This week’s new movies coming out in theaters on Friday, January 27th include celebrities like Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, John C. Reilly, & Sam Worthington.
With this collection of new movies this week, I think there might be competition for the no. 1 spot at the box office. The newest Underworld chapter found itself getting trashed by critics but the fans flocked to see it anyway. So I’m wondering if word-of-mouth is going to take its toll on this new “Beckinsale in tight leathers” movie? (That wasn’t a complaint… I’m just sayin’._) We’ll see, right?
After the list of new movies is a selected list of what movies are in what state of production update… and as always, if you leave enough comments/requests to check out a new movie, I’ll go see it for you guys!
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• The Grey
An airplane crashes in Alaska, stranding an oil drilling team, as they struggle to survive, as a pack of wolves stalks them.
It stars Liam Neeson and a wolf, and is directed by Joe Carnahan, whose past credits include The A-Team, & The Fourth Kind. That says to me that the action could be pretty decent. Another data point that I consider is that Howard Stern says he likes the movie. Believe it or not, I trust his movie opinions, as they’ve tended to agree with mine over the years… so I may head out to see this, this weekend!
This is a movie review of The Debt, yea yea, not the most timely, but here yee be, in case you were curious what I thought:
The Debt, is rated R and has a runtime of 113 minutes and is distributed by Focus Features. It’s a 2010 movie (a remake of the 2007 movie, Ha-Hov), starring Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkenson and Ciaran Hinds (Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington). The Debt was directed by John Madden (Killshot, Proof) off a screenplay written by Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass), Jane Goldman (X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass) & Peter Straughan (The Men Who Stare at Goats, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).
The Debt starts out at a book reading in 1997, where Rachel Singer (Mirren), who happens to be an ex-spy, is asked to read a section from a book that her daughter wrote, chronicling an interesting event in Singer’s past. We then watch Stephen Gold (Wilkerson) picking up David Peretz (Hinds) to attend a function of some sort. But Peretz steps in front of a bus and offs himself.
I’m ripping through my collective of press releases that I get in my inbox and thought I’d toss out some TV news and movie news bites. You’ve probably heard these news bits already, but what the heck… just in case you haven’t. There’s news on the Snow White movie, Martha Stewart, NBC’s Thanksgiving parade telecast, a Jurassic Park game, and a few other actor tidbits.
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We’ve been hearing about an untitled Snow White movie from Relativity Media… now it’s been given a title…
Mirror Mirror
But it’s being called a comedy action adventure, being directed by Tarsem Singh (Immortals, The Cell).
Mirror Mirror Lily Collins (The Blind Side), Oscar®-winner Julia Roberts, Armie Hammer (The Social Network) Nathan Lane (The Birdcage) Sean Bean (HBO’s Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King), Mare Winningham (Brothers), Michael Lerner (Elf) and Mark Povinelli (Water for Elephants), Jordan Prentice (Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), Danny Woodburn (Watchmen), Sebastian Saraceno (Bedtime Stories), Ronald Lee Clark (Epic Movie), Martin Klebba (Pirates of The Caribbean) and Joey Gnoffo (The Benchwarmers).
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The countdown to Turkey Day begins for Hallmark Channel’s The Martha Stewart Show which airs on weekdays on the Hallmark Channel at 10 AM ET/9 AM C. Viewers can tune-in each week leading up to Thanksgiving to receive some helpful tips and solutions from a plethora of culinary experts.
This week we have over 250 new DVD & Blu-ray releases hitting the shelves on November 16th, 2010. As Christmas approaches, distributors have been saving some of their better titles for now. The titles range from highly anticipated, holiday movies, elemental bending kids to new packaging of highly marketed movies… for the umpteenth time!
Titles include Avatar (again) in a new extended format, A Christmas Carol from Disney, The Last Airbender, Christmas season Celtic Thunder & Michael Jackson. TV titles include Glee, Perry Mason, The Twilight Zone & Wycliffe. Other new DVD & Blu-ray releases are IMAX releases, Cats & Dogs, The Polar Express & many more titles that if you’re of the mind, you can peruse the larger list at the bottom of this article.
The big release that seems to be a best-seller on Amazon is the newest version/release of the three-disc Collector’s Edition of Avatar. (Below this press release description is my usual list of titles, broken into their usual categories here on Brusimm.
AVATAR Extended Collection’s Edition: 3-Disc Collector’s Edition Blu-ray
Disc One
· Original Theatrical Version
· Special Edition Re-Release
· Collector’s Extended Cut
· – - -16 more minutes and exclusive alternate opening
Family Audio Track (All Objectionable Language Removed)
· Original Theatrical Release
· Special Edition Re-release
Disc Two
· “Capturing Avatar“ An in-depth feature length documentary with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew
· Deleted Scenes – including over 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes
· Production Materials
Disc Three
· Open “Pandora’s Box” and go deeper into the filmmaker process
· Interactive Scene Deconstruction: Explore the various stages of production through 3 different viewing modes
· Production Shorts: 17 featurettes covering performance capture, scoring the film, 3D fusion camera, stunts and much more
· Avatar Archives including original scriptment, 300 page screenplay and the extensive Pandorapedia
· BD-live Portal with additional bonus materials
AVATAR Collector’s Edition: 3-Disc Special Edition DVD
Disc One
· Original Theatrical Version
· Special Edition Re-release
· Collector’s Extended Cut
o 16 more minutes and exclusive alternate opening
Disc Two
· Original Theatrical Version
· Special Edition Re-release
· Collector’s Extended Cut
Disc Three
· “Capturing Avatar“ An in-depth feature length documentary with James Cameron, Jon Landau and cast and crew
· Deleted Scenes – including over 45 minutes of new never-before-seen deleted scenes
Aside from that, below are the usual title lists where I’ve pulled out the more popular sellers in the different categories and below that, a more comprehensive listing of many more titles…
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (Three Disc: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)
Clash of the Titans (Three Disc: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy)
Disney’s A Christmas Carol Starring Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, and Steve Valentine
The Complete Metropolis Starring Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm, Gustav Frohlich
The Kids Are All Right Starring Julianne Moore and Annette Bening
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The Last Airbender Starring Dev Patel and Noah Ringer
Special Features
– Origins of the Avatar
– Deleted Scenes
1. “Talk to the Dead”
2. “Water Teaches Us Emotion”
3. “Water Tribe Battle”
4. “Field Ablaze”
– Gag Reel
The Night of the Hunter (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish
The Shawshank Redemption [Blu-ray] Starring Morgan Freeman, Tim Robbins, Bob Gunton, and Clancy Brown
The upcoming set of opening movies for Friday, August 27th sees a few movies coming at us… one with a limited re-opening. The opening movies include a limited opening for Centurion, a limited re-release of a special edition of Avatar, and then Takers, Flipped and Eli Roth’s produced horror flicked, The Last Exorcism.
Box Office Numbers
The people have spoken and done so loudly. The Expendables hung on to the top spot this last weekend at the Box Office and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is slipping into obscurity, bringing in only $5M. The parody, Vampires Suck took 2nd at the box office. Piranha 3D stuck it in at 6th for it’s gory, 3D, boob filled opening weekend at $10M!
Avatar, which has already grossed $2.7 billion Worldwide, is going to make just an itty bitty bit more with a limited re-release with 8 extra minutes of footage.
It stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and others.
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The Last Exorcism stars Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Caleb Landry Jones and more in a movie about a troubled evangelical minister who agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew.
Brought to us by producer Eli Roth, and directed by Daniel Stamm (A Necessary Death).
Finally, Clash of the Titans arrives. That’s a bit of sad news for me. I absolutely love the trailers that have been coming out for that movie. Other flicks include Leaves of Grass & Why Did I Get Married Too.
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Clash of the Titans
Clash of the Titans stars Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fienhes, & Gemma Arterton.
I caught the Saturday night Syfy Channel movie titled Screamers: The Hunting. It was made in 2008 and I have to say that it wasn’t bad compared to what they usually have. It felt like a real movie and from how it seemed, it was a sequel to the 1995 Screamers.
Despite feeling like a real movie, it still had some flaws. The ending did not surprise me at all. Throughout the movie it had the feel of the Alien sequel, Aliens. Which oddly, was on Syfy just before this. (Were they sending us a secret message?) And the guy that survived all the screamer attacks, tell me, if you saw this movie, that it didn’t feel like Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation, who was played by Sam Worthington? (Crap, did I just spoil it for anyone?)
All aside, the movie was put together rather well. The story stayed compelling and the effects weren’t the usual hokey, but were reasonable to decent.
I found a 2nd movie trailer for the 2010 movie remake of Clash of the Titans. I can’t seem to get enough of the thing… but I’m betting it has something to do with my PC’s sound system. When the Kraken roars, it shakes my room. I love it.
These days, previews are getting more noteworthy attention than some television shows or even some movies. In the case of Clash of the Titans, I find the preview to be damn exciting. Sometime trailers can be deceiving, other times, not. The fact that they’re making a big deal with the previews and featurette would normally worry me, but I don’t think that’s the case this time around.
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Goivanni Ribsi, Michelle Rodriques And Cch Pounder
Avatar (2009) is created and directed By: James Cameron, rated PG-13 and clocks in at 2 Hrs 41 min.
Slight plot spoilers included after the break.
I went into AVATAR knowing only that I hate Cameron as much as I love him, and there’s some Smurfy alien, Matrix-like action going on.
I quickly found myself blown away by the amazing display of visual images and emotions. Forget about 3D. When the 2D visuals are this good, 3D becomes the gimmick.
I realize 3D is mentioned as one of the major theatrical breakthroughs on AVATAR, but it really takes a back seat to the overall 2D cinematography and technological advances in CGI. In Terminator 2, James Cameron set the standard for CGI with the creation of the T-1000. It seems he’s done it again with AVATAR. The film clearly pushes the VFX to the next level destroying the uncanny valley between human and digital photo reality. This technological breakthrough is assisted and enhanced by some incredible acting performances by Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington.
