Plot: Wendy Darling, a young girl afraid to leave her childhood home behind, meets Peter Pan, a boy who refuses to grow up. Alongside her brothers and a tiny fairy, Tinker Bell, she travels with Peter to the magical world of Neverland. There, she encounters the evil pirate Captain Hook and embarks on a thrilling and dangerous adventure that will change her life forever.
Review: In their seemingly neverending quest to refresh their animated IP with live-action remakes, Disney thought they would find luck by bringing auteur David Lowery back after his updated take of Pete’s Dragon to tackle a new Peter Pan feature film. Where Lowery imbued Pete’s Dragon, a less familiar title in the overall Disney canon, with realistic characters and emotionally grounded storytelling, his Peter Pan & Wendy is a rote remake that sticks pretty close to the 1953 original. While the more problematic elements from the classic animated film have been replaced,...
Review: In their seemingly neverending quest to refresh their animated IP with live-action remakes, Disney thought they would find luck by bringing auteur David Lowery back after his updated take of Pete’s Dragon to tackle a new Peter Pan feature film. Where Lowery imbued Pete’s Dragon, a less familiar title in the overall Disney canon, with realistic characters and emotionally grounded storytelling, his Peter Pan & Wendy is a rote remake that sticks pretty close to the 1953 original. While the more problematic elements from the classic animated film have been replaced,...
- 4/28/2023
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
There is something fitting about the fact that a charming adventure story about a boy that never grows up who leads a cadre of children wishing to remain similarly youthful and carefree forever gets remade in one form or another every decade or so. It speaks to the fact that the desire to avoid adulthood and remain unmoored and childlike forever remains as strong as ever, if not stronger. At the same time, it reveals our seeming inability to understand fully why the story is so resonant. Every time the story is told, you can feel the creator struggling with the material, wrestling with its meaning, imparting in the story their own beliefs and fears.
Director David Lowery, who has spent the last decade building an aesthetically and thematically similar but tonally diverse oeuvre, is a perfect modern match for this material. His works have explored heartache and loneliness and...
Director David Lowery, who has spent the last decade building an aesthetically and thematically similar but tonally diverse oeuvre, is a perfect modern match for this material. His works have explored heartache and loneliness and...
- 4/28/2023
- by Brian Roan
- The Film Stage
Peter Pan & Wendy, David Lowery’s humanizing interpretation of J.M. Barrie’s existential classic about the boy who refuses to grow up, speaks more to the inner child of jaded adults than it does to actual kids. This version of the fairytale grounds the fundamental wistfulness of the original tale with empathetic backstories and takes care to remedy the original’s overt racism and latent sexism.
Despite criticisms lodged at Lowery (The Green Knight) in the months leading up to this film’s release on Disney+, Peter Pan & Wendy keeps much intact. Lowery and his co-writer Toby Halbrooks have a firm grasp on the enduring qualities of Barrie’s story, which, as they correctly suggest throughout the film, has nothing to do with whether or not the gang of Lost Boys includes girls. Their rendition teases out the conflicts between Peter and Wendy, diversifies the mythic leader’s ragtag group...
Despite criticisms lodged at Lowery (The Green Knight) in the months leading up to this film’s release on Disney+, Peter Pan & Wendy keeps much intact. Lowery and his co-writer Toby Halbrooks have a firm grasp on the enduring qualities of Barrie’s story, which, as they correctly suggest throughout the film, has nothing to do with whether or not the gang of Lost Boys includes girls. Their rendition teases out the conflicts between Peter and Wendy, diversifies the mythic leader’s ragtag group...
- 4/28/2023
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Disney Plus has released a new trailer for its forthcoming Peter Pan movie.
Peter Pan & Wendy is a forthcoming live-action reimagining of the 1911 Jm Barrie novel and the 1953 animated classic.
It stars Alexander Molony as the mischievous young boy and Ever Anderson as Wendy Darling.
The new trailer – released on Tuesday (28 February) – begins with a distraught Wendy encountering the famous Lost Boys in Neverland.
Fans also get a good look at Black-ish star Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell, and Jude Law as the villainous role of Captain Hook. The trailer teases action scenes, with plenty of sword fighting and flying.
Viewers, however, are complaining that the trailer looks too dark for a kid’s movie.
“Why is the movie so dark? Where are the colours? It’s Peter Pan, not a funeral,” said one person.
Alongside screenshots of some particularly dark scenes in the film, another added: “David Lowry is a solid director.
Peter Pan & Wendy is a forthcoming live-action reimagining of the 1911 Jm Barrie novel and the 1953 animated classic.
It stars Alexander Molony as the mischievous young boy and Ever Anderson as Wendy Darling.
The new trailer – released on Tuesday (28 February) – begins with a distraught Wendy encountering the famous Lost Boys in Neverland.
Fans also get a good look at Black-ish star Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell, and Jude Law as the villainous role of Captain Hook. The trailer teases action scenes, with plenty of sword fighting and flying.
Viewers, however, are complaining that the trailer looks too dark for a kid’s movie.
“Why is the movie so dark? Where are the colours? It’s Peter Pan, not a funeral,” said one person.
Alongside screenshots of some particularly dark scenes in the film, another added: “David Lowry is a solid director.
- 3/1/2023
- by Annabel Nugent
- The Independent - Film
Disney has released the official trailer for “Peter Pan & Wendy,” the studio’s latest live-action adaptation which sees the beloved lead characters of Walt Disney’s 1953 animated classic in dual protagonist roles.
The new trailer is long-awaited for Disney fans, following an exclusive first-look at footage during D23 Expo in September. Similar to the initial teaser, the trailer shows off breathtaking visuals of Neverland, courtesy of the film’s director of photography Bojan Bazelli, and foreshadows an action-packed confrontation between Wendy and the film’s hot-tempered villain, Captain Hook.
Directed by David Lowery, the upcoming film stars Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson in the lead roles of Peter Pan and Wendy. Alongside them, Jude Law stars as Captain Hook and Yara Shahidi is making history as the first Black woman to ever take on the role of Tinkerbell.
The age-old tale follows the adventures of the eternally youthful Peter Pan,...
The new trailer is long-awaited for Disney fans, following an exclusive first-look at footage during D23 Expo in September. Similar to the initial teaser, the trailer shows off breathtaking visuals of Neverland, courtesy of the film’s director of photography Bojan Bazelli, and foreshadows an action-packed confrontation between Wendy and the film’s hot-tempered villain, Captain Hook.
Directed by David Lowery, the upcoming film stars Alexander Molony and Ever Anderson in the lead roles of Peter Pan and Wendy. Alongside them, Jude Law stars as Captain Hook and Yara Shahidi is making history as the first Black woman to ever take on the role of Tinkerbell.
The age-old tale follows the adventures of the eternally youthful Peter Pan,...
- 2/28/2023
- by Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
“Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins” is probably about as good a movie as you’re going to get that has the words “G.I. Joe” in the title. Maybe that’s because it seems to have very little to do with anyone’s conventional idea of G.I. Joe. It’s not a square-jawed, mildly jingoistic heavy-weapons combat orgy, like “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” (2009) or “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” (2013), the previous two installments in the Hasbro-inspired action franchise. It is, rather, a darkly atmospheric, sleekly scissor-limbed ninja combat orgy — a tale of vengeance and nobility and scheming set in Tokyo, where the title character (Henry Golding), a moody drifter who saw his father killed by shadowy forces, joins the Arashikage clan, a 600-year-old ninja dynasty, but only because he’s on an undercover mission of sabotage.
The movie is also a synthetic but exuberantly skillful big-studio hodgepodge of ninja films,...
The movie is also a synthetic but exuberantly skillful big-studio hodgepodge of ninja films,...
- 7/22/2021
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
When Henry David Thoreau said “Simplify, simplify, simplify,” he probably wasn’t talking about the long-running Hasbro military action figure franchise “G.I. Joe,” but here we are anyway. Director Robert Schwentke (“The Captain”) has taken that advice with a brand-new live-action feature film that strips away most of the toy line’s sprawling cast and focuses instead of on two of its most popular characters: The speechless assassin Snake Eyes, and his misunderstood blood brother–nemesis Storm Shadow.
Since the early days of the cartoon series (and fleshed out particularly well in Larry Hama’s run in the Marvel “G.I. Joe” comic books), Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have been trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of jealousy, betrayal, murder, mistaken identity, and revenge. Their backstory is the closest that “G.I. Joe” has probably ever come to Shakespeare — which is to say not especially close, but pretty darned good for...
Since the early days of the cartoon series (and fleshed out particularly well in Larry Hama’s run in the Marvel “G.I. Joe” comic books), Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow have been trapped in a seemingly never-ending cycle of jealousy, betrayal, murder, mistaken identity, and revenge. Their backstory is the closest that “G.I. Joe” has probably ever come to Shakespeare — which is to say not especially close, but pretty darned good for...
- 7/22/2021
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
What are you afraid of? For many it is the dark. For some it is clowns. However, for this writer’s money, few things send shivers up and down the spine as the vastness and unknowns of the deep blue sea. Most of the globe is populated by these waters and there is something particularly terrifying about those dark, unexplored, and rather alien, depths. This is a fact a few films have picked up on but with Underwater, which is the last film to be released under the 20th Century Fox name following Disney’s acquisition, director William Eubank (The Signal) resurges the aquatic horror genre.
Living up to its title, the film is set entirely beneath the oceans, as a Marianna Trench drilling station is rocked by a mysterious disaster. As the walls begin caving in and water pours into the facility, the remaining crew attempt daring and dangerous ways to escape and survive,...
Living up to its title, the film is set entirely beneath the oceans, as a Marianna Trench drilling station is rocked by a mysterious disaster. As the walls begin caving in and water pours into the facility, the remaining crew attempt daring and dangerous ways to escape and survive,...
- 2/11/2020
- by Jack Bottomley
- The Cultural Post
If wishing could make it so, Underwater would be Alien on the ocean floor. Instead, this brazen carbon copy of Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi landmark is just all wet. Shot three years ago, this soggy horrorshow gives credence to the belief that January is the month Hollywood uses to bury its mistakes.
Director William Eubank (The Signal) and screenwriters Brian Duffield (Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan), perhaps believing that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, crib shamelessly from Scott’s classic. Remember how Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley,...
Director William Eubank (The Signal) and screenwriters Brian Duffield (Insurgent) and Adam Cozad (The Legend of Tarzan), perhaps believing that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, crib shamelessly from Scott’s classic. Remember how Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley,...
- 1/8/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
After Underwater‘s first trailer emerged from the Mariana Trench, feedback was mostly “it’s Alien but in the ocean, so what?” Well, you were all right! Underwater is most assuredly William Eubank’s submerged take on Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece – which isn’t a negative. Have we forgotten how most movies are reinventions of existing inspirations? Writers Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad owe much thanks to extraterrestrial influencers from the aforementioned The Sphere to Pitch Black, but their seabed storytelling suffers not from copycat syndrome. In space no one can hear you scream, underwater no one can hear you scream, but one thing’s for certain – you *will* scream.
Kristen Stewart stars as Norah, a mechanical engineer currently servicing an oceanic drilling rig some seven miles below the surface. When an earthquake damages 70% of the station she calls home, survival becomes priority number one. As ordered by Norah...
Kristen Stewart stars as Norah, a mechanical engineer currently servicing an oceanic drilling rig some seven miles below the surface. When an earthquake damages 70% of the station she calls home, survival becomes priority number one. As ordered by Norah...
- 1/8/2020
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
There’s a really strong film to be made with the exact same subject matter as Underwater. In fact, it’s hard to argue that they could have cast it any better, either, as Kristen Stewart is a rock solid central force. However, in a rush to get to the monster movie aspect of the tale, the flick forgets to really invest you in the characters. So, when the terror begins, there’s no real sense of worry for the humans. When it’s focusing on surviving a disaster and the issues with being that deep under the sea, there’s something interesting here. When things begin going bump in the dark, however, it begins to sink. Opening this week, Underwater is a missed opportunity. The movie is a combination of action and horror, filtered through the lens of a survival tale. Taking place deep down by the ocean’s floor,...
- 1/8/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
“A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist — moving an audience through a movie […] making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark,” said the late, great Gordon Willis. As we continue our year-end coverage, one aspect we must highlight is, indeed, cinematography. From talented newcomers to seasoned professionals, we’ve rounded up the examples that have most impressed us this year. Check out our rundown below and, in the comments, let us know your favorite work.
All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak, Maciej Twardowski)
Using the combination of a Steadicam and computerized gimbal, Michal Marczak and Maciej Twardowski float in and out of crowded dance floors, house parties, lush gardens, and sun-kissed beaches, all in a way that would make Emmanuel Lubezki proud. Coupled with a near-constant soundtrack of the latest in electronic and pop (as well as a Polish version of Pocahontas‘ “Colors of...
All These Sleepless Nights (Michal Marczak, Maciej Twardowski)
Using the combination of a Steadicam and computerized gimbal, Michal Marczak and Maciej Twardowski float in and out of crowded dance floors, house parties, lush gardens, and sun-kissed beaches, all in a way that would make Emmanuel Lubezki proud. Coupled with a near-constant soundtrack of the latest in electronic and pop (as well as a Polish version of Pocahontas‘ “Colors of...
- 12/21/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Looking back at Jeff Goldblum and Laurence Fishburne wearily fighting the war on drugs 25 years ago.
This Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Deep Cover, itself an endpoint of the preceding quarter-century. It bears a deep weariness, beset by crime, racism, and, increasingly, the American government itself. Every frame of the film is soaked in that weariness, and its script explicitly addresses it, as the entire business of its story turns out to be that of the American government’s profit from the illegal drug trade, with then-president George H.W. Bush and the former president of Panama, the notorious CIA operative Manuel Noriega addressed by name.
That it’s ostensibly a crime thriller, a genre picture, makes Deep Cover all the more effective a messenger. In his last film billed as “Larry” — while we’re talking about culmination — Laurence Fishburne stars as a young police officer who, as...
This Monday marked the 25th anniversary of the release of Deep Cover, itself an endpoint of the preceding quarter-century. It bears a deep weariness, beset by crime, racism, and, increasingly, the American government itself. Every frame of the film is soaked in that weariness, and its script explicitly addresses it, as the entire business of its story turns out to be that of the American government’s profit from the illegal drug trade, with then-president George H.W. Bush and the former president of Panama, the notorious CIA operative Manuel Noriega addressed by name.
That it’s ostensibly a crime thriller, a genre picture, makes Deep Cover all the more effective a messenger. In his last film billed as “Larry” — while we’re talking about culmination — Laurence Fishburne stars as a young police officer who, as...
- 4/18/2017
- by Danny Bowes
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Cinematographers right out of film school often get their feet wet by shooting short films, music videos, and commercials – brief subjects with lower budgets and ample room to experiment and make mistakes. There was no such toe dipping for Bojan Bazelli. He was dunked directly into the river of cinema and legendary New York auteur Abel Ferrara did the baptizing. The Yugoslavia-born Bazelli was just out of film school in Prague when Ferrara came across the Dp’s thesis movie and tapped him to shoot his Romeo and Juliet variation China Girl (1987). Over the next decade Bazelli lensed 17 features, […]...
- 3/8/2017
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Jason Isaacs as Dr. Volmer in A Cure for WellnessIt starts with a whispered melody. It will send frissons of familiarity, of a kind of upsetting longing for clarity. You know that song the odd English girl is singing, but you can't place it. Neither can Lockhart (Dane DeHaan, who they might have called Lockjaw, as he can barely seem to spit his words out), which is what draws him into the guts of a mystery. And it draws the film into a slithering spiral, compels us to observe an autopsy of modern horror. What half-remembered giallo fugue is Gore Verbinski spooning up for us like medicine, pinioned to our chairs like one of the zombie patients in the film’s sinister clinic? A puzzle picture, a conspiracy thriller, a kind of baroque classical nightmare, A Cure For Wellness is too sturdy, busy and sure of itself to be much of a horror film.
- 2/22/2017
- MUBI
Director Gore Verbinski has crafted quite an interesting career. After striking genre gold with the remake of the Japanese horror film Ringu, orchestrating one of Disney’s most successful franchises with Pirates of the Caribbean, and continuing his collaboration with Johnny Depp on the animated film Rango and the reboot of The Lone Ranger, Verbinski was poised to do whatever he wanted to do with his next film, and it doesn’t take long to realize this quality in the director’s new film, A Cure for Wellness.
For nearly two and a half hours, Verbinski compiles a beautiful, confounding, and chaotic medley of his favorite and most influential film scenes recreated. One moment you are whisked away on a train ride through the Swiss Alps in a moment of stunning scenery, the next you are offered images of unnerving and repulsive situations. It’s undeniable that Verbinski and director...
For nearly two and a half hours, Verbinski compiles a beautiful, confounding, and chaotic medley of his favorite and most influential film scenes recreated. One moment you are whisked away on a train ride through the Swiss Alps in a moment of stunning scenery, the next you are offered images of unnerving and repulsive situations. It’s undeniable that Verbinski and director...
- 2/17/2017
- by Monte Yazzie
- DailyDead
Normally in the early months of a given year, the mainstream wide releases leave a ton to be desired. Sure, there are decent enough ones if you look hard enough, but they’re usually safe genre outings, with more often than not the quality movies being independent releases. Ambition and ambitious filmmakers are in short supply. As such, even though A Cure for Wellness is only sporadically successful, the effort and uniqueness being put forth is worthy of commendation. Filmmaker Gore Verbinski goes all out in this hybrid body horror/mystery/thriller, leaving no odd stone unturned. I didn’t especially like it, but I’m oddly glad that it exists and that I saw it. Opening this week, it might just be a cult classic in the making. The plot is fairly hard to follow, unnecessarily so, even if it starts out rather simple. It follows an ambitious, overworked,...
- 2/15/2017
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
There is a level of audacity to Gore Verbinski’s A Cure for Wellness that I can’t help but admire. On paper, it’s not the type of film that generally gets a big studio push in this day and age, but yet, 20th Century Fox is going all out for Verbinski’s weirdly surreal exploration of the one thing none of us can escape—our mortality—and I dig that he once again takes an avant-garde route to give us a grandiose, epic gothic horror movie that wears its influences on its sleeves, yet at times feels like nothing we’ve ever experienced before.
If you distill Cure down to its basic elements, though, it’d be safe to say it feels like if Hammer Films did their own version of Shutter Island, but really, that only accounts for about 30% of what Verbinski achieves here. The bottom line is,...
If you distill Cure down to its basic elements, though, it’d be safe to say it feels like if Hammer Films did their own version of Shutter Island, but really, that only accounts for about 30% of what Verbinski achieves here. The bottom line is,...
- 2/8/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
A sick film for sick people, Gore Verbinski’s “A Cure for Wellness” is the strangest movie that a major studio has released since 2014’s “Inherent Vice” (a Thomas Pynchon adaptation that only got the green light because everybody wants to be in the Paul Thomas Anderson business, even though that business hasn’t been profitable in a very long time). A thick, festering chunk of psychological horror that feels like a full-bodied Guillermo del Toro remake of “Shutter Island,” this woozy 146-minute nightmare does for workaholics what Val Lewton did for cat people, and it does so in ridiculous style. It isn’t particularly smart, but a Hollywood product this screwy doesn’t really have to be — even at its most half-baked, “A Cure for Wellness” is still a thrilling reminder of what can happen in the increasingly rare instance when a visionary filmmaker is given serious cash without...
- 2/7/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures © 2016 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
We all know the rules: first you watch it, then you die.
Watch as hidden cameras capture the reactions of unsuspecting customers when Rings Samara comes for them.
A young woman becomes worried about her boyfriend when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after he has viewed it.
She sacrifices herself to save her boyfriend and in doing so makes a horrifying discovery: there is a “movie within the movie” that no one has ever seen before…
Fans of the 2002 supernatural film, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander and Daveigh Chase, have been looking forward to another film for years. (Trailer). Adding to the movie’s tension was the spine-chilling score from Hans Zimmer along with the unnerving cinematography by Bojan Bazelli. It...
We all know the rules: first you watch it, then you die.
Watch as hidden cameras capture the reactions of unsuspecting customers when Rings Samara comes for them.
A young woman becomes worried about her boyfriend when he explores a dark subculture surrounding a mysterious videotape said to kill the watcher seven days after he has viewed it.
She sacrifices herself to save her boyfriend and in doing so makes a horrifying discovery: there is a “movie within the movie” that no one has ever seen before…
Fans of the 2002 supernatural film, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox, Jane Alexander and Daveigh Chase, have been looking forward to another film for years. (Trailer). Adding to the movie’s tension was the spine-chilling score from Hans Zimmer along with the unnerving cinematography by Bojan Bazelli. It...
- 1/23/2017
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Does anybody still care about great movies for small children? If so, here’s a good one. A big, furry green dragon named Elliot is the kind of playmate every lonely kid wants. It’s a non-musical rethinking of the old 1977 movie, made with taste, discretion, and plenty of heart.
Pete’s Dragon
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD
Walt Disney Studios
2016 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date November 29, 2016 / 39.99
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, Isiah Whitlock Jr. .
Cinematography Bojan Bazelli
Film Editor Lisa Zeno Churgin
Original Music Daniel hart
Written by David Lowery, Toby Halbrooks based on screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein based on a story by Seton I. Miller, S.S. Field
Produced by James Whitaker
Directed by David Lowery
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I think I watched only about four minutes of the old Pete’s Dragon on TV long ago, before ditching out.
Pete’s Dragon
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD
Walt Disney Studios
2016 / Color / 2:39 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date November 29, 2016 / 39.99
Starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Robert Redford, Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, Oona Laurence, Isiah Whitlock Jr. .
Cinematography Bojan Bazelli
Film Editor Lisa Zeno Churgin
Original Music Daniel hart
Written by David Lowery, Toby Halbrooks based on screenplay by Malcolm Marmorstein based on a story by Seton I. Miller, S.S. Field
Produced by James Whitaker
Directed by David Lowery
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I think I watched only about four minutes of the old Pete’s Dragon on TV long ago, before ditching out.
- 12/3/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Coming off box office bomb The Lone Ranger, a movie that reportedly cost Disney upwards of $150 million, it’s little wonder why director Gore Verbinski is circling back to his horror roots.
Before having a crack in the blockbuster space through Pirates of the Caribbean and later Ranger, Verbinski first broke onto the scene via an electrifying remake of The Ring, and fans of the filmmaker will be pleased to hear that his latest creative venture is very much steeped in dark, psychological drama.
Entitled A Cure for Wellness, the R-rated horror has rolled out two eerie promos to stoke excitement. The first of which is aligned as more of a viral promo, presenting a bleak perspective on modern-day life – “there is a sickness inside us, rising like the bile that leaves that bitter taste at the back of our throats” – before drawing attention to a so-called cure. It’s nihilism 101, essentially.
Before having a crack in the blockbuster space through Pirates of the Caribbean and later Ranger, Verbinski first broke onto the scene via an electrifying remake of The Ring, and fans of the filmmaker will be pleased to hear that his latest creative venture is very much steeped in dark, psychological drama.
Entitled A Cure for Wellness, the R-rated horror has rolled out two eerie promos to stoke excitement. The first of which is aligned as more of a viral promo, presenting a bleak perspective on modern-day life – “there is a sickness inside us, rising like the bile that leaves that bitter taste at the back of our throats” – before drawing attention to a so-called cure. It’s nihilism 101, essentially.
- 10/19/2016
- by Michael Briers
- We Got This Covered
Is the third time the charm for Jack Finney's stubborn human duplicator pods? Abel Ferrara keeps the faith and makes a straight, effective revisit of the paranoid classic. Does it all seem too familiar now, or are we just more Pod-like and less excitable? Body Snatchers Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1993 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date October 18, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Gabrielle Anwar, Forest Whitaker, Meg Tilly, Terry Kinney, Billy Wirth, Reilly Murphy, Christine Elise, R. Lee Ermey, Kathleen Doyle, G. Elvis Phillips. Cinematography Bojan Bazelli Film Editor Anthony Redman Original Music Joe Delia Screenplay Dennis Paoli, Nicholas St. John, Stuart Gordon story by Raymond Cistheri, Larry Cohen, from the novel by Jack Finney Produced by Robert H. Solo Directed by Abel Ferrara
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Still the most potent and meaningful movie expression of modern paranoia is Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the first film made...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Still the most potent and meaningful movie expression of modern paranoia is Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the first film made...
- 10/1/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mark Harrison Published Date Wednesday, August 17, 2016 - 05:54
Disney is on a roll this year - following the billion dollar box office success of Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, their second dip into their back catalogue this year is another belter. Loosely based on the 1977 film of the same name, Pete's Dragon is more independent from its inspiration than any remake for many a year.
There are those who look back fondly on the original, a live action/cel animation hybrid in which Mickey Rooney and Jim Dale gurned at a delightful cartoon dragon, but it's hard to say that it stands up to the likes of similarly designed films like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Nearly four decades on, the most unlikely of directors, David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) has taken a trifle and stirred up a moving and majestic remake, transplanting the action from the 1900s...
Disney is on a roll this year - following the billion dollar box office success of Jon Favreau's The Jungle Book, their second dip into their back catalogue this year is another belter. Loosely based on the 1977 film of the same name, Pete's Dragon is more independent from its inspiration than any remake for many a year.
There are those who look back fondly on the original, a live action/cel animation hybrid in which Mickey Rooney and Jim Dale gurned at a delightful cartoon dragon, but it's hard to say that it stands up to the likes of similarly designed films like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs & Broomsticks. Nearly four decades on, the most unlikely of directors, David Lowery (Ain't Them Bodies Saints) has taken a trifle and stirred up a moving and majestic remake, transplanting the action from the 1900s...
- 8/16/2016
- Den of Geek
One of the things you have to do if you’re going to be a film critic who wants to consistently weigh in on films of every genre and style is meet films on their own terms, and while that sounds easy, it feels like more often than ever before, I see critics who just plain reject entire styles of storytelling. How many times have you read a variation on “I hate horror films” or “I hate superhero movies” or “I hate Westerns” from critics? I don’t understand that because I love film as a whole, and I would hate to do this professionally if I was filled with dread at every single example of a type of film that I had to see frequently. Sure, there are plenty of disappointments that stack up over the course of a year, but unless you walk in wide open to every film,...
- 8/16/2016
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
Normally predicated on mining compelling source material that worked the first time around in the hopes of drumming up an entirely new set of eyes, Hollywood’s remakes have a track record about as far from impeccable as it gets. Whether through needlessly upping the scale or tipping too far into unimaginative reverence, they can often leave out the original’s soul in favor of mass appeal. This is what makes another take on Pete’s Dragon such a peculiar proposition. The original, released in 1977, was a modest financial success, yet, in terms of quality, it’s perhaps a childhood favorite that is better not to revisit in order to hold onto those glimmers of nostalgia — if they may exist.
Unburdened by expectations — unlike some Sundance alums who have carried the weight of Hollywood’s biggest franchises — David Lowery is the ideal director to take on a new version of...
Unburdened by expectations — unlike some Sundance alums who have carried the weight of Hollywood’s biggest franchises — David Lowery is the ideal director to take on a new version of...
- 7/27/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Last summer’s The Lone Ranger was labelled a bomb before it even opened and sure enough, it lost a boatload of bucks for the folks at Disney. To me, the biggest negative was the film’s length. At 2 hours and 30 minutes, I think 40 minutes could have easily been whittled out and the film would have been better received, though it’s certainly not any more bloated than some of the superhero movies that everyone likes, and which it’s pace and sense of overblown adventure seems to be modeled after.
Johnny Depp played a wonderfully weird Tonto, a wandering Comanche Native American who is hunting an evil spirit and also the man he believes can help him kill that evil spirit. Armie Hammer was a handsome, square-jawed Lone Ranger, a recent law school graduate looking to bring his sense of fair justice to town. The Lone Ranger was a whole lot of fun.
Johnny Depp played a wonderfully weird Tonto, a wandering Comanche Native American who is hunting an evil spirit and also the man he believes can help him kill that evil spirit. Armie Hammer was a handsome, square-jawed Lone Ranger, a recent law school graduate looking to bring his sense of fair justice to town. The Lone Ranger was a whole lot of fun.
- 12/17/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It seems that whilst Disney’s animation arm continues to be a big hit amongst audiences, some its live-action releases can’t seem to catch a break. Sam Raimi’s Oz the Great and Powerful was a success for the studio in the spring, but Gore Verbinski’s summer blockbuster, The Lone Ranger, sadly seems to have fallen upon a similar fate as Andrew Stanton’s John Carter did last year.
One factor the two movies have both faced is the bad press. The impact of reviews is far from guaranteed – plenty of films receive terrible reviews from critics but are welcomed with open arms by audiences, and vice versa – and yet, with high-profile movies like these where word of mouth goes in place of an already established world, riding a wave of negative reviews is that much harder to overcome.
In the States, the film opened over the Independence Day...
One factor the two movies have both faced is the bad press. The impact of reviews is far from guaranteed – plenty of films receive terrible reviews from critics but are welcomed with open arms by audiences, and vice versa – and yet, with high-profile movies like these where word of mouth goes in place of an already established world, riding a wave of negative reviews is that much harder to overcome.
In the States, the film opened over the Independence Day...
- 8/12/2013
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
“The Lone Ranger” is a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption. “The Lone Ranger” is written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Eric Aronson and Justin Haythe. The executive producers are Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Eric Ellenbogen and Eric McLeod. Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski are joined by a remarkable team of behind-the-scenes artists, including director of photography Bojan Bazelli (Verbinski’s “The Ring,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”); visual consultant Mark “Crash...
- 6/28/2013
- ComicBookMovie.com
“The Lone Ranger” is a thrilling adventure infused with action and humor, in which the famed masked hero is brought to life through new eyes. Native American spirit warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid (Armie Hammer), a man of the law, into a legend of justice—taking the audience on a runaway train of epic surprises and humorous friction as the two unlikely heroes must learn to work together and fight against greed and corruption. “The Lone Ranger” is written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Eric Aronson and Justin Haythe. The executive producers are Mike Stenson, Chad Oman, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Eric Ellenbogen and Eric McLeod. Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski are joined by a remarkable team of behind-the-scenes artists, including director of photography Bojan Bazelli (Verbinski’s “The Ring,” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”); visual consultant Mark “Crash...
- 6/23/2013
- ComicBookMovie.com
Armie Hammer and Johnny Depp in The Lone RangerPhoto: Walt Disney Pictures I can't say I have any level of grand expectations for Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger starring Armie Hammer in the title role and Johnny Depp as Tonto. Outside Verbinski and his cinematographer, Bojan Bazelli, going for stark and shadowy imagery, it has the appearance of yet another theme park-style movie that are arriving at a rate of a dime-a-dozen every summer for the past several years. Today a batch of five new pictures from the movie, four posters and a new trailer have arrived to give you yet another look at the film, which will be arriving on July 3, opposite Despicable Me 2. Sporting a massive budget rumored to be north of $250 million, I wonder, will Gru's minions turn this into a bust or will the Pirates of the Caribbean duo of Depp and Verbinski turn this into a global hit?...
- 4/10/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Plagued by production delays, budget issues and the recent tragic drowning of a crew member, Disney's "The Lone Ranger" has suffered a rash of bad press since it first started shooting back in March. Nevertheless, the footage screened at Comic-Con over the summer played to a big reaction from the Hall H crowd, and with this new batch of images the Gore Verbinski-directed feature at the very least promises to be a visual marvel (cinematographer Bojan Bazelli previously shot Verbinski's 2002 horror flick "The Ring"). Starring Armie Hammer ("The Social Network," "J. Edgar") as the title character and Johnny Depp as...
- 10/2/2012
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
So, Dear Reader, you’re totally pumped to see Rock of Ages when it opens this weekend? You think it’s going to be pretty rad? Oh, that’s excellent. Good for you. Have a blast. I’m staying home because it looks like the kind of moronic twaddle that I can’t even enjoy on an ironic level. I’ll just kick back and watch me some Born on the Fourth of July because there’s only one kind of Tom Cruise I enjoy and that’s the balding, scruffy, three-sheets-to-the-wind, blubbering-like-a-toddler and lamenting-his-permanent-erectile-dysfunction kind. Hold up. Did I hear you say…Bazelli? As in Bojan Bazelli? As in one of the greatest DPs of our time? He shot Rock of Ages? Hmm. Well…I’m still not interested, although I’m sure Rock of Ages will look fantastic. Yep. I’ll just stay home, sippin’ on my jug of butterscotch schnapps and reveling in my...
- 6/13/2012
- by J.L. Sosa
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Despite initially dismissing the movie, I have to admit that the more I see of the film adaptation of Rock of Ages the more I want to see the film! That’s no doubt down to the awesome soundtrack which includes Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi, Night Ranger, Reo Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Poison, and Whitesnake…
The film, which stars Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Ackerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin and Tom Cruise, hits cinemas on June 15th.
Under the direction of Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”), New Line Cinema’s feature film adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” comes to the big screen. The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man...
The film, which stars Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Ackerman, Mary J. Blige, Bryan Cranston, Alec Baldwin and Tom Cruise, hits cinemas on June 15th.
Under the direction of Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”), New Line Cinema’s feature film adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” comes to the big screen. The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man...
- 6/4/2012
- by Phil
- Nerdly
HollywoodNews.com:Under the direction of Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”), New Line Cinema’s feature film adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” comes to the big screen.
“Rock of Ages” tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, Reo Speedwagon, Twisted Sister and more.
Rock of Ages ◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Patricia Whitmore in New Line Cinema’s rock musical “Rock Of Ages"
The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”), Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”), Malin Akerman (“The Proposal”) and R&B queen Mary J. Blige, with Oscar® nominee Alec Baldwin (“The Cooler,...
“Rock of Ages” tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, Reo Speedwagon, Twisted Sister and more.
Rock of Ages ◄ Back Next ►Picture 1 of 14
Catherine Zeta-Jones as Patricia Whitmore in New Line Cinema’s rock musical “Rock Of Ages"
The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”), Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”), Malin Akerman (“The Proposal”) and R&B queen Mary J. Blige, with Oscar® nominee Alec Baldwin (“The Cooler,...
- 5/29/2012
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
Under the direction of Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”), New Line Cinema’s feature film adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” comes to the big screen.
“Rock of Ages” tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, Reo Speedwagon, Twisted Sister and more.
The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”), Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”), Malin Akerman (“The Proposal”) and R&B queen Mary J. Blige, with Oscar® nominee Alec Baldwin (“The Cooler,” TV’s “30 Rock”), and Oscar® nominee Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible . Ghost Protocol,” “Magnolia,” “Jerry Maguire”) as Stacee Jaxx.
“Rock of Ages” tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison, Reo Speedwagon, Twisted Sister and more.
The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”), Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”), Malin Akerman (“The Proposal”) and R&B queen Mary J. Blige, with Oscar® nominee Alec Baldwin (“The Cooler,” TV’s “30 Rock”), and Oscar® nominee Tom Cruise (“Mission: Impossible . Ghost Protocol,” “Magnolia,” “Jerry Maguire”) as Stacee Jaxx.
- 5/29/2012
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
IMAX and Warner Bros. Pictures today announced that Rock of Ages, based on the hit Broadway musical, will be digitally re-mastered into the immersive IMAX® format and released for a limited domestic engagement in select IMAX® theatres, day-and-date with the film’s release on June 15, 2012. Directed by Adam Shankman, the film stars Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Paul Giamatti, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Alec Baldwin.
“Warner Bros. and Tom Cruise have been great partners and an early look at Rock of Ages is getting great response,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “The film’s crowd-pleasing soundtrack will sound incredible in IMAX theatres during this select, hand-picked release.”
The IMAX release of Rock of Ages will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX Dmr® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with...
“Warner Bros. and Tom Cruise have been great partners and an early look at Rock of Ages is getting great response,” said Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “The film’s crowd-pleasing soundtrack will sound incredible in IMAX theatres during this select, hand-picked release.”
The IMAX release of Rock of Ages will be digitally re-mastered into the image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with proprietary IMAX Dmr® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with...
- 5/9/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Disney's biggest gamble of 2013, Gore Verbinski's The Lone Ranger, has officially gone into production. There was a point I didn't think this movie would actually happen, but here it is. Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer will lead the pack of actors into the wild west.
The reason I say this movie is a gamble is because Disney is spending $216 million dollars to make the movie, and no Western in the history of cinema has ever made that much money. The highest grossing western of all time is Dances With Wolves, and that only brought in $184 million. I can't believe Disney is pumping this kind of money into a western, because I don't think it's going to make that kind of money back in theaters. Hell, Favreau's Cowboy & Aliens only made a little over $100 million and that mixed both sci-fi and western elements! That should have been a blockbuster, and it wasn't.
The reason I say this movie is a gamble is because Disney is spending $216 million dollars to make the movie, and no Western in the history of cinema has ever made that much money. The highest grossing western of all time is Dances With Wolves, and that only brought in $184 million. I can't believe Disney is pumping this kind of money into a western, because I don't think it's going to make that kind of money back in theaters. Hell, Favreau's Cowboy & Aliens only made a little over $100 million and that mixed both sci-fi and western elements! That should have been a blockbuster, and it wasn't.
- 2/29/2012
- by Venkman
- GeekTyrant
Burbank, Calif. (February 28, 2012) — Production has commenced on location in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ epic adventure “The Lone Ranger.” The film reunites the filmmaking team of the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” blockbusters—producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski—with Johnny Depp, who created Captain Jack Sparrow in his iconic, Academy Award®-nominated performance and contributed the voice of the title character of Verbinski’s Academy Award-winning “Rango.”
Depp plays spirit warrior Tonto in “The Lone Ranger,” with Armie Hammer (“The Social Network,” “J. Edgar”) starring in the title role. Depp and Hammer are joined by a prestigious international cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, two-time Academy Award nominee (“Michael Clayton,” “In the Bedroom”) and Golden Globe® and Emmy® winner (“John Adams”); William Fichtner (Jerry Bruckheimer’s productions of “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down”); Emmy Award-winner Barry Pepper (TV’s “The Kennedys,...
Depp plays spirit warrior Tonto in “The Lone Ranger,” with Armie Hammer (“The Social Network,” “J. Edgar”) starring in the title role. Depp and Hammer are joined by a prestigious international cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, two-time Academy Award nominee (“Michael Clayton,” “In the Bedroom”) and Golden Globe® and Emmy® winner (“John Adams”); William Fichtner (Jerry Bruckheimer’s productions of “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down”); Emmy Award-winner Barry Pepper (TV’s “The Kennedys,...
- 2/29/2012
- by Robert Greenberger
- Comicmix.com
Burbank, Calif. (February 28, 2012) — Production has commenced on location in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ epic adventure “The Lone Ranger.” The film reunites the filmmaking team of the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” blockbusters—producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski—with Johnny Depp, who created Captain Jack Sparrow in his iconic, Academy Award®-nominated performance and contributed the voice of the title character of Verbinski’s Academy Award-winning “Rango.”
Depp plays spirit warrior Tonto in “The Lone Ranger,” with Armie Hammer (“The Social Network,” “J. Edgar”) starring in the title role. Depp and Hammer are joined by a prestigious international cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, two-time Academy Award nominee (“Michael Clayton,” “In the Bedroom”) and Golden Globe® and Emmy® winner (“John Adams”); William Fichtner (Jerry Bruckheimer’s productions of “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down”); Emmy Award-winner Barry Pepper (TV’s “The Kennedys,...
Depp plays spirit warrior Tonto in “The Lone Ranger,” with Armie Hammer (“The Social Network,” “J. Edgar”) starring in the title role. Depp and Hammer are joined by a prestigious international cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, two-time Academy Award nominee (“Michael Clayton,” “In the Bedroom”) and Golden Globe® and Emmy® winner (“John Adams”); William Fichtner (Jerry Bruckheimer’s productions of “Armageddon,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down”); Emmy Award-winner Barry Pepper (TV’s “The Kennedys,...
- 2/28/2012
- by foxallaccess
- Fox All Access
Disney's new adaptation of The Lone Ranger has had some rough times getting off the ground. From budget issues, to script rewrites, to even losing a cast member or two, it's been an ordeal that nearly killed the film. It's been getting on track however, and has now officially started filming.
Disney sent out this press release just a little bit ago announcing that production on The Lone Ranger has officially started. On top of that it also reveals a more full cast list, but still skips out on any real details about the story. Read more about it with the press release below...The Lone Ranger is set to ride again on May 31, 2013:
Production has commenced on location in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ epic adventure “The Lone Ranger.” The film reunites the filmmaking team of the first three “Pirates of...
Disney sent out this press release just a little bit ago announcing that production on The Lone Ranger has officially started. On top of that it also reveals a more full cast list, but still skips out on any real details about the story. Read more about it with the press release below...The Lone Ranger is set to ride again on May 31, 2013:
Production has commenced on location in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ epic adventure “The Lone Ranger.” The film reunites the filmmaking team of the first three “Pirates of...
- 2/28/2012
- by solidstudios@ymail.com (Jordan Maison)
- Cinelinx
Disney And Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Epic Adventure “The Lone Ranger” Begins Production
Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and International Cast Star in Thrilling Reinvention of Classic Tale Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Directed by Gore Verbinski
Production has commenced on location in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. epic adventure .The Lone Ranger.. The film reunites the filmmaking team of the first three .Pirates of the Caribbean. blockbusters.producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski.with Johnny Depp, who created Captain Jack Sparrow in his iconic, Academy Award®-nominated performance and contributed the voice of the title character of Verbinski.s Academy Award-winning .Rango..
Depp plays spirit warrior Tonto in .The Lone Ranger,. with Armie Hammer (.The Social Network,. .J. Edgar.) starring in the title role. Depp and Hammer are joined by a prestigious international cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, two-time Academy Award nominee (.Michael Clayton,...
Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and International Cast Star in Thrilling Reinvention of Classic Tale Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Directed by Gore Verbinski
Production has commenced on location in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado on Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. epic adventure .The Lone Ranger.. The film reunites the filmmaking team of the first three .Pirates of the Caribbean. blockbusters.producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Gore Verbinski.with Johnny Depp, who created Captain Jack Sparrow in his iconic, Academy Award®-nominated performance and contributed the voice of the title character of Verbinski.s Academy Award-winning .Rango..
Depp plays spirit warrior Tonto in .The Lone Ranger,. with Armie Hammer (.The Social Network,. .J. Edgar.) starring in the title role. Depp and Hammer are joined by a prestigious international cast which includes Tom Wilkinson, two-time Academy Award nominee (.Michael Clayton,...
- 2/28/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
After a rather bumpy road to get there, we’ve just been informed by Disney that their new joint venture with Jerry Bruckheimer ‘The Lone Ranger’ has gone into production today. The movie is set to be directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Tom Wilkinson, William Fichtner, Barry Pepper, James Badge Dale and Helena Bonham Carter.
The script is penned by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Eric Aronson and Justin Haythe.
More as we get it but the full info is below for your viewing pleasure. Excited to see this one but that’s probably just because it’s a ‘Jerry’ movie. Please let it be better than Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!
Official press release below.
Disney And Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Epic Adventure “The Lone Ranger” Begins Production
Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and International Cast Star in Thrilling...
The script is penned by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” Eric Aronson and Justin Haythe.
More as we get it but the full info is below for your viewing pleasure. Excited to see this one but that’s probably just because it’s a ‘Jerry’ movie. Please let it be better than Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice!
Official press release below.
Disney And Jerry Bruckheimer Films’ Epic Adventure “The Lone Ranger” Begins Production
Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and International Cast Star in Thrilling...
- 2/28/2012
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Burbank, CA, June 6, 2011 . New Line Cinema’s film adaptation of the smash hit Broadway musical Rock Of Ages has begun principal photography under the direction of Adam Shankman (“Hairspray”). The movie musical stars Julianne Hough (“Burlesque”), with actor/singer Diego Boneta in his feature film debut, Oscar® nominee Paul Giamatti (“Cinderella Man”), Russell Brand (“Arthur,” “Get Him to the Greek”), R&B queen Mary J. Blige, Malin Akerman (“The Proposal”), multiple Emmy®-winner Bryan Cranston (TV’s “Breaking Bad,” “The Lincoln Lawyer”) and Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones (“Chicago”), with Oscar® nominees Alec Baldwin (“The Cooler”) and Tom Cruise (“Born on the Fourth of July”).
Rock Of Ages tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi,...
Rock Of Ages tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Their rock ‘n’ roll romance is told through the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Bon Jovi,...
- 6/6/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
With The Sorcerer’s Apprentice on Blu-ray and DVD (here) in stores now, Killer Film catches up with the film’s director, Jon Turteltaub to talk about the film. Read on!
With the success of the “National Treasure” films, how was it like to work with Nicholas Cage in a different type of film, especially with a film that is very visual effect driven?
Jon Turteltaub: Nic and I had a great conversation before starting this film. Basically, we talked about how he let me take the reins in a lot of ways on National Treasure. That was such a buttoned-up character with a lot of intellectual and historical mumbo-jumbo to say. Balthazar, however, is a renegade… an outsider… a rock-and-roll-style hero. So this time, I let Nic take me on the ride… and I loved it.
Is there any special content made for the Blu-ray version? And are...
With the success of the “National Treasure” films, how was it like to work with Nicholas Cage in a different type of film, especially with a film that is very visual effect driven?
Jon Turteltaub: Nic and I had a great conversation before starting this film. Basically, we talked about how he let me take the reins in a lot of ways on National Treasure. That was such a buttoned-up character with a lot of intellectual and historical mumbo-jumbo to say. Balthazar, however, is a renegade… an outsider… a rock-and-roll-style hero. So this time, I let Nic take me on the ride… and I loved it.
Is there any special content made for the Blu-ray version? And are...
- 12/1/2010
- by Marcella Papandrea
- Killer Films
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer could not be more psyched about his new summer action-adventure film, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," starring Nic Cage, Jay Baruchel, Monica Bellucci, Alfred Molina and newcomer Teresa Palmer. The film opens July 14.
He describes the film's plot about an ancient sorcerer -- Balthazar Blake (Cage) -- in modern-day New York. Balthazar is searching for the prime Merlinian, a young descendant of the powerful wizard Merlin, who will have the power to defeat the powers of evil that threaten the world.
Balthazar finds the new sorcerer in the person of Dave Stutler, played by a very reluctant Baruchel. Balthazar must teach the physics nerd to develop his magic powers, which subsequently gives him self confidence in his own life. And his love life.
Doing justice to the original "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment (starring Mickey Mouse) from Disney's "Fantasia," meant making sure the sequence fits. "I think we pulled it off,...
He describes the film's plot about an ancient sorcerer -- Balthazar Blake (Cage) -- in modern-day New York. Balthazar is searching for the prime Merlinian, a young descendant of the powerful wizard Merlin, who will have the power to defeat the powers of evil that threaten the world.
Balthazar finds the new sorcerer in the person of Dave Stutler, played by a very reluctant Baruchel. Balthazar must teach the physics nerd to develop his magic powers, which subsequently gives him self confidence in his own life. And his love life.
Doing justice to the original "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment (starring Mickey Mouse) from Disney's "Fantasia," meant making sure the sequence fits. "I think we pulled it off,...
- 7/1/2010
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
Having successfully reinvigorated the musty political thriller with The Bourne Identity, Doug Liman tries his hand at resuscitating the once-thriving urbane comedy genre, and the pyrotechnically enhanced upshot is a blast.
Expertly tossing off the type of well-sharpened banter that was the domain of Gable and Lombard and Tracy and Hepburn, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie -- no matter what their off-camera status -- make one swell combative couple.
While there are times when the film recalls the darkly comedic elements of The War of the Roses and Prizzi's Honor, the Liman variation has its very own sleek and sexy charm.
Robust reviews and strong word-of-mouth should help the 20th Century Fox release overcome some less-than-enthusiastic early buzz -- generated in part by those persistent Brad 'n' Angelina tabloid stories as well as murmurs about on-set tensions and those two weeks of reshoots -- and emerge as a solid, adult-skewing hit.
Things begin uneventfully enough in couples therapy, where John Smith (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) are responding to an unseen interrogator's questions regarding the quality of their marriage.
It seems that the Smiths have gotten into a bit of a rut on the domestic front, especially when compared with the way they met five or six years earlier (depending on whom you ask) in a mid-revolution Bogota, Colombia.
What each has yet to learn about the other is that both are highly trained assassins for competing interests. While they've never taken their work home with them, all is about to change when John and Jane end up in each other's cross hairs.
As irony would have it, their mutual mission is just the thing to put the spark back into their relationship -- and spark it does, to scorching effect.
Although the picture loses a bit of steam toward the end, even with those reshoots, it's still an enjoyable ride. Where other purported action comedies struggle to get the balance right, Liman, working from a script by Simon Kinberg that started out as a film school thesis project, achieves the tricky tone.
Strip away some of those high-tech flourishes and it could have easily been a Hitchcock vehicle. As it turns out, Hitch did direct a film titled Mr. & Mrs. Smith, a change-of-pace screwball comedy starring Lombard and Robert Montgomery, which is related to the current picture in name only.
No doubt Hitchcock would have enjoyed shooting two of the most photogenic actors on the planet who, incidentally, also happen to do some of their best work here.
Jolie, in a role that was once attached to Nicole Kidman, gets a chance to let her hair down and pitch those scary knives and caustic zingers with the same deadly aim, while Pitt is the loosest he's been since Snatch, to highly amusing effect.
Together, they handily navigate the film's constantly shifting character dynamics and several, precisely choreographed gunfights that play more like ballistic ballets.
And while it's mainly all about the Smiths, some choice screen time is reserved for Liman's Swingers star Vince Vaughn, entertaining as Pitt's mama's-boy business associate.
Technical attributes are appropriately zippy, from Bojan Bazelli's kinetic camerawork to editor Michael Tronick's tightly calibrated pacing.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
20th Century Fox
Regency Enterprises presents a New Regency production/a Summit Entertainment production/a Weed Road Pictures production.
Credits:
Director: Doug Liman
Screenwriter: Simon Kinberg
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Akiva Goldsman, Lucas Foster, Patrick Wachsberger, Eric McLeod
Executive producer: Erik Feig
Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli
Production designer: Jeff Mann
Editor: Michael Tronick
Costume designer: Michael Kaplan
Music: John Powell
Casting: Joseph Middleton, Michelle Morris Gertz
Cast:
John Smith: Brad Pitt
Jane Smith: Angelina Jolie
Eddie: Vince Vaughn
Benjamin Danz: Adam Brody
Jasmine: Kerry Washington
Father: Keith David
Martin Coleman: Chris Weitz
Suzy Coleman: Rachael Huntley
Leroy: Peter Lavin
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 120 minutes...
Expertly tossing off the type of well-sharpened banter that was the domain of Gable and Lombard and Tracy and Hepburn, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie -- no matter what their off-camera status -- make one swell combative couple.
While there are times when the film recalls the darkly comedic elements of The War of the Roses and Prizzi's Honor, the Liman variation has its very own sleek and sexy charm.
Robust reviews and strong word-of-mouth should help the 20th Century Fox release overcome some less-than-enthusiastic early buzz -- generated in part by those persistent Brad 'n' Angelina tabloid stories as well as murmurs about on-set tensions and those two weeks of reshoots -- and emerge as a solid, adult-skewing hit.
Things begin uneventfully enough in couples therapy, where John Smith (Pitt) and Jane Smith (Jolie) are responding to an unseen interrogator's questions regarding the quality of their marriage.
It seems that the Smiths have gotten into a bit of a rut on the domestic front, especially when compared with the way they met five or six years earlier (depending on whom you ask) in a mid-revolution Bogota, Colombia.
What each has yet to learn about the other is that both are highly trained assassins for competing interests. While they've never taken their work home with them, all is about to change when John and Jane end up in each other's cross hairs.
As irony would have it, their mutual mission is just the thing to put the spark back into their relationship -- and spark it does, to scorching effect.
Although the picture loses a bit of steam toward the end, even with those reshoots, it's still an enjoyable ride. Where other purported action comedies struggle to get the balance right, Liman, working from a script by Simon Kinberg that started out as a film school thesis project, achieves the tricky tone.
Strip away some of those high-tech flourishes and it could have easily been a Hitchcock vehicle. As it turns out, Hitch did direct a film titled Mr. & Mrs. Smith, a change-of-pace screwball comedy starring Lombard and Robert Montgomery, which is related to the current picture in name only.
No doubt Hitchcock would have enjoyed shooting two of the most photogenic actors on the planet who, incidentally, also happen to do some of their best work here.
Jolie, in a role that was once attached to Nicole Kidman, gets a chance to let her hair down and pitch those scary knives and caustic zingers with the same deadly aim, while Pitt is the loosest he's been since Snatch, to highly amusing effect.
Together, they handily navigate the film's constantly shifting character dynamics and several, precisely choreographed gunfights that play more like ballistic ballets.
And while it's mainly all about the Smiths, some choice screen time is reserved for Liman's Swingers star Vince Vaughn, entertaining as Pitt's mama's-boy business associate.
Technical attributes are appropriately zippy, from Bojan Bazelli's kinetic camerawork to editor Michael Tronick's tightly calibrated pacing.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
20th Century Fox
Regency Enterprises presents a New Regency production/a Summit Entertainment production/a Weed Road Pictures production.
Credits:
Director: Doug Liman
Screenwriter: Simon Kinberg
Producers: Arnon Milchan, Akiva Goldsman, Lucas Foster, Patrick Wachsberger, Eric McLeod
Executive producer: Erik Feig
Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli
Production designer: Jeff Mann
Editor: Michael Tronick
Costume designer: Michael Kaplan
Music: John Powell
Casting: Joseph Middleton, Michelle Morris Gertz
Cast:
John Smith: Brad Pitt
Jane Smith: Angelina Jolie
Eddie: Vince Vaughn
Benjamin Danz: Adam Brody
Jasmine: Kerry Washington
Father: Keith David
Martin Coleman: Chris Weitz
Suzy Coleman: Rachael Huntley
Leroy: Peter Lavin
MPAA rating: PG-13
Running time -- 120 minutes...
- 6/23/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the theatrical release of "The Ring".
For those of us who perpetually encounter bizarre malfunctions and technological stubbornness from our VCRs, the idea of a malicious spirit taking revenge against humanity through a videotape makes perfect sense. Of course, there are evil ghosts in those damn machines! DreamWorks' "The Ring", an American version of a hugely successful Japanese horror film about a mysterious videotape, is an undeniably creepy, unnerving experience that turns mundane things -- a refrigerator door, a ringing telephone, TV static -- into moments of terrific suspense.
The supernatural elements don't always add up logically, but director Gore Verbinski is firmly in control of the film's strong visuals, and an attractive cast headed by Naomi Watts lends credibility to the scary goings-on. The film seems destined for its biggest success among teens both in theatrical venues and, oddly, video and DVD.
The original film, directed by Hideo Nakata and based on Koji Suzuki's novel "Ringu", was a phenomenon in East Asia, spawning not only two sequels but a 12-part TV adaptation in Japan. All these stories focus on a videotape that, if viewed, leads to terrifying death. Immediately after a person sees the tape, a phone rings and a voice declares that the viewer has seven days to live.
The American version takes place in rainy Washington state, where gloomy weather, an isolated island and a remote motel cabin all contribute to the eerie, nightmarish atmosphere. The mysterious deaths of four teenagers, who supposedly watched the tape, leads Seattle newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Watts), the aunt of one of the dead teens, to investigate. Initially feeling more like a murder mystery than a ghost story, the movie has Rachel backtrack through her niece's past week, leading her to a mountain cabin where the teen and her three friends spent the previous weekend. Here Rachel comes across the tape and watches it. Sure enough, the phone rings and her seven days have begun.
She turns to ex-boyfriend Noah Martin Henderson), something of a video whiz, and soon he, too, is "contaminated" by the video. But the person with the most prescient perceptions and insight into the matter is Rachel's young son Aidan David Dorfman). Not only was he close to his late cousin, but he seemingly is in contact with the spirit of a young girl, Samara (Daveigh Chase), whose untimely end is connected to the videotape.
The tape itself, a black-and-white short, has a Dali-esque quality that gives everyone the creeps. As Rachel's investigation plows ahead, the tape's surreal images, which seem so free-form and random, take concrete form: As Rachel spots this window and that lighthouse in real life, she gains more and more understanding of the tragedy that befell Samara and her only living relative, Richard Morgan (Brian Cox). Perhaps too much gets explained away. Giving literal truth to those random images robs the film of at least some of its supernatural underpinnings. The movie does recover its sense of dread and things beyond explanation by the end, however, leaving the story open to an American sequel as well.
Watts, so impressive in that other surreal mystery, David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive", anchors the film as an aggressive journalist determined to ferret out the truth no matter what the cost, forgetting that people close to her may pay the price. Henderson complements her well as her disbelieving yet nonetheless intrigued colleague. Dorfman has an extraordinary presence. The child actor's round face and large eyes seem to give off a wisdom beyond his years.
Verbinski rigidly controls his color palette, keeping even exterior day scenes dark and foreboding while playing with images that range from a fiery red maple tree alone in a desolate landscape to ordinary door knobs and faucets, which take on an unsettling malevolence. The meticulous work in Bojan Bazelli's cinematography and Tom Duffield's production design create an environment that, seemingly, plays a role in the spooky events.
THE RING
DreamWorks Pictures
A Bender-Spink Inc. production
Credits:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger
Producers: Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald
Executive producers: Mike Macari, Roy Lee, Michele Weisler
Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Craig Wood
Special makeup effects designer: Rick Baker
Visual effects supervisor: Charles Gibson
Cast:
Rachel Keller: Naomi Watts
Noah: Martin Henderson
Richard Morgan: Brian Cox
Aidan: David Dorfman
Samara: Daveigh Chase
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
For those of us who perpetually encounter bizarre malfunctions and technological stubbornness from our VCRs, the idea of a malicious spirit taking revenge against humanity through a videotape makes perfect sense. Of course, there are evil ghosts in those damn machines! DreamWorks' "The Ring", an American version of a hugely successful Japanese horror film about a mysterious videotape, is an undeniably creepy, unnerving experience that turns mundane things -- a refrigerator door, a ringing telephone, TV static -- into moments of terrific suspense.
The supernatural elements don't always add up logically, but director Gore Verbinski is firmly in control of the film's strong visuals, and an attractive cast headed by Naomi Watts lends credibility to the scary goings-on. The film seems destined for its biggest success among teens both in theatrical venues and, oddly, video and DVD.
The original film, directed by Hideo Nakata and based on Koji Suzuki's novel "Ringu", was a phenomenon in East Asia, spawning not only two sequels but a 12-part TV adaptation in Japan. All these stories focus on a videotape that, if viewed, leads to terrifying death. Immediately after a person sees the tape, a phone rings and a voice declares that the viewer has seven days to live.
The American version takes place in rainy Washington state, where gloomy weather, an isolated island and a remote motel cabin all contribute to the eerie, nightmarish atmosphere. The mysterious deaths of four teenagers, who supposedly watched the tape, leads Seattle newspaper reporter Rachel Keller (Watts), the aunt of one of the dead teens, to investigate. Initially feeling more like a murder mystery than a ghost story, the movie has Rachel backtrack through her niece's past week, leading her to a mountain cabin where the teen and her three friends spent the previous weekend. Here Rachel comes across the tape and watches it. Sure enough, the phone rings and her seven days have begun.
She turns to ex-boyfriend Noah Martin Henderson), something of a video whiz, and soon he, too, is "contaminated" by the video. But the person with the most prescient perceptions and insight into the matter is Rachel's young son Aidan David Dorfman). Not only was he close to his late cousin, but he seemingly is in contact with the spirit of a young girl, Samara (Daveigh Chase), whose untimely end is connected to the videotape.
The tape itself, a black-and-white short, has a Dali-esque quality that gives everyone the creeps. As Rachel's investigation plows ahead, the tape's surreal images, which seem so free-form and random, take concrete form: As Rachel spots this window and that lighthouse in real life, she gains more and more understanding of the tragedy that befell Samara and her only living relative, Richard Morgan (Brian Cox). Perhaps too much gets explained away. Giving literal truth to those random images robs the film of at least some of its supernatural underpinnings. The movie does recover its sense of dread and things beyond explanation by the end, however, leaving the story open to an American sequel as well.
Watts, so impressive in that other surreal mystery, David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive", anchors the film as an aggressive journalist determined to ferret out the truth no matter what the cost, forgetting that people close to her may pay the price. Henderson complements her well as her disbelieving yet nonetheless intrigued colleague. Dorfman has an extraordinary presence. The child actor's round face and large eyes seem to give off a wisdom beyond his years.
Verbinski rigidly controls his color palette, keeping even exterior day scenes dark and foreboding while playing with images that range from a fiery red maple tree alone in a desolate landscape to ordinary door knobs and faucets, which take on an unsettling malevolence. The meticulous work in Bojan Bazelli's cinematography and Tom Duffield's production design create an environment that, seemingly, plays a role in the spooky events.
THE RING
DreamWorks Pictures
A Bender-Spink Inc. production
Credits:
Director: Gore Verbinski
Screenwriter: Ehren Kruger
Producers: Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald
Executive producers: Mike Macari, Roy Lee, Michele Weisler
Director of photography: Bojan Bazelli
Production designer: Tom Duffield
Music: Hans Zimmer
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Editor: Craig Wood
Special makeup effects designer: Rick Baker
Visual effects supervisor: Charles Gibson
Cast:
Rachel Keller: Naomi Watts
Noah: Martin Henderson
Richard Morgan: Brian Cox
Aidan: David Dorfman
Samara: Daveigh Chase
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating PG-13...
- 10/4/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This film was originally reviewed on Sept. 2. It opens wide today.
Sugar Hill was the high point neighborhood of Harlem, the place of dreams and success. In this earnest drama, it is the low point of decline and despair, as two young men struggle to survive its drug streets. Starring Wesley Snipes, ''Sugar Hill'' will likely bring in some sweet initial business for 20th Century Fox, but the film's ponderous and preachy exposition will sour word-of-mouth.
Shrouded in muted golden hues and coarsed by a smudgy trumpet's cry, ''Sugar Hill'' is a melancholy tale of urban desperation. In dramatic terms, it's a Cain-and-Abel story as two Harlem brothers, the cool and thoughtful Roemello (Snipes) and the brash and impetuous Raynathan (Michael Wright) deal with the hard life's hand that drugs have left them. Their mother (Leslie Uggams) overdosed before their eyes, while their jazz musician-dealer father (Clarence Williams III) withers in a heroin haze.
Although once a promising student, Roemello has taken the fork too often traveled on his Harlem streets -- he and his brother have become drug lords. They live the good life, frequenting clubs, sporting the threads and turning on the women.
Despite his kingly status on the streets, Roemello despairs. He wants to get out of the cesspool of drug dealing and even feels a responsibility to the neighborhood, the once-great promise of Harlem. He's the good son, taking his skeletal father chicken soup and sagely smoothing out disputes between the neighborhood gangsters and the crime lords from New Jersey.
He laments that ''everyone wants to be a gangster nowadays.''
Roemello's personal turmoil is, in essence, screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper's thematic focus -- how promising young black men can be easily sucked into the gangster lowlife.
While Cooper's screenplay is eminently insightful, it is unfortunately weighted down with clunky expository scenes, sometimes redundant sociologizing, and a decidedly schmaltzy romantic subplot between Roemello and a soft-spoken, upright actress (Theresa Randle) that, in the film's own jargon, is ''extra.''
Overall, Cooper's screenplay attempts to have it all ways and overdoses on its own ambition: Hard and piercing questions are deadened with soft and swoony answers, including an ending so out-there it seems to have been penned not by someone who knows and loves Harlem, but rather by the North Carolina Tourism Division.
In addition, the fact that Roemello is overridingly presented only from his saintly side smear the film's painful power with, well, too much sugar.
Director Leon Ichaso's plodding pace has further sapped the film's power, although he has nicely fused the superb technical contributions -- cinematographer Bojan Bazelli's muted golden hues and composer Terence Blanchard's tormented tones -- into an eloquent force of dignity.
As the epicurean Roemello, Snipes smartly conveys the torment of a man torn between his lifestyle and his morals. Wright is terrific as his hairtrigger brother, while Williams wins our hearts with his portrayal of their junkie father. Theresa Randle is touchingly vulnerable as Roemello's beacon of goodness.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Sugar Hill was the high point neighborhood of Harlem, the place of dreams and success. In this earnest drama, it is the low point of decline and despair, as two young men struggle to survive its drug streets. Starring Wesley Snipes, ''Sugar Hill'' will likely bring in some sweet initial business for 20th Century Fox, but the film's ponderous and preachy exposition will sour word-of-mouth.
Shrouded in muted golden hues and coarsed by a smudgy trumpet's cry, ''Sugar Hill'' is a melancholy tale of urban desperation. In dramatic terms, it's a Cain-and-Abel story as two Harlem brothers, the cool and thoughtful Roemello (Snipes) and the brash and impetuous Raynathan (Michael Wright) deal with the hard life's hand that drugs have left them. Their mother (Leslie Uggams) overdosed before their eyes, while their jazz musician-dealer father (Clarence Williams III) withers in a heroin haze.
Although once a promising student, Roemello has taken the fork too often traveled on his Harlem streets -- he and his brother have become drug lords. They live the good life, frequenting clubs, sporting the threads and turning on the women.
Despite his kingly status on the streets, Roemello despairs. He wants to get out of the cesspool of drug dealing and even feels a responsibility to the neighborhood, the once-great promise of Harlem. He's the good son, taking his skeletal father chicken soup and sagely smoothing out disputes between the neighborhood gangsters and the crime lords from New Jersey.
He laments that ''everyone wants to be a gangster nowadays.''
Roemello's personal turmoil is, in essence, screenwriter Barry Michael Cooper's thematic focus -- how promising young black men can be easily sucked into the gangster lowlife.
While Cooper's screenplay is eminently insightful, it is unfortunately weighted down with clunky expository scenes, sometimes redundant sociologizing, and a decidedly schmaltzy romantic subplot between Roemello and a soft-spoken, upright actress (Theresa Randle) that, in the film's own jargon, is ''extra.''
Overall, Cooper's screenplay attempts to have it all ways and overdoses on its own ambition: Hard and piercing questions are deadened with soft and swoony answers, including an ending so out-there it seems to have been penned not by someone who knows and loves Harlem, but rather by the North Carolina Tourism Division.
In addition, the fact that Roemello is overridingly presented only from his saintly side smear the film's painful power with, well, too much sugar.
Director Leon Ichaso's plodding pace has further sapped the film's power, although he has nicely fused the superb technical contributions -- cinematographer Bojan Bazelli's muted golden hues and composer Terence Blanchard's tormented tones -- into an eloquent force of dignity.
As the epicurean Roemello, Snipes smartly conveys the torment of a man torn between his lifestyle and his morals. Wright is terrific as his hairtrigger brother, while Williams wins our hearts with his portrayal of their junkie father. Theresa Randle is touchingly vulnerable as Roemello's beacon of goodness.
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 2/24/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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