Kansas.com: Movies

Brickman finds magic in Christmas tour

Ed Condran — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:10 CST

It seems like the holiday season comes earlier and earlier these days, and Jim Brickman can prove it. He started his holiday tour more than a week ago, conjuring images of Santa, snow and shopping with his performances.

"It's the beginning of the season, that's for sure," Brickman said while calling from Baltimore. "But by the time I get to Wichita, it'll be about a month before Christmas. It'll certainly be a good time for the songs of the season."

Brickman, who turned 48 Friday, should know. He's on his 14th consecutive Christmas tour.

Lackluster 'Planet 51' just doesn't have the right stuff

rick bentley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:56 CST

“Planet 51” takes off like a rocket with its glitzy and alien look, but it never achieves orbit because of a sputtering plot and lackluster performances.

The film looks at what it would be like for a planet of Sea Monkey-looking inhabitants, who seem to be stuck in the 1950s, getting a close encounter of the Earthly kind. Their isolated world of backyard barbecues, comic book reading and walking their mechanical dogs is sent into turmoil.

Visiting astronaut Cap. Charles “Chuck” Baker is a narcissist voiced with false bravado by “Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. His right stuff is a great smile and a big ego. Baker touches down into the life of geeky Lem (Justin Long), who just wants to find the nerve to ask his neighbor, Neera (Jessica Biel), to go on a date. Instead, Lem’s pressed into being a hero.

'Precious' juggles brutality, hope

ROD POCOWATCHIT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:54 CST

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” pulls off nearly the impossible.

It’s bleak, unflinching and sometimes hard to watch. But it’s also so resoundingly hopeful and ultimately triumphant that it makes for a transcendentally moving experience.

It’s only fitting that the film is about a character who pulls off the impossible, as well. Because if anyone was doomed to fail, it should have been Clareece “Precious” Jones (astounding newcomer Gabourey Sidibe). Yet, somehow through the horrors of her life, she finds the strength to take one step at a time into the unknown.

'New Moon' shines bright

Michael Phillips — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:49 CST

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” is a tick better than the first “Twilight,” which wasn’t bad either.

Those are hardly superlatives on the order of “shattering” and “beautiful,” but compared with the film versions of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” the only two movies ever made with less sex than the first two “Twilights,” they’re matchless.

The first “Twilight,” a lower-budget and scruffier affair directed by Catherine Hardwicke, may have been lame in the visual magic department, but its stars and their smoldering eyes did a valiantly angst-y job in launching a major franchise.

'GWTW': 7 decades of distortion

BRUCE DANCIS — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:03 CST

The most popular movie of all time, winner of 10 Academy Awards, was released 70 years ago.

For fans of " Gone With the Wind," the epic tale of the American South from the days of slavery through the Civil War and Reconstruction, this has resulted in seven decades of adoration for the dashing Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the willful Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh), the earnest Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard) and the self-sacrificing Melanie Hamilton Wilkes (Olivia de Havilland).

But for many, the 70 years of "Gone With the Wind's" existence constitute seven decades of lies about the real nature of slavery and the post-Civil War era. To be sure, "Gone With the Wind," based on Margaret Mitchell's best-selling novel and brought to the screen by producer David Selznick and director Victor Fleming, is fiction and should not be judged as if it were a documentary. But so serious are the distortions of the historical record, and so harmful are the images in the film toward African-Americans, that its 70th anniversary — and the home video release this week of a 70th anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition, including the film's first appearance on Blu-ray — is as much a time for penance as celebration.

'Blind Side' might open some eyes to helping others

COLIN COVERT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:52 CST

Uplifting. Heartwarming. Schmaltzy but effective.

Watching “The Blind Side,” I felt my emotions being stagemanaged, but once or twice I got something in my eye. It’s inspired by a feel-good true story of interracial adoption and gridiron glory. The project could have been designed by scientists synthesizing the crowd-pleasingmovie genome. Bullock + football + Kumbaya = Ka-ching!

Sandra Bullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a steel magnolia whose conservative certitude and indomitable willpower make Sarah Palin look lily-livered.

Actor gets big break in 'Blind Side'

Roger Moore — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:05 CST

The applause, from an audience that matters, was thunderous. Of course John Lee Hancock, the director of "The Blind Side," was pleased. But his discovery, the young man whose life could change in much the way his character's life changes in the movie, was stunned.

"First time seeing the movie, first time feeling the love of an audience for the movie," says Quinton Aaron, the 25-year-old who plays a teen rescued from homelessness and poverty by a Memphis mom (Sandra Bullock). "People coming up to shake my hand, taking pictures. Autograph signing. I'm trying to adapt."

"You're happy to give a role like this, a chance like this, to somebody like him," Hancock beams. "He's going to handle this sudden fame thing fine."

Global disaster is box office success

DAVID GERMAIN — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:06 CST

LOS ANGELES — Doom spelled dollars at the box office as the global-disaster tale "2012" opened at No. 1 domestically with $65 million and pulled in $225 million worldwide.

The Sony Pictures action saga tells the story of a scramble to save remnants of humanity aboard giant arks as the earth's crust shifts and flood waters pour over most of the planet.

Domestically, "2012" came in just shy of the $68.7 million opening weekend for "The Day After Tomorrow." But Sony reported that its global total was the best ever for an original movie not based on an established franchise, brand or best- selling novel.

Date with disaster

ROD POCOWATCHIT — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:46 CST

Disaster movies are supposed to deliver disaster. There’s supposed to be death, destruction and chaos, with our heroes hanging off cliffs then scrambling back to safety at the last possible moment before something explodes.

These films are the equivalent of theme park rides. They are seldom art. And they usually go the quickest route needed for emotional investment. After all, who has time to build characters? There are buildings to blow up!

Head into “2012” with all that in mind and you’ll be better off. Expecting anything more is just a waste of energy. But you’ll need to settle in for the two-anda-half-hour journey (which is really too long. This isn’t “Ghandi”).

'Up' flies high

BRUCE DANCIS — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:04 CST

It's almost axiomatic to say that Pixar movies are just as enjoyable for adults as they are for kids. But in the case of Pixar's most recent hit, " Up," out on Blu-ray and DVD this week (Disney, $39.99 2-disc DVD, $45.99 4-disc Blu-ray combo, rated PG), the path-breaking animation studio may have made a film that's even more pleasurable, and meaningful, for grown-ups than for children.

To be sure, "Up," like its Oscar-winning predecessors from Pixar ("WALL-E," "Ratatouille," "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo"), has been a hit for all ages. Released at the end of May, "Up" is the third-highest-grossing film of the year so far, according to Box Office Mojo, taking in nearly $300,000 at American movie theaters. And one of its protagonists is an 8-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai).

Yet Russell turns out to be a secondary character in "Up," a youthful force who helps set in motion the real star of the film, a crotchety 78-year old balloon salesman named Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner and drawn to resemble an old Spencer Tracy).

'Pirate Radio' skips by like a beloved old LP

roger moore — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:44 CST

Richard Curtis makes romantic, sentimental and overlong comedies filled to the rafters with friends as cast-members. He’s a British Judd Apatow — indulgent, substituting sweetness for edge, charm for shock value.

His latest, “Pirate Radio,” is as jolly, jaunty and sappy as “Love Actually.” It was cut by over half an hour for American release and still plays long. But thanks to that fairydusting of Curtis charm, I wouldn’t cut a frame of it. It skips by like a much-loved old LP.

It’s about the heyday of offshore “pirate radio” stations — broadcasting from old merchant ships to a Britain dying to hear the Golden Age of British pop, but denied it by the staid BBC.

'Christmas Carol' is weekend No. 1

Associated Press — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

LOS ANGELES — Jim Carrey's Scrooge collected holiday donations from movie fans with his new take on "A Christmas Carol," which took in $31 million to open as the weekend's top movie.

The Disney animated version of the Charles Dickens classic knocked the King of Pop out of the No. 1 spot as "Michael Jackson's This Is It" slipped to second place with $14 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Sony's "This Is It," presenting rehearsal performances Jackson shot before his death last June, raised its domestic total to $57.9 million. Worldwide, "This Is It" has taken in $186.5 million.

All signs again point to 'Northwest'

SUSAN KING — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

Who can forget those images — Cary Grant on a deserted highway being chased by a crop-dusting plane? Grant and Eva Marie Saint scampering over the presidents' noses on Mount Rushmore as they are pursued by a group of nefarious spies?

Then there's the pulsating score by Bernard Herrmann, one of the great screen composer's most evocative works.

In fact, Alfred Hitchcock's romantic thriller "North by Northwest" is so viscerally entertaining, it's hard to believe the classic is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

'Carol' needs human touch

ROGER MOORE — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:27 CST

The new Disney "A Christmas Carol" is another epic achievement in motion-capture animation, advancing the art form closer to photo-realism than "The Polar Express" or "Beowulf." Dazzling, ornate visuals take us to the snowy London of 1837, swooping over its digital rooftops and down its digital chimneys. Faces take on musculature, expression and detail.

But like those earlier films, and certainly to a greater degree given the pathos, warmth and wit of the story, "A Christmas Carol" lacks and needs — desperately — that human touch.

That cinematic literalist Robert Zemeckis, who in Forrest Gump had a character say "I'm going to San Francisco" and then scored the scene with the pop song "If You're Going to San Francisco," gives us Dickens straight, no chaser. He grasps the tone of the Charles Dickens novel (darker than most film versions). He lays out the familiar story beats and even more familiar touchstone lines.

'Fourth Kind' isn't fooling anyone

Roger Moore — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

HASH(0xc164174)

Oprah, Perry get behind 'Precious'

Michael Phillips — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:07 CST

Oprah Winfrey did not write "The Bluest Eye" or "Middlesex" or "Love in the Time of Cholera." But her formidably influential book club has helped many an author — alive or dead, famous or no — reach a wider audience.

Now Winfrey hopes she can do a similar favor for a film she "really, really, really loves."

It is "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire." Already this year, director Lee Daniels'adaptation has won key awards at the Sundance and Toronto film festivals. There should be many Academy Award nominations in its future. The film may tone down the grim oppression of the 1996 novel, but it's nonetheless a wrenching experience.

Michael Jackson thrills at box office

DAVID GERMAIN — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:50 CST

LOS ANGELES —"Michael Jackson's This Is It" pulled in $101 million worldwide in its first five days, and distributor Sony is extending the farewell performance film beyond its planned two-week run.

The film was the No. 1 Halloween thriller domestically with a $21.3 million opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Paramount's low-budget horror sensation "Paranormal Activity," slipped to No. 2 with $16.5 million, lifting its total to $84.8 million.

'Serious Man' never finds way

ROD POCOWATCHIT — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:57 CST

Joel and Ethan Coen’s films have always had a distinctive style.

Whether cartoonish (“Raising Arizona”), sultry (“Blood Simple”), comical (“The Big Lebowski”) musical (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?) or violent (their Oscar-winning “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men”), the writing/editing/producing/directing brothers create movies with universes all their own. Yet, somehow, they all have a common tonality.

So the brothers’ latest comedy/drama, “A Serious Man,” is unmistakably theirs. It feels every bit like a Coen brothers film, and that’s both good and bad.

'This Is It' affirms Jackson's gifts

Timothy Finn — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:38 CDT

In “This Is It,” the man who turned the music video into an art form and propelled it into the mainstream stratosphere uses the same medium to eulogize himself.

Michael Jackson is the star of the high-gloss documentary, which emphatically answers the question: “What would Jackson’s comeback tour have looked and sounded like?” The answer: something close to a mind-blowing spectacle.

The film documents the orchestration of the series of concerts planned for the summer at the O2 Arena in London. It never made it to the live stage because Jackson died in Los Angeles on June 25, weeks before the tour was to have opened.

'Paranormal' actors hit it big

Yvonne Villarreal — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:05 CDT

Just a few weeks ago, Katie Featherston was working as a waitress at a local Buca di Beppo restaurant. Micah Sloat was a struggling actor/computer programmer living in North Hollywood. Now, they're watching the micro-budget horror movie they filmed three years ago develop into a full-blown phenomenon.

The two play the young couple haunted by a spectral force in the breakout hit "Paranormal Activity." The suspenseful supernatural thriller, reminiscent of "The Blair Witch Project," has become one of the year's biggest success stories.

Made for $15,000, "Paranormal" was the No. 1 movie at the box office this weekend, taking in about $22 million, and has earned an astounding $62.5 million since its initial limited release in late September.