Tag Archives: Lincoln

‘Lincoln’ And ‘Les Misérables’ Lead Critics Choice Award Nominees

In the latest round of Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association gave their nominations for the 18th annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, with Steven Spielberg ‘s Lincoln leading the pack with 13 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis as well as Best Supporting Actor for Tommy Lee Jones and Best Supporting Actress for Sally Field . Les Misérables followed with 11 nominations from the organization, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Hugh Jackman and Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway . [ Related: LA Film Critics Name ‘Amour’ Best Picture, Boost ‘The Master,’ Jazz Up Oscar Race ] David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook also proved strong with 10 nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Bradley Cooper, Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence and Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro. And Life of Pi followed up with nine nods, while Argo , The Master and Skyfall followed with seven nominations each. “This has been a truly spectacular year in filmmaking and our voters had an embarrassment of riches to choose from,” said BFCA President Joey Berlin in a statement.  “To recognize the remarkable achievements across every genre of filmmaking we have added several new categories this year, including often overlooked performances in Comedy and Action.  And to add even more fun, we’re letting fans in on the voting in one special category.” [ Related: Oscar Index: ‘Zero Dark’ Domination & McConaughey’s ‘Magic’ Moves ] The winners will be announced live at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards ceremony on Thursday, January 10, 2013 from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. The show will broadcast live on The CW Network. The 18th Annual Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Nominees: BEST PICTURE Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Misérables Life of Pi Lincoln The Master Moonrise Kingdom Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty   BEST ACTOR Bradley Cooper – “Silver Linings Playbook” Daniel Day-Lewis – “Lincoln” John Hawkes – “The Sessions” Hugh Jackman – “Les Misérables” Joaquin Phoenix – “The Master” Denzel Washington – “Flight” [ Related: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Takes Top National Board Of Review Honors ]   BEST ACTRESS Jessica Chastain – “Zero Dark Thirty” Marion Cotillard – “Rust and Bone” Jennifer Lawrence – “Silver Linings Playbook” Emmanuelle Riva – “Amour” Quvenzhané Wallis – “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Naomi Watts – “The Impossible”   BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin – “Argo” Javier Bardem – “Skyfall” Robert De Niro – “Silver Linings Playbook” Philip Seymour Hoffman – “The Master” Tommy Lee Jones – “Lincoln” Matthew McConaughey – “Magic Mike”   BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Amy Adams – “The Master” Judi Dench – “Skyfall” Ann Dowd – “Compliance” Sally Field – “Lincoln” Anne Hathaway – “Les Misérables” Helen Hunt – “The Sessions” [ Related: NY Film Critics Circle Spices Up Oscar Race With ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Best Picture Pick ]   BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS Elle Fanning – “Ginger & Rosa” Kara Hayward – “Moonrise Kingdom” Tom Holland – “The Impossible” Logan Lerman – “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” Suraj Sharma – “Life of Pi” Quvenzhané Wallis – “Beasts of the Southern Wild”   BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE Argo The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Les Misérables Lincoln Moonrise Kingdom Silver Linings Playbook   BEST DIRECTOR Ben Affleck – “Argo” Kathryn Bigelow – “Zero Dark Thirty” Tom Hooper – “Les Misérables” Ang Lee – “Life of Pi” David O. Russell – “Silver Linings Playbook” Steven Spielberg – “Lincoln”   BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Quentin Tarantino – “Django Unchained” John Gatins – “Flight” Rian Johnson – “Looper” Paul Thomas Anderson – “The Master” Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola – “Moonrise Kingdom” Mark Boal – “Zero Dark Thirty”   BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Chris Terrio – “Argo” David Magee – “Life of Pi” Tony Kushner – “Lincoln” Stephen Chbosky – “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” David O. Russell – “Silver Linings Playbook”   BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY “Les Misérables” – Danny Cohen “Life of Pi” – Claudio Miranda “Lincoln” – Janusz Kaminski “The Master” – Mihai Malaimare Jr. “Skyfall” – Roger Deakins   BEST ART DIRECTION “Anna Karenina” – Sarah Greenwood/Production Designer; Katie Spencer/Set Decorator “The Hobbit” – Dan Hennah/Production Designer; Ra Vincent & Simon Bright/Set Decorators “Les Misérables” – Eve Stewart/Production Designer; Anna Lynch-Robinson/Set Decorator “Life of Pi” – David Gropman/Production Designer; Anna Pinnock/Set Decorator “Lincoln” – Rick Carter/Production Designer; Jim Erickson/Set Decorator   BEST EDITING “Argo” – William Goldenberg “Les Misérables” – Melanie Ann Oliver and Chris Dickens “Life of Pi” – Tim Squyres “Lincoln” – Michael Kahn “Zero Dark Thirty” – William Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor   BEST COSTUME DESIGN “Anna Karenina” – Jacqueline Durran “Cloud Atlas” – Kym Barrett and Pierre-Yves Gayraud “The Hobbit” – Bob Buck, Ann Maskrey and Richard Taylor “Les Misérables” – Paco Delgado “Lincoln” – Joanna Johnston   BEST MAKEUP Cloud Atlas The Hobbit Les Misérables Lincoln   BEST VISUAL EFFECTS The Avengers Cloud Atlas The Dark Knight Rises The Hobbit Life of Pi   BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Brave Frankenweenie Madagascar 3 ParaNorman Rise of the Guardians Wreck-It Ralph   BEST ACTION MOVIE The Avengers The Dark Knight Rises Looper Skyfall   BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE Christian Bale – “The Dark Knight Rises” Daniel Craig – “Skyfall” Robert Downey Jr. – “The Avengers” Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Looper” Jake Gyllenhaal – “End of Watch”   BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE Emily Blunt – “Looper” Gina Carano – “Haywire” Judi Dench – “Skyfall” Anne Hathaway – “The Dark Knight Rises” Jennifer Lawrence – “The Hunger Games”   BEST COMEDY Bernie Silver Linings Playbook Ted This Is 40 21 Jump Street   BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY Jack Black – “Bernie” Bradley Cooper – “Silver Linings Playbook” Paul Rudd – “This Is 40” Channing Tatum – “21 Jump Street” Mark Wahlberg – “Ted”   BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY Mila Kunis – “Ted” Jennifer Lawrence – “Silver Linings Playbook” Shirley MacLaine – “Bernie” Leslie Mann – “This Is 40” Rebel Wilson – “Pitch Perfect”   BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE The Cabin in the Woods Looper Prometheus   BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM Amour The Intouchables A Royal Affair Rust and Bone   BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Bully The Central Park Five The Imposter The Queen of Versailles Searching for Sugar Man West of Memphis   BEST SONG “For You” – performed by Keith Urban/written by Monty Powell & Keith Urban – Act of Valor “Learn Me Right” – performed by Birdy with Mumford & Sons/written by Mumford & Sons – Brave “Skyfall” – performed by Adele/written by Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth – Skyfall “Still Alive” – performed by Paul Williams/written by Paul Williams – Paul Williams Still Alive “Suddenly” – performed by Hugh Jackman/written by Claude-Michel Schonberg & Alain Boublil & Herbert Kretzmer – Les Misérables   BEST SCORE “Argo” – Alexandre Desplat “Life of Pi” – Mychael Danna “Lincoln” – John Williams “The Master” – Jonny Greenwood “Moonrise Kingdom” – Alexandre Desplat

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‘Lincoln’ And ‘Les Misérables’ Lead Critics Choice Award Nominees

Hip Hop/R&B Album And Mixtape Release Dates For 2013

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Here’s a look at what’s being released in the new year. 01.01.13  Cam’ron  More Gunz Less Buttah 01.08.13  Michael Jackson  Bad 25th Anniversary Edition 01.15.13 …

Hip Hop/R&B Album And Mixtape Release Dates For 2013

Midday Motivation | Don’t Brag, Let Others Do It For You…

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What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself. ~Abraham Lincoln Sometimes when you talk too much, you attract unwanted attention. Don’t ruin your…

Midday Motivation | Don’t Brag, Let Others Do It For You…

WATCH: James Spader Lobbies For ‘Lincoln And Name-Checks His Favorite President

James Spader doesn’t just make a great lobbyist in in Lincoln . The actor, who provides welcome moments of comic relief as William N. Bilbo — the Democratic operative whose methods of persuasion prove invaluable to the passage of the 13th Amendment — gave an answer befitting a contemporary Beltway arm-twister when I asked him to name his favorite president.  Noting that President Obama had just seen Lincoln “and had wonderful things to say about it,” Spader replied: “So, of course my favorite president today is, without a doubt, Barack Obama.” During a surprisingly honest discussion about the film, Spader talked about the kind of lobbying that’s done in Washington today versus the kind his character was involved in during Lincoln’s time. He also briefly addressed another kind of lobbying: the kind that takes place every year around this time in the run-up to the Academy Awards. Check out the videos below to see why Spader, ever charming, really does make the perfect lobbyist: Lincoln is now playing in theaters, and is a major Oscar contender. Follow Movieline on  Twitter .  Follow Grace Randolph on  Twitter .

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WATCH: James Spader Lobbies For ‘Lincoln And Name-Checks His Favorite President

Jude Law: Age Helped Me Tackle ‘Anna Karenina’

Oscar-nominated actor Jude Law plays a pious aristocrat in director Joe Wright’s sumptuous big screen adaptation of Anna Karenina . Almost unrecognizable behind a steely exterior, Law’s Karenin is Anna’s spurned husband in the film, which begins its roll out Friday and is a possible awards season heavyweight. Law seamlessly pulls off playing the high-ranking nobleman whose position at the heights of Imperial Russian society is rocked when his wife embarks on an affair with a dashing young soldier. Speaking about his role, Law, who turns 40 next month, said that he doesn’t think he could have played the character when he was younger — but he certainly would have given it a go. “When I was 25 I would probably say I could have played Karenin,” said Law. “When I was 29 and I put together a production of Doctor Faustus in London, it was successful but it took me the length of the production to realize that I was too young to play it. And I think the same would apply to this situation. I would have given it a good shot, but I think it would not have been as successful.” [ Related: Oscars and Obsession: Keira Knightley Talks About ‘Jumping Off A Cliff’ For Joe Wright In Anna Karenina ] Law said that youth would have been a handicap portraying the staid Karenin, who exudes stability and rationality to a fault. He is the archetypal patriarch that is a complete contrast from the youthful soldier who seduces his wife. “I think you need to have a certain amount of experience to play certain roles,” noted Law. “You want the audience to see a certain amount of wounds and battle scars that are obviously flickering in the mind and the soul.” Set in the lavish upper crust societies of St. Petersburg and Moscow in 1874, Anna Karenina follows the vibrant and beautiful Anna (Keira Knightley) who is the envy of nearly everyone in her gilded circle. She is the beautiful, stylish and rich wife of Karenin who holds a high position in the government and is blindly devoted to his spouse. Their enviable partnership is dealt a blow when she travels to Moscow to help save the marriage of her philandering brother Oblonsky (Matthew Macfadyen) after a plea for help from his wife, Dolly (Kelly Macdonald). En route, she meets the dashing cavalry officer Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), which ignites passion; she returns to St. Petersburg, but she is followed by Vronsky and becomes consumed by him, and they go full-throttle into a ravenous love affair that stuns the establishment. Law said he believes some Anna Karenina readers have misunderstood his character. Though he is sullen compared to the dynamic Vronsky, there is complexity in his personality that many readers of the novel have failed to appreciate. “A lot of people I spoke to before I embarked on it said he was dull and cold, but I disagreed with them,” said Law. “I hadn’t read the novel before, but after reading it I was glad Joe [Wright] agreed with me, because I think it sort of belittles Tolstoy’s study of human complexity. People are complex and there’s a misunderstanding. But you do feel for him because he’s dragged into this arena of gossip and scandal. But ultimately for him, he has to question his belief in God because he believes his marriage is sanctioned by God.” Karenin’s position at the pinnacle of a narrow class of people who delighted in rarified privilege contrasted with the bleak existence that huge swaths of Russians were forced to live in during czarist times. Though Law said he was disturbed to see how extraordinarily the aristocracy lived while most people were barely living a life one notch above serfdom in Russia, he did see some parallels to today. “It’s shocking that they were that indulged and were able to follow their whims and fancies to such extraordinary lengths — and we look at that with jealousy and at times and with fascination. What intrigues me is that the heart of the piece is about love. But there are other aspects in the book that have also been highlighted in the film and that is the role of gossip and judgement. Today there is much of the same thing and we see that online and in papers all the time. We still do that — we call out people for ‘breaking the rules.'” Read more on Anna Karenina . Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .

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Jude Law: Age Helped Me Tackle ‘Anna Karenina’

‘Lincoln’ First Lady Sally Field On The Power And Passion Of Mary Todd Lincoln

The tumultuous America of Steven Spielberg ‘s Lincoln was undoubtedly a man’s world, but behind the legendary 16th President of the United States — one of the greatest figures in American history — stood a fascinatingly complex, shrewd, and passionate woman: Mary Todd Lincoln. “Without a Mary Todd,” asserts Oscar-winner Sally Field , who portrays the paradoxical First Lady opposite Daniel Day-Lewis , “there would not have been an Abraham Lincoln.” Spielberg’s Lincoln , adapted by Pulitzer Prize-winner Tony Kushner from Doris Kearns’ biography Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln , brings the iconic Lincoln to life at the close of the Civil War, just prior to his 1865 assassination. Reenacting Lincoln’s precarious inter-party political dealings and dogged commitment to passing the Thirteenth Amendment, Lincoln depicts a pivotal, history-making period in the President’s career, taking care to highlight the impact made by his most under-acknowledged political partner — wife Mary Todd. And what indelible contributions did the emotionally volatile, smart, and savvy Mary Todd make to her husband’s legacy? Field sat down with Movieline to discuss the fantastically complicated First Lady of Lincoln — wife, mother, society figure, and trusted advisor — and why, as an actress “of age,” roles like these come along far too rarely. They say behind every great man is a great woman, perhaps especially so in Lincoln’s case, but the world in their time wasn’t quite up to speed with that thinking. Did you feel a certain responsibility to represent strong womanhood knowing that you were one of very few female characters in this cast? No. It wasn’t my task to do that. I could not feel that. That would have been absolutely in my way. I was given this great opportunity to portray the amazingly complicated, misjudged, misunderstood, maligned, and underexamined by history and certainly on the screen, Mary Todd Lincoln. Without a Mary Todd, there would not have been an Abraham Lincoln. Not what we saw. She was instrumental in his life, in helping him become who he ultimately became. From your perspective, knowing her this well, where do you feel her sense of moral justness came from and how did that affect Lincoln and his legacy? What she gave him was not in contributing to his moral justness; he got that on his own. That’s what she recognized in him, and he got that probably from his own upbringing and his survival, which was amazing. She saw his genius early on, when he was a bumpkin – he was gawky and everyone thought she was crazy because she was very popular. She was a society girl! She was pretty and popular and in her early 20s, and had her choice of suitors. Many of them later ran for President and lost, against him! The story about Mary Todd being courted by Douglas prior to marrying Lincoln, for example. Yes! She picked him, and she recognized his genius, his qualities. Some of them were what we later see in his great humanity, he’s able to connect with humanity. His speaking ability. She elevated him; she groomed him. She criticized his posture and what he wore and that he told too many jokes. He needed to elevate his language and speak out. She understood politics; she came from a powerful political family in Lexington, Kentucky; at that time Lexington was a very cutting-edge city. Her family, the Todds, really founded the city — she sat at the table with Henry Clay as a child and listened. Henry Clay was called The Great Compromiser; she was the one who brought young Lincoln to meet with Clay, and Clay became one of Mr. Lincoln’s heroes. He learned this world of politicking, and she got it — she got it more than he did, as you see in the film. She always was his coach, his confidante, and it was very difficult for her when he got to the White House, because she was pushed out of the center where she had been before. She was essentially his secretary of state — she ran his campaigns, she was his advisor. And when the cabinet was put into place she was kicked out. They didn’t want her there. They didn’t even want her to come downstairs at the White House! Well, by damned, she wasn’t going to stand for that — so she took it as her task to fix up the White House. It was a pig sty — literally, there were pigs and chickens in it, on the floor of the White House. It was treated with great disrespect and she felt it needed to be elevated because people needed to think of it as this place of power and great importance. She went about to do it and they tried to arrest her and cart her away. Thaddeus Stevens [played by Tommy Lee Jones in the film] tried to indict her several times — so she doesn’t like Thaddeus Stevens, needless to say. No, and that leads to one of the great scenes of Lincoln , in which you take Tommy Lee Jones’s Thaddeus Stevens to task. And that seems like a rare feat, generally speaking, because Tommy Lee Jones is so… Imposing? [Laughs] Yes! Take us into that scene, and what’s at stake for Mary Todd as we see her very publicly dressing down on behalf of her husband? Well, it was an absolutely eloquent and exquisitely-written monologue, and extremely hard to say and wrap your mouth around. We never rehearsed the scene; I think we kind of ran through it once, but Steven [Spielberg] would say, “Let’s just shoot it and see what happens.” That’s basically how Mary and Mr. Lincoln worked together — let’s just shoot it! So Tommy [Lee Jones] and I didn’t work on anything. He’s a wonderful actor as you know and see in the film, he knew his character, he knew their relationship and history, and so we just did it. Tell me more about this no-rehearsal process. Why opt for that, and is that a preference of yours? It was sort of decided, I think by both Steven and Daniel — it just was what it was, and we didn’t have weeks of rehearsal time prior. It just was what it was, and it brought about a different kind of energy. It was very interesting. Am I the only one talking about it? Certainly Daniel won’t, because he doesn’t talk about that kind of stuff. I’m the only blabbermouth!

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‘Lincoln’ First Lady Sally Field On The Power And Passion Of Mary Todd Lincoln

Lincoln Gets Presidential Screening; Breaking Dawn Part 2 Cashes In Overseas: Biz Break

Thursday’s early look at five top news stories also include a new indie project for Sylvester Stallone . Also, strong Oscar contender Silver Linings Playbook changes release strategy and an AFI Fest winner is heading to U.S. theaters. Obama to Host Lincoln Screening at White House The President will hist stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Gloria Reuben, Tommy Lee Jones and Steven Spielberg as well as DreamWorks co-chairman and CEO Stacey Snider and producer Kathleen Kennedy at a screening of the film about the 16th U.S. leader at the presidential mansion Thursday night. Spieldberg was a big Obama donor in the recent election, THR reports . Breaking Dawn Part 2 Smashes Records Overseas Three out of four markets abroad have broken franchise attendance records. The finale will overtake Breaking Dawn Part 1 ‘s $428.6 million international total and exceed $709.9 million, Deadline reports . Sylvester Stallone Boards Reach Me The indie drama is written and directed by his Cobra co-star John Herzfeld. The story follows a group of people who all have a connection to a self-help book authored by a reclusive former football coach. Stallone’s role is keeping kept quiet, Variety reports . Silver Linings Playbook Shifts to Platform Rollout It is one of the most anticipated of the upcoming Oscar contenders that was expected to open wide. But distributor The Weinstein Company has shifted the release for Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro and Jennifer Lawrence starrer Silver Linings Playbook to a limited release in 16 theaters this weekend, followed by an expansion to 440 theaters over Thanksgiving with an eventual wide 2000-plus release after New Years. It’s in line with previous awards contenders the company has opened in the past, Deadline reports . AFI Fest Winner Hijacking Heads to U.S. Theaters The Venice and Toronto debut won the Audience Award in the New Auteurs program at AFI Fest last week. The film focuses on the human consequences of modern piracy and takes its starting point when the cargo ship MV Rozen is captured by Somali pirates. Amongst the men on board are the ship’s cook Mikkel and the engineer Jan, who along with the rest of the seamen are taken hostage in a cynical game of life and death. Magnolia Pictures, which picked up North American rights to the film is planning a second quarter 2013 release.

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Lincoln Gets Presidential Screening; Breaking Dawn Part 2 Cashes In Overseas: Biz Break

Lincoln Gets Presidential Screening; Breaking Dawn Part 2 Cashes In Overseas: Biz Break

Thursday’s early look at five top news stories also include a new indie project for Sylvester Stallone . Also, strong Oscar contender Silver Linings Playbook changes release strategy and an AFI Fest winner is heading to U.S. theaters. Obama to Host Lincoln Screening at White House The President will hist stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, Gloria Reuben, Tommy Lee Jones and Steven Spielberg as well as DreamWorks co-chairman and CEO Stacey Snider and producer Kathleen Kennedy at a screening of the film about the 16th U.S. leader at the presidential mansion Thursday night. Spieldberg was a big Obama donor in the recent election, THR reports . Breaking Dawn Part 2 Smashes Records Overseas Three out of four markets abroad have broken franchise attendance records. The finale will overtake Breaking Dawn Part 1 ‘s $428.6 million international total and exceed $709.9 million, Deadline reports . Sylvester Stallone Boards Reach Me The indie drama is written and directed by his Cobra co-star John Herzfeld. The story follows a group of people who all have a connection to a self-help book authored by a reclusive former football coach. Stallone’s role is keeping kept quiet, Variety reports . Silver Linings Playbook Shifts to Platform Rollout It is one of the most anticipated of the upcoming Oscar contenders that was expected to open wide. But distributor The Weinstein Company has shifted the release for Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro and Jennifer Lawrence starrer Silver Linings Playbook to a limited release in 16 theaters this weekend, followed by an expansion to 440 theaters over Thanksgiving with an eventual wide 2000-plus release after New Years. It’s in line with previous awards contenders the company has opened in the past, Deadline reports . AFI Fest Winner Hijacking Heads to U.S. Theaters The Venice and Toronto debut won the Audience Award in the New Auteurs program at AFI Fest last week. The film focuses on the human consequences of modern piracy and takes its starting point when the cargo ship MV Rozen is captured by Somali pirates. Amongst the men on board are the ship’s cook Mikkel and the engineer Jan, who along with the rest of the seamen are taken hostage in a cynical game of life and death. Magnolia Pictures, which picked up North American rights to the film is planning a second quarter 2013 release.

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Lincoln Gets Presidential Screening; Breaking Dawn Part 2 Cashes In Overseas: Biz Break

‘Skyfall’ Blitzes The Box Office With Sizzling Opener And A Bond Record

The 23rd James Bond film lived up to its lofty hopes at the box office, continuing its stellar run Stateside after scoring hundreds of millions overseas including the U.K. where it opened theatrically late last month. The third 007 feature starring Daniel Craig grossed $87.8 million plus $2.2 million from Thursday night IMAX screenings. Skyfall ‘s total pushed the box office’s top 10 to over $159.1 million. Wreck-It Ralph placed second after debuting atop the box office last weekend. Steven Spielberg ‘s anticipated Lincoln , meanwhile opened in limited release at just 11 theaters with a stunning $81,800 per screen average. It should easily be in the upper echelon if not the top grossing film next week when it goes wide. 1. Skyfall Gross: $87.8 million (Cume: $90 million) Screens: 3,505 (PSA: $25,050) Week: 1 Skyfall stole the box office over the weekend with the highest grossing Bond opening in the franchise’s fifty year history. Quantam of Solace opened with $67.5 million which was the previous record. The latest film’s was also double Casino Royale ‘s $40.8 million debut which was the current 007, Daniel Craig’s, first turn as the dashing British operative. In addition to this weekend’s $90 million take, it has grossed $428.6 million worldwide. 2. Wreck-It Ralph Gross: $33,056,000 (Cume: $93,690,000) Screens: 3,752 (PSA: $8,810) Week: 2 (Change: – 32.6%) The pic dropped one spot in its second weekend, remaining in the same number of theaters in its second round. Last weekend it debuted with a $13,070 screen average. With momentum going its way, a $200 million gross is not out of the question. 3. Flight Gross: 15.1 million (Cume: $47,770,299) Screens: 2,047 (PSA: $7,377) Week: 2 (Change: – 39.4%) The film, which debuted at the New York Film Festival last month dropped almost 40% added 163 theaters in its second weekend and remained third in the overall box office chart. Flight ‘s total compares to star Denzel Washington’s $41.9 million total for the 2010 thriller Unstoppable at this point in its release. That film ended up at $81 million. 4. Argo Gross: $6,745,000 (Cume: $85,710,958) Screens: 2,763 (PSA: $2,441) Week: 5 (Change: – 33.9%) The Ben Affleck-directed film held solid in its first month with only incremental declines week to week. This time, it had its most sizable drop. Still, it has held on and in 11 less theaters than last week and it dropped one spot. 5. Taken 2 Gross: $4 million (Cume: $131.2 million) Screens: 2,487 (PSA: $1,608) Week: 6 (Change: – 32.4%) The feature topped the box office in its early October debut, but then skidded heavily in its second weekend. Since then it dropped less severely though its sixth weekend drop at nearly 33% compares to the previous weekend’s 23% decline. Still, the film placed fifth as did last week with 152 less locations. 6. Here Comes the Boom Gross: $2.55 million (Cume: $39,061,095) Screens: 2,044 (PSA: $1,248) Week: 5 (Change: – 27.7%) The pic dropped 270 screens from the previous weekend, though its nearly 28% drop shows the movie is holding solidly going into its second month in release. 7. Cloud Atlas Gross: $2,525,000 (Cume: $22,711,706) Screens: 2,023 (PSA: $1,248) Week: 3 (Change: – 53.1%) The film debuted with a $9.6 million gross, but fell 44% in its second weekend and a much steeper 53% drop in the third. Its reported $100 million production budget will be a huge loss for sources that invested in this ‘independently produced’ feature, which will struggle to top out at $30 million. 8. Pitch Perfect Gross: $2,503,800 (Cume: $59,030,443) Screens: 1,391 (PSA: $1,800) Week: 7 (Change: – 18.3%) The film’s $17 million budget has been more than tripled in the box office. Pitch Perfect dropped only 18.3% after dropping 111 locations from the previous weekend. 9. The Man With The Iron Fists Gross: $2,489,760 (Cume: $12,718,085) Screens: 1,872 (PSA: $1,330) Week: 2 (Change: – 68.5%) Ouch, the title added four locations but dropped a stunning 68.5% and dropped five spots from its opening. Still the pic’s $15 million budget should handily be made up, minus P&A. 10 Hotel Transylvania Gross: $2,350,000 (Cume: $140.9 million) Screens: 2,566 (PSA: $916) Week: 7 (Change: – 46.7%) The animated pic lost 356 theaters vs last weekend. Worldwide, the feature has grossed over $270.4 million. Not bad for an $85 million budget. It has been losing momentum, but it may cross $150 million before all is said and done. [ Sources: Rentrak, Box Office Mojo ]

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‘Skyfall’ Blitzes The Box Office With Sizzling Opener And A Bond Record

REVIEW: Daniel Day-Lewis Brings Noble, Determined President To Life In Spielberg’s Timely ‘Lincoln’

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 .

Original post:
REVIEW: Daniel Day-Lewis Brings Noble, Determined President To Life In Spielberg’s Timely ‘Lincoln’