Kristin Chenoweth lured to “Temptation”
In the drama by writer-director Patrick Coyle, Chenoweth stars opposite Jeremy Sisto. Her character confesses to a priest her plans to end her life on her birthday. The priest (Sisto) then searches for her, to intervene.
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Indiana Jones managed to retrieve the trinket he was after in the opening moments of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He pretty much wrecked everything else in the ancient South American temple where the little gold idol had rested for millennia.
Though he preaches research and good science in the classroom, the world’s most famous archaeologist often is an acquisitive tomb raider in the field with a scorched-earth policy about what he leaves behind. While actual archaeologists like the guy and his movies, they wouldn’t necessarily want to work alongside him on a dig.
Indy’s bull-in-a-china-shop approach to archaeology will be on display again May 22 with “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” in which he’s sure to rain destruction down on more historic sites and priceless artifacts.
Real experts in antiquities acknowledge that the movies are pure fiction that present archaeology as blockbuster adventure, yet they cannot help but cringe at the way Indy manhandles the ancient world.
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In Focus: Film companies
“Speed Racer” couldn’t knock “Iron Man” down over the weekend, as the metal superhero remained atop the box office heap and the cartoon adaptation crashed with a disappointing gross.
“Iron Man,” which stars Robert Downey Jr. as the title hero, was the top-grossing movie, with a haul of $50.5 million. That was down from $100.7 million in its first weekend, but still far more than the competition. “Iron Man” was producer by Marvel Entertainment Inc. and distributed by Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures.
Time Warner Inc.’s “Speed Racer,” based on the popular cartoon and directed by the Wachowski brothers pulled in $20.2 million. That was a disappointing result for the film, which Deutsche Bank analyst Doug Mitchelson said cost about $120 million to make.
Those costs were split between Time Warner and Australian media company Village Roadshow, Mitchelson said, but because reviews and test screenings were largely negative, the costs of the film may have already been partly written off.
Ingrid Chung of Goldman Sachs had said she expected “Speed Racer” to make around $30 million over the weekend. She expected the Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz comedy “What Happens in Vegas” to make about $20 million, and the movie did end up with a gross of $20 million.
Mitchelson said “Vegas” cost only $35 million to make. The movie is being distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp.
Sony Corp.’s romantic comedy “Made of Honor” made $7.6 million.
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Aniston and Mayer’s Miami Heat
Forget the humidity. Things appear to getting downright hot between John Mayer and Jennifer Aniston.
According to eyewitnesses, the new couple couldn’t seem to keep their hands off of each other while swimming at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Miami.
“They were swimming and sitting out at the pool on Saturday for more than three hours,” an eyewitness tells E! “They looked like they were completely into each other. She put her arm around him while they were in the pool. It was intimate. They both looked so happy.”
And unlike with other dates, Aniston was not interested in hiding her new man.
“They were in full view of everyone at the pool,” the eyewitness tells E! “They weren’t trying to hid it.”
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Marvel rolling in cash, many more movies to come
Despite Marvel’s attempt to shut down our Iron Man screening in SF last week, I have nothing but good things to say about them. Well, Marvel Studios to be exact. If you haven’t seen Iron Man yet than something is seriously wrong with you or you have way too many commitments. It was hands-down the best comic book-based movie I have ever seen and I LOVE Batman. Batman Begins was fantastic, but it doesn’t hold a torch to what Marvel Studios was able to do with Iron Man. My faith in comic book related movies has been fully restored. I do have high hopes for the next Batman movie, though.
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Iron Man was awesome! This has got to be the most overall-enjoyable superhero movie I have seen in a long time — and there have been quite a few good ones in the last couple of years to measure it up against.
But really — it was great. I had so much fun I want to go back and see it again. And again. And again.
Iron Man is an unusual superhero movie in a number of ways. For one thing, its main character isn’t exactly super. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. — who is just perfect for the role, by the way) doesn’t have any special powers (unless you count being really smart and good at making stuff), and he definitely has his share of flaws. Nor is he a particularly sympathetic character, at least at the beginning. No mild-mannered reporter or millionaire philanthropist here — this guy runs a weapons company… and not a very responsible one, either. Besides which, he’s kind of a conceited jerk.
Personally, my philosophy on weapons of any variety is that you should never use (or, for that matter, design) anything you would not want to be on the receiving end of, so (like most everybody else in the theatre) I wasn’t too upset when Stark got blasted out of his Humvee (or “fun-vee,” as he called it, as opposed to a “hum-drum-vee”) and dragged off into an underground hide-out by scary Afghani bad guys. I couldn’t think of anybody I would rather see captured by unscrupulous cave-dwelling guerilla terrorists.
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J.J. Abrams says his forthcoming Star Trek prequel will appeal to fans of movies, though not necessarily to fans of the long-running television and movie franchise.
In an interview with the Associated Press, the Cloverfield producer said the feasibility of any future Star Trek films may depend on attracting a new generation of fans to the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) was a resounding box office flop, a fate Abrams hopes to avoid when his Star Trek hits theaters in 2009 by returning to the series’ roots. Of course, he’ll also toss in a few special effects.
“[Directing Star Trek] was an opportunity to take what I think has been a maligned world—to sound crass, a franchise—and treat it in a way that made it something that I wanted to see,” Abrams told the AP. “To take the characters, the thoughtfulness, the personalities, the sense of adventure, the idea of humanity working together, the sense of social commentary and innovation, all that stuff. To take it and apply it in a way that felt genuinely thrilling.”
While Abrams said he would also like to retain die-hard fans of the Star Trek universe (and was sure to include a dedicated “Trekker” on his writing staff) he didn’t want the fans’ expectations to influence his vision for the upcoming film. “You can’t really make a movie for them,” he said. “As soon as you start to guess what you think they are going to want to see, you’re in trouble. You have to make the movie in many ways for what you want to see yourself, make a movie you believe in. Then you’re not second-guessing an audience you don’t really have an understanding of.”
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“Speed Racer” starring Emile Hirsch comes out May 9. It’s one of many movies being released this summer that makes Flint Journal columnist Ed Bradley relive his long-lost youth.
As a newly minted 50-year-old, I expect to feel more than a few twinges of nostalgia as I relive my long-lost youth at the movies this summer.
I’ll recall good times devouring comic books about Batman, Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk. Watching “Get Smart” and “Speed Racer” on TV. Rooting for Indiana Jones to outrun the boulder in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Sitting through a Will Ferrell movie that was actually funny (well, maybe that wasn’t as long ago as it seems).
Who needs new ideas for summer flicks when you can regurgitate old ones? The patented seasonal mix of comedies, action sagas, remakes and sequels returns for 2008, but perhaps with a firmer nod to the past than ever.
Understand, of course, that “summer” for Hollywood includes May, so the blockbuster season is just under way, with special evening screenings Thursday preceding today’s full-day opening of “Iron Man.”
The $135-million film is a bit of a gamble, with the offbeat casting of Robert Downey Jr. as the second-tier Marvel Comics hero, but advance buzz has been favorable.
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The summer movie season is officially here. How do I know? Because Robert Downey Jr. is donning a big ol’ robot suit and blowing stuff up in “Iron Man,” which opens in theaters tonight.
I caught the movie a couple of nights ago and can report that, despite a few preposterous plot developments, it’s pretty darn entertaining, thanks largely to Downey’s nuanced portrayal of hero Tony Stark. I also can report that “Iron Man” is chock full of product placements.
Seriously, forget those stimulus checks: Through the power of subliminal suggestion, “Iron Man” could very well fire up the economy again, forcing consumers to buy cars and computers they didn’t even know they wanted.
Here is a list of a few of the brands getting an “Iron” boost:
Tony guns it in an Audi R8, a sleek little number that even makes non-car people like me want to take a test drive. And at $110,000, it’s totally affordable!
In the Mac vs. PC debate, Stark falls on the PC side — his servers are Dell.
Iron Man never needs to ask, “Can you hear me now?,” not only because it’s SUPER LOUD whenever he starts stomping around, but also because his LG phone appears to be a member of the Verizon network.
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CinemaNow Allows Movie Rentals Via Cell Phone
For those who really, really like to plan ahead, the Web-based movie service CinemaNow has introduced a mobile feature that allows you to use your Web-enabled cell phone to download movies.
Not to your cell phone, though. No, the service called CinemaNow Mobile allows you to use your phone to download movies to your computer at home, provided that computer has the CinemaNow Media Manager up and running on it. According to the service’s FAQ section, “On CinemaNow Mobile you can browse the same CinemaNow video selection, watch trailers, make purchases and have the video download at any of your PC’s.”
Cool, But is it Practical?
CinemaNow’s logic for using the service goes like this:
“Let’s say you’re at the bus station or at a friend’s house, thinking about what to watch tonight when you get back home. Once you bought and sent your video to your home PC via your phone, it will be there for you waiting to be watched when you get back.”
Maybe it’s just me, but that’s one of the last things I’m thinking about at the bus station. And if I was bored enough at a friend’s house to be using my phone to order movies to my computer, it’s probably time for that friend and I to re-evaluate where we’re at as far as friendships go.
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