Posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 by Angie Han
Wes Anderson fans eagerly awaiting Moonrise Kingdom — his first directorial effort since 2009′s Fantastic Mr. Fox, and his first live-action feature since 2007′s The Darjeeling Limited — can officially banish any worries that the hipster-prep auteur has lost his touch. Following the film’s world premiere at Cannes, the vast majority of reviews have been somewhere between “mostly positive” and “utterly glowing.” As with any movie, there are the occasional naysayers, but even the less enamored seem to agree that Anderson diehards will find the filmmaker doing exactly what he does best here.
Co-written by Anderson and Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom follows the chaos that erupts in a sleepy New England island town in the 1960s when two adolescents (Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward) decide to run away together. The top-shelf adult supporting cast includes Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, and of course, Anderson staples Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray. Read the early reactions after the jump.
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The expectations are sky-high for Alfonso Cuarón‘s Gravity, the director’s first film since 2006′s Children of Men. In fact, between the A-list cast (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney), its intriguing sci-fi premise, its ambitious long shots, and gushing praise from colleagues like Guillermo del Toro, we have plenty of reason to believe the film could be his most brilliant yet. On the other hand, this wouldn’t be the first time we’ve been dead wrong about a movie this early on.
This week in Pasadena, Gravity had its first test screening, and while the cut was apparently very rough, audiences saw enough to form some strong opinions about it. From here, it sounds like it could be this year’s Tree of Life — gorgeous, innovative, worthy of acclaim, and perhaps a little divisive. Hit the jump to see some reactions.
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Now that a bunch of people have seen the summer’s first blockbuster, The Avengers, our eyes wander down the calendar to the summer’s second weekend: May 11. There’s just one wide release that day (likely because studios were still afraid of Marvel’s team up) and it’s Tim Burton‘s Dark Shadows starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bohnam Carter and Michelle Pfeiffer. Since the release of the trailer, fan interest has piqued as the film seems to be a return to the Burton of old, a frightening setting filled with weirdness and humor ala Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands.
Do Burton and Depp succeed in that aim? Entertainment Weekly senior writer Anthony Breznican has seen the movie and tweeted some thoughts over the weekend. Check out his tweets after the jump. Read More »
The world premiere of Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers happened tonight in Hollywood. We recorded a video blog reaction after the screening which we’ll be posting in addition to a couple full reviews from various members of the /Film team. But any long form reviews are embargoed until later — at this moment they are saying May 2nd, but I’d bet that will be moved up. We were allowed to tweet our reactions after the screening. I have compiled a round-up of all the tweets I could find, which includes the usual LA film journalists and a few of the geek celebrities who attended the premiere.
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Posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 by Angie Han
On the one hand, Universal’s Battleship looks, frankly, kinda stupid. It’s an adaptation of a Hasbro toy, along the same lines as Michael Bay’s dumb (but occasionally fun) Transformers franchise, and early spots and footage did nothing to suggest it’d be anything more than an uninspired, cynical cash grab.
On the other, there’s some promising talent both in front of and behind the camera: Friday Night Lights director Peter Berg at the helm and his Friday Night Lights stars Taylor Kitsch and Jesse Plemons in the cast, plus Liam Neeson, Alexander Skarsgard, Hamish Linklater, and Liam Neeson. And while I wouldn’t go so far as to say the film looked smart, I respected that it seemed perfectly aware of what it was — mindless popcorn entertainment, no more and no less.
But all of that ambivalence was based more on the marketing team’s efforts than on the film itself. Now that the first early reviews are rolling out, however, we’re getting a much better sense of what, exactly, Berg is offering us next month. Read all about Battleship‘s early buzz after the jump.
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Just over a week ago, Lionsgate held an early press-invited screening for The Hunger Games in LA. Attendees were thoroughly bound by NDA and embargo, but today some of those constraints were lifted. That means that the people who’ve seen the film so far are allowed to talk on Twitter about the film, though they can’t yet post full reviews.
After the break, we’ve got a roundup of twitter reactions from people who’ve started talking about the film. So far, it’s all very positive. Could Lionsgate and director Gary Ross have really hit the bullseye with this post-apocalyptic adaptation? Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 by Angie Han
One film I’ve been decidedly mixed on is John Carter, Andrew Stanton‘s live-action debut. Much as I love the talent involved — stars Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, etc., screenwriter Michael Chabon, and of course Stanton — I haven’t loved the footage we’ve seen of it so far. But trailers, clips, and Super Bowl spots only tell us so much, and some of the buzz from the early screenings have made the project sound a bit more promising. Hit the jump for more.
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When people think of 1999 movies, titles like Fight Club, The Matrix and Being John Malkovich are just a few of the influential titles mentioned. One that regularly gets overlooked is American Pie, which not only was a massive hit, it launched a franchise, multiple catchphrases and the careers of several actors. It’s now 13 years later and 2012, once again, has a very impressive set of films coming out and, once again, American Reunion is getting overlooked. The fourth theatrical Pie film returns the entire cast for their 10 year high school reunion and will be released on April 6.
The film test screened earlier this week in New York and Los Angeles and fans took to Twitter to voice their opinions. What did they think? They loved it. Read some early buzz after the jump. Read More »
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