Paramount Pictures has begun to screen Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Lovely Bones, and reviews have begun to appear online. Lets take a look at some quotes from the early reviews:
Todd McCarthy at Variety: “Peter Jackson’s infatuation with fancy visual effects mortally wounds The Lovely Bones.” …. “Jackson undermines solid work from a good cast with show-offy celestial evocations that severely disrupt the emotional connections with the characters.” … “As the story progresses — in a way that points to resolution in one sense and a simple petering out in another — it becomes clear that the actors are being deprived of any meaty, well-developed scenes to play; we learn more about them early on than toward the end, making this a film of slowly diminishing returns.”
Kirk Honeycutt at The Hollywood Reporter: “Peter Jackson transforms Alice Sebold’s startling, unique novel about the aftermath of a terrible murder into a story more focused on crime and punishment.” … “[Jackson] has changed the focus and characters to such a significant degree that his film might resonate more with those who have not read the book.” … “The film certainly plays well enough as a melodrama-cum-revenge thriller. ” … “it’s also a simpler, more button-pushing tale that misses the joy and heartbreak of the original. ”
More after the jump.
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Posted on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 by David Chen
This week, Dave Chen, Devindra Hardawar and Adam Quigley celebrate Fight Club’s 10th anniversary by diving into the film’s newly released Blu-Ray, praise Park Chan-Wook’s Thirst, express ambivalence about the upcoming Uncharted film, and dissect the Twilight phenomenon as best they can. Special guest Jen Yamato joins us these evening.
You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. Join us next Monday at 9 PM EST / 6 PM PST at Slashfilm’s live page as we review The Fantastic Mr. Fox.
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Ever since Platinum Dunes released a teaser image for their remake A Nightmare on Elm Street was released, horror fans have been trying to get a better glimpse of Jackie Earle Haley in the burn-victim make-up. The teaser trailer offered a bit more, as did some of the toys (although they were more cartoonish in appearance).
This new photo, released in a Figures.com interview with NECA’s Randy Falk, shows a highly detailed figure that NECA is producing in conjunction with the release of the new movie. While it is just a figure, it does give you a much better look at what we can expect from the new Freddy. Full image after the jump.
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Here’s another comics property that Francis Lawrence is said to be developing into a feature film, alongside the future-fied Sgt. Rock. If it comes to fruition, In the Small will be an adaptation of the Michael Hague graphic novel about an odd phenomenon called”the blue flash”, a kind of explosive cataclysm that shrinks any humans, and only humans, caught in its blast to 1/12 scale, as per a 6″ GI Joe. As far as I can tell from the info available online, the story focuses on a pair of the survivors, the teenaged siblings Mouse and Beat, who embark on separate quests while trying to survive a suddenly alien world filled with fresh dangers - ie. house cats, I’d guess.
Stories about man being removed from a position of privilege at the top of the food chain, be it by security breaches at the Dinosaur theme park, alien invasion or miniaturisation, are always rich with potential, I think. Unfortunately, a great deal of them fail to really get into the rich and resonant ideas lurking below the surface well enough. Time for another try, Hollywood.
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Stephen King has been letting a lot of juicy news tidbits slip while making book tour appearances. His latest admission is almost unbelievable. While appearing at Toronto’s Canon Theatre, King dropped the bombshell during his on stage interview with director David Cronenberg that he began working on a sequel to The Shining last summer.
That’s right… a SEQUEL to THE SHINING.
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In Happy Gilmore, Adam Sandler (who plays the title character) uses an unorthodox golf swing in an attempt to win the Tour Championship so that he can win the money needed to save his grandmother’s home. While it may be against traditional “golf etiquette”, it is actually perfectly legal to use the “Happy Gilmore shot” on the golf course… but you might want to consider the possible civil liability involved.
The Hollywood Reporter’s law blog THR Esq. reports on a 2008 case where a man wasfound liable for injuries caused after he drunkenly used the Gilmore swing, which is described by the court as “running from five to ten feet behind the ball and hitting it on the run.” Apparently, a Supreme Court judge from Nova Scotia Canada ruled that the swing “breaches a duty of care” meaning the swing presents risks to the players that aren’t natural to the game. It is unclear if the swing would not be considered a breach of “duty of care” if the golfer had not been intoxicated. The plaintiff was awarded $75,000 for lost earning capacity the resulted from the injury sustained for the swing.
Dimension Films has released the second trailer for the big screen adaptation of C. D. Payne’s epistolary novel Youth in Revolt. Michael Cera stars in this “irreverent story about the wild adventures of a teenage boy named Nick Twisp who meets the girl of his dreams while on a family vacation and has to turn his life and the lives of all those around him upside down in order to be with her.” Newcomer Portia Doubleday plays Sheeni Saunders, and the film also features Steve Buscemi, Zack Galifianakis, and Ray Liotta.
I had a chance to see this film at the Toronto Film Festival, and its quite good. The new trailer is a bit over the top, filled with horrible voice over and a bunch of songs that don’t quite fit. Watch the new trailer now after the jump, and leave your thoughts in the comments below.
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This morning, The Muppets released a high definition viral parody of Queen’s classic song “Bohemian Rhapsody“. The video, which features over 40 Muppet characters, coincides with the release of Queen’s new album. If you haven’t seen the video yet (its been spreading rapidly around the interwebs all morning), click after the jump.
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You know there’s a new Tron film (Tron Legacy) coming out next year, and so it should be no great leap to realize that Disney will be flogging a new video game at the same time. Can’t get too upset about that if it’s anything like 2003’s Tron 2.0, which was pretty damn good. We haven’t seen much of the game so far, but it seems to be called simply Tron (bit confusing; expect that to change) and there’s a brief teaser online as part of the promotion for yet another SpikeTV awards show.
Why do you care? Stands to reason that the new game will suggest what we’ll see in the new film, and there are a couple of designs in the teaser that might be new to you. Seeing them in motion is definitely new. Check out the clip after the break. Read More »
Sony hasn’t yet announced the development of a Zombieland sequel, but with a worldwide budget of over $85 million, it is likely only a matter of time. Moviehole has an interview with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer, who revealed that not only is Sony interested in a sequel, but if they can “crack” the story for a sequel, it will probably be shot in 3D. Fleischer believes that “the genre really lends itself to [3-D]“, and is convinced the technology is now there. And who wouldn’t want to see a fun 3D zombie film?
As for the sequel, who knows when it might get off the ground. Fleischer has a bunch of potential projects lined up, and the screenplay hasn’t even been written, although there are plenty of ideas. As you probably know by now, Zombieland was conceived as a television pilot, and was rewritten to fill a feature film. Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick told io9 in October that they already planned a “23 episode season” out, “So divided by two that’s about 12 movies in our head swimming around.” … “And we’ll take what we intended to be episode three of the television show and start movie number two.”
