine
Meryl Streep, It's Complicated
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Julia Roberts, Duplicity
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy
Matt Damon, The Informant
Daniel Day Lewis, Nine
Robert Downey Jr., Sherlock Holmes
Joseph Gordon Levitt, (500) Days of Summer
Michael Stuhlbarg, A Serious Man
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Mo-Nique, Precious
Julianne Moore, A Single Man
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Christopher Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Best Animated Feature Film
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
The Princess and the Frog
Up
Best Foreign Language Film
Barria
Broken Embraces
A Prophet
The White Ribbon
The Maid
Best Director -- Motion Picture
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Clint Eastwood, Invictus
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds
Best Screenplay -- Motion Picture
Up in the Air
It's Complicated
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Best Original Score -- Motion Picture
Michael Giacchino, Up
Marvin Hamlisch, The Informant
James Horner, Avatar
Abel Krozeniowski, A Single Man
Karen O. and Carter Burwell, Where the Wild Things Are
Best Original Song -- Motion Picture
"I Will See You," Avatar
"The Weary Kind," The Crazy Heart
"Winter," Brothers
"Cinema Italiano," Nine
"I Want to Come Home," Everybody's Fine
TV
Best Drama: Mad Men, Dexter, House, Big Love, True Blood
Best Comedy/Musical: 30 Rock, Modern Family, Entourage, Glee, The Office
Best Actor, Drama: Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Jon Hamm (Mad Men), Simon Baker (The Mentalist), Bill Paxton (Big Love), Hugh Laurie (House)
Best Actress, Drama: Glenn Close (Damages), January Jones (Mad Men), Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Juliana Margulies (The Good Wife)
Best Actor, Comedy: Steve Carell (The Office), Alec Baldwin (30 Rock), David Duchovny (Californication), Thomas Jane (Hung), Matthew Morrison (Glee)
Best Actress, Comedy: Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie), Tina Fey (30 Rock), Courteney Cox (Cougar Town), Toni Collette (The United States of Tara), Lea Michele (Glee)
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Emerson (Lost), Jeremy Piven (Entourage), Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother), William Hurt (Damages), John Lithgow (Dexter)
Best Supporting Actress: Jane Lynch (Glee), Rose Byrne (Damages), Janet McTeer (Into the Storm), Chloe Sevigny (Big Love), Jane Adams (Hung)
Best TV Movie/Miniseries: Grey Gardens, Georgia O'Keeffe, Little Dorrit, Into the Storm, Taking Chance
Read more!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
'Avatar' Footage Impressions
Originally published on August 23, 2009
Avatar is a highly anticipated film.The reasons are obvious: it's the first J.Cameron film in more than a decade, the first since 'Titanic', it's a film, with brand-new technology, that promises to change the way we view cinema.Of course, one of the key factors to the success of 'Avatar' is its promotion.In an interesting move, a global event was organised, to promote the film, months before its release.
When i saw the first trailer, i was kind of underwhelmed, but i liked what i saw.Last Friday, it was 'Avatar' day.Almost 20 minutes of footage were shown in 3D, in cinemas around the world.I was one of the people, who saw the footage (which consists of 4 scenes, with a brief introduction by J.Cameron, and no major spoilers).I was certainly impressed.It seems that 3D is used to add depth to the image, and not as a simple gimmick.The film uses brand new technology internally developed in the director's studio, and the results are evident.You may not realise it, but most of the footage is computer-generated.The landscapes seem real, and you could say the same for the creatures and the Na' avi/Avatars.Pandora is a living, breathing world, and there were some really impressive shots.The purpose of the preview is to introduce us to the film, and to some of the characters, and this purpose is achieved.
It's going to be a long wait until December...
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Halloween II: Alternate Ending
SPOILER WARNING
Source: Horror Squad
DVD/Blu-Ray Release Date: 12/1/2010 (U.S.A), 1/2/2010 (U.K)
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Tv Schedule: December 14-18, 2009
Monday December 14
How I Met Your Mother S05E11 "Last Cigarette Ever"
The Big Bang Theory S03E11 "The Maternal Congruence"
Lie To Me S02E11 "Tractor Man"
Wednesday December 16
Nip/Tuck S06E10 "Wesley Clovis"
Friday December 18
Dollhouse S02E09 "Stop-Loss"
S02E10 "The Attic"
Read more!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Man of Extremes: The Return of James Cameron
by Dana Goodyear , New Yorker
October 26, 2009
The director James Cameron is six feet two and fair, with paper-white hair and turbid blue-green eyes. He is a screamer—righteous, withering, aggrieved. “Do you want Paul Verhoeven to finish this motherfucker?” he shouted, an inch from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face, after the actor went AWOL from the set of “True Lies,” a James Bond spoof that Cameron was shooting in Washington, D.C. (Schwarzenegger had been giving the other actors a tour of the Capitol.) Cameron has mastered every job on set, and has even been known to grab a brush out of a makeup artist’s hand. “I always do makeup touch-ups myself, especially for blood, wounds, and dirt,” he says. “It saves so much time.” His evaluations of others’ abilities are colorful riddles. “Hiring you is like firing two good men,” he says, or “Watching him light is like watching two monkeys fuck a football.” A small, loyal band of cast and crew works with him repeatedly; they call the dark side of his personality Mij—Jim backward.
The pressures on Cameron are extreme, never mind that he has brought them on himself. His movies are among the most expensive ever made. “Terminator 2” was the first film to cost a hundred million dollars, “Titanic” the first to exceed two hundred million. But victory is sweeter after a close brush with defeat. “Terminator 2” earned five hundred and nineteen million around the world, and “Titanic,” which came out in 1997, still holds the record for global box-office: $1.8 billion.
Cameron is fifty-five. It has been twelve years since he has made a feature film; “Avatar,” his new movie, comes out on December 18th and will have cost more than two hundred and thirty million dollars by the time it’s done. He started working on it full time four years ago, from a script he wrote in 1994. “Avatar” will be the first big-budget action blockbuster in 3-D; Cameron shot it using camera systems that he developed himself. He is a pioneer of special effects: the undulating water column of “The Abyss” and the liquid-silver man of “Terminator 2” helped to inspire the digital revolution that has transformed moviemaking in the past two decades. The digital elements of “Avatar,” he claims, are so believable that, even when they exist alongside human actors, the audience will lose track of what is real and what is not. “This film integrates my life’s achievements,” he told me. “It’s the most complicated stuff anyone’s ever done.” Another time, he said, “If you set your goals ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s success.”
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
U.S Box Office December 4-6, 2009
| # | Title | Dec 4 - 6 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | ||
| 1 | The Blind Side | $ 20,043,181 | -50.0 | 3,326 | 3 | $ 6,026 | $ 128,867,559 | ||
| 2 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | 15,427,628 | -64.0 | 4,124 | 3 | 3,741 | 255,363,052 | ||
| 3 | Brothers | 9,527,848 | 2,088 | 1 | 4,563 | 9,527,848 | |||
| 4 | A Christmas Carol | 7,763,244 | -50.7 | 2,546 | 5 | 3,049 | 115,249,331 | ||
| 5 | Old Dogs | 6,892,265 | -59.2 | 3,425 | 2 | 2,012 | 33,924,385 | ||
| 6 | 2012 | 6,771,665 | -61.6 | 3,220 | 4 | 2,103 | 148,958,486 | ||
| 7 | Armored | 6,511,128 | 1,915 | 1 | 3,400 | 6,511,128 | |||
| 8 | Ninja Assassin | 5,061,499 | -62.0 | 2,503 | 2 | 2,022 | 29,821,996 | ||
| 9 | Planet 51 | 4,386,873 | -57.1 | 2,904 | 3 | 1,511 | 34,052,876 | ||
| 10 | Everybody's Fine | 3,852,068 | 2,133 | 1 | 1,806 | 3,852,068 |
Source: Box Office Guru Read more!
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Tv Schedule: December 7-13, 2009
Monday December 7
Gossip Girl S03E12 "The Debarted"
How I Met Your Mother S05E10 "The Window"
The Big Bang Theory S03E10 "The Gorilla Experiment"
Tuesday December 8
Melrose Place S01E12 "San Vicente"
Wednesday December 9
Nip/Tuck S06E09 "Benny Nilsson"
Thursday December 10
Fringe S02E10 "Grey Matters"
30 Rock S04E08 "Secret Santa"
Friday December 11
Dollhouse S02E07 "Meet Jane Doe"
S02E08 "A Love Supreme"
Sunday December 13
Dexter S04E12 "The Getaway" (Season Finale)
Californication S0312 "Mia Culpa" (Season Finale)
Read more!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Matt Damon: The Actor of the '00s
By R. Emmet Sweeney on 11/30/2009 IFC.COM
Quietly and unexpectedly, Matt Damon has become the premier Hollywood actor of the past decade. He's lent his minutely constructed, surprisingly athletic performances to the films of directors Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant, Paul Greengrass, Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood, a roster that's not coincidentally produced some of the most vital and successful films of the past ten years.
His remarkable career isn't simply a matter of a good agent. It's all in the manner in which he so carefully adapts his particular skills to the roles.
Damon's commitment is displayed on his body, which he relentlessly crafts to the specifications of each character -- he's almost the anti-movie star in his physical malleability. Take a look at how he changes from "The Bourne Identity" in 2002 to the Farrelly Brothers' "Stuck On You," a year later. In the former, he carved himself down to muscle and bone, a tightly packed bundle of paranoia and frightening physicality. For the latter, he packed on a paunch, with his granite Bourne-head turned into a model of doughy affability. He managed a similar weight gain more recently between 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum" and this year's "The Informant!", and as the latter film's Mark Whitacre, he achieves his most finely modulated performance underneath layers of fat and a fake nose.
These types represent the two poles of Damon's preferred personas: withdrawn nebbishes or moody muscular specimens. The first group would include the "Ocean's" franchise, "Stuck On You," "The Good Shepherd," and "The Informant!". The second contains "All the Pretty Horses," the "Bourne" franchise, "The Departed" and the forthcoming "Invictus." "Gerry" lies somewhere in between. But each extreme utilizes his physicality, with his literally weighty roles emphasizing the slapstick and satire of uncooperative bodies instead of the precise control of his action work. Even in "The Good Shepherd," Damon buries himself in a trenchcoat and wire-rimmed glasses, eschewing parody but emphasizing his CIA analyst's passivity and hyper-intellectualism.
The Naughts: The Actor of the '00s
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Tuesday, December 1, 2009
U.S Box Office November 27-29, 2009
| # | Title | Nov 27 - 29 | % Chg. | Theaters | Weeks | AVG | Cumulative | ||
| 1 | The Twilight Saga: New Moon | $ 42,870,031 | -70.0 | 4,042 | 2 | $ 10,606 | $ 230,947,696 | ||
| 2 | The Blind Side | 40,111,364 | 17.6 | 3,140 | 2 | 12,774 | 100,238,841 | ||
| 3 | 2012 | 17,651,729 | -33.2 | 3,444 | 3 | 5,125 | 138,451,427 | ||
| 4 | Old Dogs | 16,894,511 | 3,425 | 1 | 4,933 | 24,228,546 | |||
| 5 | A Christmas Carol | 15,758,273 | 28.4 | 3,013 | 4 | 5,230 | 104,927,816 | ||
| 6 | Ninja Assassin | 13,316,158 | 2,503 | 1 | 5,320 | 21,193,565 | |||
| 7 | Planet 51 | 10,218,641 | -16.8 | 3,035 | 2 | 3,367 | 28,487,409 | ||
| 8 | Precious | 7,081,032 | -34.9 | 663 | 4 | 10,680 | 32,433,482 | ||
| 9 | Fantastic Mr. Fox | 6,965,267 | 2,033 | 3 | 3,426 | 10,024,072 | |||
| 10 | The Road | 1,502,231 | 111 | 1 | 13,534 | 1,977,453 |
Source: Box Office Guru Read more!
