Sitting through the interminable credits of a special-effects laden comic-book superhero movie is not my idea of fun, but after reading Drew McWeeny’s HitFix post on Joseph Gordon-Levitt donning the Batsuit, I’m starting my glute exercises early in preparation for Warner Bros. and DC Comics June 2013 release of Man of Steel . The blogger explores persistent rumors that, as The Dark Knight Rises hinted, Gordon-Levitt will inherit the cowl from Christian Bale and that Warner may introduce him in Zack Snyder’s reboot of the Superman franchise, Man of Steel , as a way of teasing JG-L’s eventual appearance in the Justice League movie, set for 2015. The idea makes plenty of sense, especially since TDKR mastermind Christopher Nolan is credited as a producer and a writer on Man of Steel . McWeeny even envisions a smart scene in which the two caped crusaders could be introduced: “How crazy do you think fans would go if Superman were to take to the skies at the end of Man Of Steel , finally ready to fully accept his role as mankind’s most powerful protector, only to have the closing credits interrupted when something catches his attention and he swoops down out of that sky, landing on a rooftop where Jim Gordon stands next to the Bat-Signal, interrupting just as the new Batman arrives for a chat about Gotham’s latest problem?” Or maybe Supes and Bats could just grab some shawarma. [ HitFix ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
You can be sure the folks at MGM are really happy they spent $70 million and counting remaking the totally ’80s teen insurgency actioner Red Dawn for the CW set. (Not to mention sitting on , then digitally reworking their baddies from Chinese to more marketable Korean villains because they look similar enough anyway, right ?) The clumsy, politically misguided, arguably irresponsible, totally ” America: F*** yeah! ” tale of Washingtonian teens taking up arms against North Korean invaders is so fantastically paranoid and plodding, it’s yielded some of the most rancorous reviews in recent memory. Crack open a Budweiser and raise the flag and let’s get to poring over the 9 most scathing critical responses to Red Dawn ! 9. “There aren’t many occasions when I think a movie literally shouldn’t have ever been made, but the release — or more specifically, the end result — of Red Dawn marks an important one.” — Todd Gilchrist , Celebuzz 8. ” Red Dawn is a ghoulish parody of reality, served up earnestly and obliviously, to an audience whose enjoyment will, perforce, be directly proportional to its ignorance.” — Hugh Ryan , Salon 7. “Reasonably dopey fun on its own, the remade Red Dawn simply can’t stand up to the real-world issues it steps on like a land mine.” — Mark Olsen , L.A. Times 6. “This paint-by-numbers picture with false drama and middling action has next to nothing to justify its very existence. Red Dawn , on a fundamental level, is garbage.” — Jordan Hoffman , Film.com 5. “Early on, I was rolling my eyes at the strained familiarity of Red Dawn ; by the time it started wedging Subway references into the mouths of its teenage freedom fighters between firefights, I may have been rooting for the invaders a little.” — James Rocchi , MSN 4. “Less easy to overlook though is [Josh] Peck’s overactive emoting or the dumbstruck look that [Isabel] Lucas can’t seem to shake. Some of these actors are just dead, and that’s before they’re supposed to be.” — Tom Long , Detroit News 3. “[As] the forces of Kim Jong-un overrun Spokane, Wash., by sea in Red Dawn , a soon-to-go-guerilla high schooler exclaims, ‘North Korea? That doesn’t make sense!’ Get used to it, kid.” — Jim Slotek , Jam! 2. “By the end, we appreciate the wisdom of the character who says, ‘Dude, we’re living Call of Duty . And it sucks.’ That’s a big 10-4, soldier.” — Jay Stone , Canada.com 1. “[The] Heaven’s Gate for the Hunger Games generation… Not since The Truman Show have we seen characters so blatantly stunted by studio interference.” — David Erlich , Box Office Magazine Way to go, Wolverines! Did you see Red Dawn ? Tell us if you agree with the critics below. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
While on the American Music Awards red carpet, J. Cole opened up about his new single, “Miss America,” and the “responsibility” and “certain power” people…
Martin Scorsese turned 70 on Nov. 17, which makes it an ideal time to look at some of the best cinematic gifts he’s given to the world. This list could go on well past the eight clips I’ve chosen. For instance, Joe Pesci’s chilling “Do I amuse you in some way?” scene in GoodFellas could easily be included, but I wanted to feature one clip for each of Scorsese’s seven decades (and, in birthday tradition, one to grow on) without repeating any films. 1. Robert De Niro’s “You talkin’ to me?” scene in Taxi Driver (1976) — One of the most quoted, imitated and parodied scenes in the last 50 years of filmmaking. And look how young Bobby D looks. 2. The Copacabana Steady-cam shot from GoodFellas (1990) — This shot makes me practically giddy every time I watch it. It’s a beautiful, seamless depiction of how power and influence can be bought and sold on the streets of New York City.
Also in Friday’s news round-up, the studio suits are jubilant on Skyfall ‘s box office prospects; Ted passes a b.o. milestone and a quick look at the weekend’s new Specialty Releases including Silver Linings Playbook and Anna Karenina . Helen Hunt to Receive Palm Springs Film Festival Fete The possible Oscar contender will receive the Spotlight Award at the 24th Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 5th. In The Sessions , Hunt plays a therapist who helps a 38-year-old man, who has lived most of his life in an iron lung, lose his virginity for the first time, THR reports . Jane Goldman to Write Pinocchio for Robert Downey Jr. Tim Burton will direct the pic which has been in the works for months. Goldman’s hire will likely bring the “courtship” to a close. The story revolves around the children’s classic. Downey will play Geppetto, the woodcarver who creates the puppet who wants to become a real boy, THR reports . Skyfall to Exceed $800M Worldwide MGM expects the latest James Bond to be the highest grossing film in the franchise of all time. Additionally, the Blu-ray package, Bond 50: The Complete 22 Films Collection was a “tremendous success at retail,” Deadline reports . Ted Crosses $500 Million Mark The R-rated comedy is Universal’s highest rated film of 2012, crossing the $500 million mark worldwide, beating Todd Phillips’ The Hangover which took in $467.4 million, THR reports . Specialty Preview: Anna Karenina , Silver Linings Playbook , Price Check , Mea Culpa Maxima More Oscar contenders are lined up at the specialty gate this weekend, most notably The Weinstein Company’s Silver Linings Playbook ,, whose strategy has evolved in the run-up to Friday’s launch. The title will start with a handful of bookings before expanding gradually into wide release. Focus Features’ hopeful Anna Karenina will also hit the same number of cinemas in its initial outing, targeting women and the art-house crowd, Deadline reports .
If you’ve ever fantasized that Kristen Stewart invited you to bed by saying, “Hop in, water’s fine,” well, this is a trailer for your permanent collection. The actress and her Bohemian behavior in On The Road get prime placement — there’s even a quick glimpse of her talked-about double hand-job scene — along with co-stars Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley , in this just-released trailer for Walter Salles adaptation of the Jack Kerouac novel. Although the trio appears to get the most screen time, the fast-paced clip does a good job of introducing most of the name cast members, including Kirsten Dunst , Viggo Mortensen, Amy Adams , Elisabeth Moss and Alice Braga. The film gets a limited released on Dec. 21 if the world doesn’t end along with the Mayan calendar. You can also head over to iTunes to download the trailer — for your permanent collection. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
The Wachowskis are about to shoot their first film in 3D, which, after the complexity of Cloud Atlas , almost sounds like a comedown. FilmStage.com reports that the cinema siblings will utilize 3D for the first time to make their next science-fiction film, Jupiter Ascending , which begins shooting early next year. The news is part of a Warner Bros . deal in which it plans to release up to 20 upcoming films, including Jupiter Ascending , in IMAX over the next three years. Last May, Vulture reported that Jupiter Ascending is set in a universe where humans are quite low in the evolutionary hierarchy. There, Mila Kunis plays an immigrant cleaning lady who is targeted for assassination by the Queen of the Universe because she possesses the same genetic make-up and therefore poses a threat to the Queen’s rule. Sounds like a very specific variation on the Engineers hatred of the human race in Prometheus , no? Word is Channing Tatum plays a bounty hunter sent to eliminate Kunis’ character, who instead falls in love with her. Just guessing here, but I bet that means more bounty hunters are dispatched to track down the lovebirds. [ FilmStage.com, Vulture ] Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
Days after their reported breakup, Gomez attended the Glamour Women of the Year Awards while Bieber hit the stage in Brooklyn. By Jocelyn Vena Selena Gomez at ‘Glamour Women of the Year’ Awards and Justin Bieber performs in Brooklyn Tuesday night Photo: Getty Images/WireImage
The release of Lincoln , the new film from Steven Spielberg , is intended to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the days leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation and not the recent election; it doesn’t try to make a metaphor out of its portrayal of the 16th President or to force comparisons to our current commander-in-chief and the state of the country he’s overseeing, but it still couldn’t feel more timely. Written by Tony Kushner, the film covers the last four months in the life of Abraham Lincoln ( Daniel Day-Lewis ), as he battles to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment and bring an end to the Civil War, and up until an overly soft coda it is a magnificently warts-and-all portrait and appreciation of democracy at work in all its bickering, lively messiness. The difficulty of getting consensus on what’s clear now to be the righting of a massive ethical wrong allows for unlikely suspense and drama in what would be, had it existed back then, the domain of C-SPAN. The stakes are considerable, but Spielberg has no need to convince anyone of the awfulness of slavery. Instead, he makes a case for the democratic process, despite its flaws — as the best way for these decisions to be examined and hammered out, a place for moral purpose to meet practical concerns. A composition of browns and grays and dark rooms illuminated by dim period lighting, Lincoln opens with two scenes that establish it has little desire to gaze at its subject or era with starry eyes. A glimpse of the war shows men floundering and dying in the mud, jabbing bayonets in each others’ guts. (Spielberg has no use, these days, in prettying up battle.) In the scene following, we watch soldiers greet Lincoln, all adoring, though not all content to simply praise: While two young white soldiers gawk over how tall he is, an African American one questions why there are still no commissioned officers of color as his friend tries to shush him. Lincoln receives and jokes with them all with characteristic unhurried equanimity, a quality that sees him through subsequent larger version of this interaction, in which even those who are firmly on his side have their own requests and additional needs to be pursued. With the help of a very good, fundamentally restrained performance from Day-Lewis, Lincoln offers up its protagonist as a flesh-and-blood being while allowing us to understand why his status in the country is already, as one of his officials puts it, “semi-divine.” Wielding a folksy charm and remaining even-keeled in the most tense of situations — his Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Bruce McGill) storms off in frustration at one point when he realizes the President is about to launch into another anecdote — Lincoln’s nobility shines through in his unswerving conviction for what is right and his unfussiness about how to achieve it. Certain that the amendment must go through before the war ends, or risk not getting passed at all, Lincoln has Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn) hire a slightly disreputable trio (James Spader, John Hawkes and Tim Blake Nelson) to offer up patronage jobs to the outgoing Democrats in the House of Representatives in exchange for their votes. In his own Republican party, he tries to placate the conservatives, led by Preston Blair (Hal Holbrook), who are afraid of chasing away support with “extreme” views on things like freed slaves getting the vote, while winning over the radicals, led by the prickly Thaddeus Stevens ( Tommy Lee Jones at his most wonderfully irascible ), who consider compromise to be a betrayal of their beliefs about equality. Half the working character actors in Hollywood don wretched period facial hair and show up in small but memorable roles in Lincoln — Jackie Earle Haley, Jared Harris, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Walton Goggins are just a few, while more famous faces like Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Sally Field show up as son Robert and wife Mary Todd Lincoln, who push and pull their patriarch over Robert’s desire to enlist. But this is Day-Lewis’ movie, and he does with the meditative inner stillness of his character a wonderful thing — he finds a type of heroism that runs counter to all of the usual showy movie signifiers of such a quality. The climactic vote in Lincoln , a rousing scene in which each congressman calls out his vote to the roar of his colleagues and the observers, takes place with the title character playing quietly with his young son in the White House, having done all he can. After months of a presidential campaign that illustrated the United States as a nation in which communication between parties and points of view has largely ceased, Lincoln feels like a work of legitimate importance, and not only because it shows that people did just as much snarky, politicized yelling back in 1865. Spielberg has made a film that shows the legislative process as work but also as an ongoing conversation, one in which individual contact and shifts in perception can add up to gradual change, that argues multiple differing points of view needn’t leave the country immobile. Democracy is such that there will always be those who are displeased with the way votes went, but this was the moment in our history in which we declared that it didn’t mean they were allowed to secede and start their own country — that we were going to be in this together, one quarreling, diverse whole united in this national identity. As divided as the present can feel, there’s something unaffectedly patriotic about this sentiment, one that lightens this very fine film from within. Read more on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln . Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The critics blurbs in this clip say “romantic comedy” — as does the purple sex-toy scene — but the melancholy soundtrack and the sad, pensive looks on Lizzy Caplan and Alison Brie’ s faces say bring some Puffs when you see Michael Mohan’s Save the Date . Caplan is fast becoming the go-to girl for indie comedies that scrutinize the meaning of love, particularly as it relates to the institution of marriage. This past summer, she was part of the ensemble in Leslye Headland’s wickedly honest Bachelorette , and in Save the Date she plays Sarah, who learns something about herself when she gets caught up in a rebound romance after turning down her boyfriend’s marriage proposal. Brie plays Caplan’s sister Beth who is caught up in the details of her own wedding. Hand me a tissue, please. I’m feeling weepy already. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
