Well I know I am a little late in posting these but I thought I would make up for my tardiness with a perfect “one-two punch” of what looks like trailer gold.  Previously we had posted the first Daybreakers trailer, but this new one looks like icing on top of icing on an already sweet cake.  Please trailer gods, don’t tease me like this.  I truly hope this film will be as good as they make it look.  The last (supposed) vampire hunting extravaganza I can recall was Blade: Trinity (which was an awful, awful mess) so here’s hoping Daybreakers brings this fun incubus sub-genre back to form with 2 words: Willem. Dafoe.

Next up the much antticipated trailer for Kick-Ass.  I was really hoping that after the sweet looking ‘bootleg’ footage from Comic-Con and the posters we featured a few weeks ago the trailer would not dissapoint.  Good news everyone, it didn’t.  Not having ever read the comic book, this looks kind of like the quirky lovechild of Spider-Man and Superbad.  Either way, it looks very awesome for a first trailer (and the bonus having Mark Strong in it) but I’ll ask you, is it too trite to say this trailer looks ‘Kick-Ass’?  Have a look for yourself and enjoy…

So there you have it.  Just this thing to get us moving along on this slow going Thursday (hey, it’s almost the weekend and it’s nearly Friday in Japan so that makes me happy).  But  what do you at home think?  Anyone liking the above cinematic “bad-assery“?

saw this with some of my closest friends over the thanksgiving holiday!

Mr. Fox (George Clooney) gave up his life of chicken-thievery when his wife (Meryl Streep) told him she was pregnant. Two years later (that’s twelve fox-years), he impulsively moves his family into the base of a tree bordering on the three meanest farmers around: Boggis, Bunce and Bean (Michael Gambon). He also starts stealing again, triggering a slowly mounting feud with the farmers that becomes the major crisis of the film. But equally important are the family dynamics present: Fox has become reckless, endangering those around him as he tries to relive the thrills of his past and causing a schism in his marriage. His son Ash (Jason Schwartzman), who wears a cape and has no athletic ability whatsoever, also has an ongoing rivalry with his visiting cousin Kristofferson, a “golden child” in terms of physical prowess but with a sadness that comes to those with a firm moral compass in an immoral environment. 

Every animal in this movie has a day job; Kylie here is Mr. Fox's building superintendant.

It doesn’t sound much like a children’s movie, especially looking at the pedigree of the people behind it. The writers Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) and Noah Baumbach (The Squid & the Whale) are known for dissecting dysfunctional families and still finding the awkward humor and subtle drama that lay within. Their last collaboration, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, didn’t work as well as they’d hoped, yet they pulled together all of Anderson’s buddies (Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, even Wilson’s bald assistant in Darjeeling Limited) for another go, albeit more on the comedy end of the comedy-drama. However, this one also includes a character becoming mortally wounded and slowly, painfully passing away, something I definitely don’t encourage children to witness. There are a few sight gags children will enjoy, some frenetic action whenever a heist is taking place, and a random campfire song that borders on lunacy. but none of this is necessary to the film and feels tacked on. 

I’m the Devil’s Advocate this week, and as much as this pains me, I’m awarding Fantastic Mr. Fox three pitchforks; it knew exactly how to do anything it wanted, but it wasn’t sure what it wanted in the first place, and for that I’m disappointed. 

But here’s the thing: I love Wes Anderson. Rushmore is in my all-time top 10 favorite films of all time, and in my opinion, he’s never done a bad movie (one of only three directors around I can say that about). He and Baumbach expertly blend their offbeat brand of humor and sharp insights into  relationships with Roald Dahl’s classic tale of mischievousness giving way to responsibility. The production design is impeccable, and lets Anderson use his attention to detail at its highest level yet to engender both highly realized and highly surreal works of art. Much like Coraline and Where the Wild Things Are earlier this year, a writer-director adapted a children’s book and stayed faithful to it while putting a smart spin on it. I take back what I said in my review of 9; I hope the nominees for the Best Animated Feature Oscar are Coraline, Up and this gem of a film. I give Fantastic Mr. Fox four pitchforks; by infusing a paradigm of children’s fiction with contemporary cleverness and charm, Wes Anderson and his usual suspects prove his work can appeal to any generation or medium.

It may surprise some people that movie star Willem Dafoe (Spiderman, The English Patient, Platoon) has roots deep in the stages of experimental theater. Dafoe was a founding member of The Wooster Group in New York, along with director Elizabeth LeCompte and Spalding Gray. Recently, I was lucky enough to catch him back in his old stomping grounds in Richard Foreman’s “Idiot Savant” at the Public Theater.

Elina Lowensohn and Willem Dafoe in IDIOT SAVANT. Photo © Paula Court.

Sauntering in looking like a Samurai Libertine with a pacifier-like plug in his mouth, Dafoe plays the title role of the wondering Idiot with the petulance of a child and the anger of a madman. The set is a kind of padded Victorian cell, where his partners onstage, the ethereal Marie in the Black Dress and the booze slugging Olga in the Riding Pants, partake in a tense, abstract verbal dance culminating in the question: “What makes certain words… magic?”

Foreman (playwright and director of the production) famously writes page after page of non-linear dialogue – but in the hands of an outstanding cast, its meaning is clear. As absurd as “Idiot Savant” appears on the surface, to experience it is an oddly poignant event. Dafoe’s masterful performance is a touching reflection on our longing for meaning in life.

By the way, if you feel the urge to create your own experimental piece, Richard Foreman has made all of his notebooks available to the public.

- Susie Karlowski

Daybreakers (Opens Jan 8th). Not sure why this movie isn’t on the radar for many people. One of the posters I randomly grabbed up at this past year’s Comic Con was the one above. I didn’t think much of it (kinda like District 9) and automatically assumed it was another gory, horror flick.

I think I might be underestimating another film. This movie actually looks amazingly good.

Take a look at the trailer below:

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Starring: George Clooney (voice), Meryl Streep (voice), Bill Murray (Voice) Owen Wilson (voice), Jason Schwartzman (voice), Willem Dafoe (voice)
Directed by Wes Anderson

Rated: PG
Run Time: 87 mins
Genre: Comedy/ Adventure/ Animation/ Family
4 frames out of 5

We all know those people that can charm their way into getting what they want, think quickly on their feet and things usually work out for them in the end, right? Fantastic Mr. Fox is an adaptation of the children’s book by Roald Dahl. Mr. Fox (Geroge Clooney – voice) seems to have everything in life – a great job, a great family, a home, wonderful friends… but it’s not enough for him. He constantly wants more.
When he upgrades to a larger home against the wishes of his badger legal rep (Bill Murray – voice), the itch to go back to his wiley ways is hard to ignore.

Just up the hill from his spacious new tree home, lives 3 farmers; Boggis, Bunce and Bean. They each specialize in different areas of farming and live in abundance. Mr. Fox, in a past life, specialized in stealing chickens. The constant visual reminder of his human neighbors is taunting him to do one last job. He enlists the help of his friend Kiley (Wally Wolodarsky – voice) and they set off on their venture.

When the first job goes well, Mr. Fox plans to hit the remainder of the farms which raises suspicion in Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep – voice). Mr. Fox had made a promise to her hat he would walk away from the thievery and settle down to a respectable career. Of course, that promise was broken and now has aroused the fury of the farmers.

For this being a film based on a children’s book, the story is enjoyable from an adult’s perspective. It does a great job of keeping things balanced where the children will be enchanted by the animals and the adults will be rolling with laughter. If you are a fan of movies such as Chicken Run or Wallace & Gromit films, you will love Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Things to watch for: Really cleaver dialogue and ways of using profanity, yet not. Excellent stop animation. The ensemble cast – try to figure out whose voice belongs to which character.

Who should see this movie: Kids of all ages, Families, fans of the book.

See it in the Theater or Rent it on DVD: I would say for a family film this would be a good choice to see in the theaters and add to your home entertainment library.

I sit through a lot of kid movies. A lot. Our family has shelled out more money than I’d like to tally on gems such as Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs in all its 3D splendour, not to mention G-Force and Aliens in the Attic.

But today we saw a movie that makes up for every Hotel For Dogs and Monsters Vs. Aliens: Wes Anderson’s brilliant Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Top-notch actors like George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson bring old-school stop motion animated characters including foxes, weasels, badgers and rats to life.

Might not sound like much, but the combination of Roald Dahl and Wes Anderson is pure magic.

I love, love, loved it. See it on the big screen even if you don’t have a kid to take. Trust me on this one.

kp

A Fox family portrait.

(Fox Searchlight) Starring the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzmann, Michael Gambon, Wally Wolodarsky, Eric Anderson, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson, Jarvis Cocker, Brian Cox. Directed by Wes Anderson

One thing is true of all of God’s critters, two-legged and four-legged alike and that is that we must all be true to our own natures. If that nature invites danger and disaster, can we but follow the path presented to us or can we diverge into safety and security?

Mr. Fox (Clooney) is a chicken thief, and like all successful thieves he survives by being quick-witted and adaptive. His wife Mrs. Fox (Streep) doesn’t really approve of his line of work, but when they nearly get caught she forces a promise from him that he will find a different career path. He chooses the one that may be of all jobs even less reputable than chicken thievery – journalism.

Years have gone by and Mr. Fox continues to live in poverty in a comfortable hole with his family. He has gone straight but only on the surface; in his heart he is a clever chicken thief liberating poultry from farmers who are unwise enough to allow them to be liberated. Despite his lack of financial wherewithal Mr. Fox decides to buy a home above ground in a beautiful tree overlooking the farms of the three men who control the valley they live in (and three of the meanest men you’ll ever meet). While Mr. Fox’s lawyer Badger (Murray) cautions against it, Mr. Fox goes through with his plan to buy the house anyway even though it will put his family in the line of fire. That family is going through enough as it is with the arrival of cousin Kristofferson (Anderson) which further antagonizes Mr. Fox’s teenage son Ash (Schwartzmann) who has a bit of an inferiority complex to begin with.

In order to pay for his new mansion, Mr. Fox supplements his ink-stained wretch salary with a little thieving on the side, along with the help of his friend and general handy-man Kylie (Wolodarsky) who is prone to spacing out at odd intervals. This incurs the wrath of the farmers, led by the rail-thin chain smoker Mr. Bean (Gambon) who has nothing to do with the Rowan Atkinson character of the same name. They declare war on the fox responsible for the filching of their hard-earned wares, forcing the animals to tunnel for their lives. Can Mr. Fox devise a clever enough plan to save the animals and make everything fantastic again?

I want to make it clear from the beginning that I’ve always blown hot and cold when it comes to director Wes Anderson. While his best moments from movies like Rushmore and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou are arguably as good as any being produced today, he can also turn the quirk factor from charming to overbearing in a heartbeat. He is most definitely an acquired taste and one that I haven’t yet acquired.

However, to my mind this is the best work he’s done yet. The sight gags are often hysterically funny and the tone of the movie is just off-beat enough to be interesting. I suspect that Anderson may have dialed down things a bit in deference to the audience which is bound to include children (the source material is, after all, a classic children’s book penned by Roald Dahl, author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). In toning things down and making the movie a bit more accessible, he makes the quirky elements all the more effective.

It helps that he has a great voice cast. Clooney is sly, witty and charming in a Danny Ocean vein, with a heaping helping of Everett (the lovable ne’er do well from O Brother Where Art Thou?) thrown in for good measure. Streep is solid as the very much long-suffering Mrs. Fox and Gambon throws the right amount of hissable evil to his villainous Mr. Bean. Most of the others read their lines in a deadpan monotone which makes the humor a bit dry but emphasizes the irony much better. Those who don’t appreciate that sort of humor will probably find this movie frustrating.

I have to make it known that while this is ostensibly a children’s movie, I think adults may wind up finding it more appealing than the wee ones. Kids are not known for being terribly accepting of things that are different than what they’re used to, and some may find the tone strange or the overall humor a bit boring. There are some over-the-top physical gags that will keep ‘em happy but by and large adults will get this a little more than the Nickelodeon set will.

The animation is stop-motion and highly textured, with the fur of the animals rippling in unseen breezes along with the grass. Trees bend in unison like an arboreal chorus line, and tunnels are filled with dirt, rocks and roots. It is not specifically realistic, more like hyper-realistic (if you take for granted that foxes walk upright, wear tailored clothes and speak with more intelligence than the average human). Animator Harry Selick, the man who did The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach was originally slated to animate this movie before delays caused schedule conflicts and Selick would go on to do Coraline. Instead Anderson hired Mark Gustafson who did the California Raisins commercials back in the day. Good choice, that.

Pleasant surprises make going to the movies a pleasure. I hadn’t been particularly looking forward to this movie but there’s a good chance this will wind up in our home video collection (which will likely be Blu-Ray by the time it gets out in that format). It isn’t often that I can say an animated feature will be appreciated more by adults than by children, but I think that I can say that with confidence here. Certainly there is that sense of magic and enchantment that is necessary in any animated feature, but with a tone and intelligence that is more adult. In other words, this is a movie that doesn’t talk down to children which is a good thing in my book. Next to Up, this is the best animated feature I’ve seen this year.

REASONS TO GO: Lots of great sight gags and a snappy off-kilter tone make this appealing to fans of indie films and Wes Anderson. Quirky without being overbearing. There are some nice vocal performances, particularly from Clooney and Gambon.

REASONS TO STAY: Although based on a children’s book and marketed to kids to a certain extent, this really isn’t a traditional children’s movie and if your tyke isn’t open to new things, they might find this strange or boring.

FAMILY VALUES: Some mildly salty humor but really suitable for the entire family.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The tree the Fox family lives in is based on a beech tree on the property of original book author Roald Dahl, and Mr. Fox’s study is a near-perfect recreation of Dahl’s own study in his garden hut where he did most of his writing.

HOME OR THEATER: Chances are this will work just as well on a home screen but I kinda liked it on the big screen. You make the call.

FINAL RATING: 7/10

TOMORROW: MirrorMask

Couldn't this poster have read: Based on the book by Roald Dahl?

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the second movie I’ve seen recently that’s based on a children’s book, the other being Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are…. Just like Jonze, Wes Anderson (the director) took the source material and made it very much his own. This has all the eccentricities of a typical Anderson movie like the camera work, the ‘look’ and the yesteryear soundtrack. If you like his movies, you’ll probably like this one. I did. If you hate his movies, well… Give this one a try anyway.

Wes with his stop motion actors...

I have to compare this a little to a couple of other movies that I have reviewed here; the aforementioned Where The Wild Things Are and Men Who Stare At Goats. Unlike Wild Things, this movie was very upbeat and was much more fun than that one. And unlike the Goat movie (which also starred George Clooney ) this was very fast paced besides just being ‘quirky’.

VERY fast paced...

The story moved along very rapidly with lots of twists and turns. Anderson made sure that even in the moments where characters were just talking, there was still a lot going on ( I enjoyed Ash’s preoccupation with the ‘White Cape’ who is never really talked about by name. You just see the White Cape posters, the comics, etc… I also loved the kid badger in the skeleton costume).

I’m sure upon a 2nd viewing that I will see things that I did not catch the first time (and I think I caught a lot). Like all of Anderson’s movies, careful attention is paid to each character… Their mannerisms, clothes, their surroundings…. Every character, no matter how minor,  seems to have a back story.

The source material...

The movie makes use of traditional stop motion animation and is layered with the trademark Wes Anderson detailing. I don’t think the CGI route would have fit the director’s quirky style half as well as the stop motion method does.  There is real art in the puppet and prop builders and there is just something that I have always found cool about this style of animation. Maybe it reminds me of the old Rudolph Christmas cartoon, I don’t know, but I like it.

Anderson with the 'human puppet' cast...

The story itself is about a fox (the Fantastic Mr. Fox) voiced by George Clooney.Mr. Fox is basically  a chicken thieving con artist, but promises his lady love (voiced by Meryl Streep) that he’ll get a legitimate line of work when she reveals that she is pregnant. So he becomes a newspaper columnist.

Mr. Fox with the Missus...

Not happy with his lot in life (living in a hole), he moves his family into a very luxurious tree that has a few drawbacks to it. For one, it’s overlooking the farms of some of the most diabolical farmers in the entire world.

Kylie...

He’s only satisfied for a short time, before he begins plotting to raid the farms in one last big heist with aid first from his friend Kylie (a spacey opossum played by Wallace Wolodarsky), and Kristofferson (Mr. Fox’s gifted nephew…).

Kristofferson and Ash...

Of course this upsets the farmers… Not only that, but it disrupts his happy home life. He’s lying to his wife about the heist and his son Ash (voiced by Anderson regular Jason Schwartzman) feels inferior to Kristofferson, especially when Mr Fox enlists him into the heist scheme. And all of this snowballs into a mass of complications that encapsulates the entire animal community. I won’t give away any more. It’s worth finding out for yourself.

Murray with his Badger counterpart.

There were plenty of ‘cameo’ parts by Anderson regulars such as Big Bad Bill Murray (as Badger, Mr. fox’s lawyer),  Owen Wilson (as Coach Skip who relates the athletic exploits of Mr. Fox to his son) and of course Willem Dafoe (as the villainous Rat, a scoundrel from the Fox family’s past). Dafoe has had some pretty diverse roles in his career.

Someone with too much time on their hands combined this with another Dafoe movie of late that might give you a chuckle or two. That’s Dafoe’s voice at the end…

Brian Cox and Wes Anderson also add voice work and I was also VERY happy to see that the lovely Karen ‘Duff’ Duffy (of MTV VJ fame) voiced the character of Linda Otter. I always loved her. I hear she’s had some up and downs with her health lately.

The lovely Duff.... MTV VJ ICON!

Anyway… It’s an all ages movie. They don’t curse, but they do say ‘cuss’ a lot, which was pretty funny. It was actually one of the more entertaining ‘family’ movies that I’ve seen and would compare this in quality to older ‘family’ films such as Time Bandits and The Dark Crystal. Maybe not quite as good and resounding as those 2, but this one’s right up there. 4 of 5 Whatevers. A great effort!

2006: Inside Man di Spike Lee

Meritorio grande successo ai botteghini di tutto il mondo, lodi a non finire da parte della critica.

Prime sequenze: quattro persone travestite entrano nell’affollata hall di una prestigiosa banca. Nel giro di pochi secondi, i rapinatori sono padroni della situazione e in più con 50 ostaggi.
Cosa c’è di più visto sullo schermo? In più di cento anni di cinema quanti esempi di “bank robbery” (come dicono a Hollywood) sono stati realizzati?

Eppure qui ci troviamo di fronte a qualcosa di nuovo, qualcosa di molto originale e sorprendente. Non stupisce, visto chi è il regista.
Basandosi su un sceneggiatura particolarmente brillante ed intelligente (l’autore è un esordiente), Spike Lee ha diretto con evidente entusiasmo un film eccezionalmente non ricavato da un suo copione (il filmmaker afro-americano appartiene alla scuola “do it yourself”, “fa’ tutto da solo”). Non smentisce però la sua fama di realizzatore di lavori dinamici e controversi che smuovono il pubblico (e nell‘opera non manca la critica sociale: polizia, mass media, pregiudizi razziali…).
Inside Man (cioè “L’uomo che sta dentro”) non è un semplice tipico thriller: è un film che ti spinge a guardare dietro le apparenze, un film in cui niente è come sembra, un lavoro in cui le false piste abbondano e solo lentamente e gradualmente si comprende il perché le cose accadono.
Un poliziesco (ma forse è riduttivo definirlo tale) che finalmente non si basa su sparatorie e inseguimenti di auto, ma su una “idea”.
Un’opera «in cui nulla è vero ciò che sembra all’inizio, in cui nessun dettaglio è trascurabile, in cui nessun indizio è casuale» (sono le frasi di lancio del film e questa volta la pubblicità non mente).

Un lavoro che, se avesse avuto una maggiore stringatezza nella parte centrale, avrebbe potuto aspirare al titolo di piccolo gioiello del genere e che è senz’altro da consigliare agli amanti dell’intrattenimento puro che non obblighi il cervello al momentaneo letargo.
Il film è impreziosito da un montaggio serrato, una colonna sonora funzionale al massimo, una fotografia e una scenografia da dieci e lode.

Stellare il cast.
Da Denzel Washington (alla quarta collaborazione con il regista afroamericano, ma qui offre una performance semplicemente corretta limitandosi a rifare se stesso) a Willem Dafoe (con la sua sorprendente capacità di adattarsi completamente al ruolo che interpreta). I migliori in campo sono senza dubbio Clive Owen (sempre intenso e dalla presenza imponente, da molti critici giustamente avvicinato ad H.Bogart, R.Mitchum, S.Connery…) e Christopher Plummer (che dopo aver partecipato a più di cento film conferma la sua straordinaria bravura disegnando perfettamente il personaggio affidatogli). Dà lustro al film la presenza, sempre gradita, di Jodie Foster: appare in poche scene ma raramente l’abbiamo vista così seducente, sofisticata e sexi. Presenza magnetica la sua: poche attrici “riempiono” lo schermo come lei. 

pubblicato su Cinema4Stelle

sito ufficiale

Utterly charming adaptation of Roald Dahl’s famed story by director Wes Anderson. In many ways it plays like Anderson’s Greatest Hits, with stop-motion puppets instead of overly twee human beings. Those who don’t favor Anderson’s whimsical style probably will not become believers after this, but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. The voice cast is great and the art direction, as usual in an Anderson movie, is perfect. It worked for me in a way that Spike Jonze’s manic/depressive filmic version of Where the Wild Things Are did not. 82

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Thanksgiving Shooting Leaves Four Dead; Manhunt On For Suspect
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Editorials from Hell”s leading daily newspaper, The Dis Brimstone …
Paul Michael Merhige [photo above] is being sought for a quadruple murder of his own relatives that occurred at a Thanksgiving party in Jupiter, Florida. Dead are the shooters cousin, McKayla Sitton, 6, the shooters sisters,Carla …

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4 relatives shot dead at Fla. Thanksgiving party – WAAYTV.com …
Jupiter Police Sgt. Scott Pascarella said theyre looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, of Miami. Merhige is the cousin of the 6-year-old victim, McKayla Sitton, police said. The other shooting victims were named as Ramone Joseph, …

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Palm Beach PostMan sought after 5 shot in FloridaCNNDetectives in Jupiter, Florida, were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, in connection with Thanksgiving night shootings. (CNN) — Police in southern Florida were searching Friday …

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Continuando con la moda vampírica, está ya disponible el primer trailer de Daybreakers, la cinta de Michael Spierig a estrenarse este próximo enero en Estados Unidos. la cinta nos muestra un mundo en donde la mayoría de los habitantes son vampiros, por lo que la poca cantidad de humanos disponibles los obliga a tomar medidas extremas para asegurarse el sustento. El concepto es bastante interesante, y por lo que podemos ver en los avances, el nivel de acción es muy alto. Por si fuera poco, podremos ver a gente como Willem Dafoe y Sam Neill, junto con un elenco de primer nivel.

I’m sure there are cooler places than a book store for a 25-year-old to be on a Friday night, but I’ve given up on being cool. Why bother? If you aren’t on the party list by now, just accept the fact that you won’t be on the list and go on with your life.

Speaking of cool people, I had the privilege of observing a few high school kids in the cafe, and cool they were not. There were three girls and a guy. Two of the girls took turns being the alpha male of the group, dominating the conversation with their severe assertions about pop culture. The other girl was timid and looked too attractive to truly be a part of this group. I’m not sure if it was the thick, black rimmed glasses, but she actually seemed like she was going undercover as “uncool” to get some sort of story for her other attractive friends. Maybe she and her more attractive friends were sitting around doing whatever it is attractive people do when they aren’t busy laying other attractive people or moving up the corporate ladder, when one of them attractively wondered what unattractive people do with their time. Since this girl was the least attractive of the attractive bunch, they sent her out for some undercover research. While my predictions place the other two unattractive girls as male-repelling, damp smelling, used book store habitting loud mouths, I see the attractive girl as a future housewife with perfect children, a compulsive disorder in search of a more perfect existence, and a cheating husband (welcome to my imagination). I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the lone guy in the group, a fixture in any group of socially awkward adolescents. He seemed to be sending signals for passerbys to save him from his hopelessly lame group of default friends. He didn’t say a word the entire time I eavesdropped, excuse me, observed.

No celebrities were safe from this vicious pop culture bash fest. In the 10 minutes it took me to get my tea and invade the personal space of an unsuspecting girl by brushing against her skinny jeans to plug in my lap top adapter, the Dallas Divas hit music, movies, and everything in between. Of Willem Dafoe from the new flick, “The Anti-Christ”, they snorted, “He’s not going to be winning any Oscars, but good try!”  They had the nerve to bash Lady Gaga, saying, “Anyone who is a fan of hers is just a closet skank.” I was about to take off my earrings and get Gessner Neighborhood Wal-Mart by this time. No one bashes Lady Gaga in my presence! Afraid of the inevitable wiffs of wet dog I would have to endure to let them know what’s up, I put my crunkness back in my crunk case and kept my mouth shut.

There is no moral or golden rule nugget attached with this random post. I’m just curious as to why neither of the alpha males seemed to notice the looks and stares from the rest of the people in the cafe. The guy was clearly miserable and dying to be set free. The attractive detective was dutifully accepting the embarassment as part of her job. None of the other patrons came to the book store to hear their mock- Culture Gabfest (a popular segment on slate.com) with their opinions about the directing of Twilight Moon, or whatever the latest installment is called from that Vampire series. I came here to think and to figure out how I could read this month’s Rolling Stone that has a cover of that funny looking vampire boy without being mistaken for a real Twilight fan. They made my arduous task that much more difficult.

Mr. Fox and the neighbourhood animals put on their bandit hats in "Fantastic Mr. Fox".

(Wes Anderson, 2009)

November 27, 2009

by Joel Crary

In some ways, “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is the ideal project for Wes Anderson. The precise staging of his live action films is miniaturized to shoebox size for the director to get just right. While watching the finished product I imagined Anderson crouching to look at the sets at eye level, taking measurements with a ruler and luxuriating in the freedom of a world without actors to wait on his attention to detail. The same sort of pageantry that Anderson has made his trademark, told in shots that routinely appear to have generated from still images in the director’s mind, spills over into stop motion animation and for a while I was amazed to see how well it worked.

Anderson’s scripts are often funny and inventive, especially when he executes visual humour that plays against his characters, all of whom, animated or otherwise, are written as visionaries in their own specific way. His characters rarely break down, and when they do, voices are rarely raised and limbs are rarely thrown. There is typically a verbal recognition of the circumstances before everyone moves on to accomplish a task. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is no different. Its titular character, voiced by George Clooney, is a man with a master plan. In a manner of speaking.

As in Anderson’s other films, everything is in the details. Acting on base instinct, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Meryl Streep) approach a farm to make off with some chickens. Mr. Fox lays out how everything is going to go down, from the fence latch to the trap position to the hiding places. He takes pride at being the best at what he does, but life is short. There’s a cub on the way and the real estate market looks promising. Fox trades in his thieving ways for a stable editorial gig at the local paper and moves his family out of the foxhole into a cozy tree. One caveat, according to Fox’s lawyer (Bill Murray): His neighbours are none other than Boggis, Bunce and Bean, three farmers so nasty that they are the subjects of unflattering children’s limericks.

Meanwhile, Fox’s son Ash (Jason Schwartzman) isn’t living up to the legend of his father. He can barely play whackbat, a satire of cricket with rules that the high school coach (Owen Wilson) goes over in a blur of complicated instruction (it ends up being pretty important). Ash’s athletic, sleek and zen cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson) moves in and a rivalry starts for Fox’s attention. Ash sees a golden opportunity to impress his dad by exacting a master plan of his own, but Kristofferson can nail a high dive with hardly any splash-back. It’s no contest.

Never one to turn down a challenge, Fox wants back into the thievery game and sees the farmers as a golden opportunity. He enlists the help of Kylie (Wallace Wolodarsky), an opossum who inconveniently tends to go cross-eyed. With Kristofferson’s help, they stage raids on the farms, armed with drug-laced blueberries to knock out the guard dogs. Unfortunately, Bean (Michael Gambon) has a world of artillery at his disposal, not to mention a security rat (Willem Dafoe) who seems to have taken tough guy lessons from “West Side Story”. Soon, the animals are banding together to survive and looking for revenge under their much cooler Latin designations: Call Fox Vulpes Vulpes.

There are funny moments when the animals revert to their wild tendencies in spite of the fact that they’re clad in formal wear, and that indeed seems to be the dichotomy on which the whole narrative is based. If Fox would only resist his animalistic side, he could live a quite satisfying life, but he would be denying his instinct and thereby himself. There are moments of effective introspection, but some feel as though they’re there purely for the sake of a toast. The animation is unlike anything I’ve seen, especially when Anderson pulls out to show his characters running from afar or digging through layers of complex set designs.

I’m not convinced that Anderson’s talent with dialogue is entirely suited to a children’s tale, but he has certainly made the tale his own. Other than “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, which began and ended for me with the colourful Gene Wilder movie, I had a childhood that was all but bereft of Roald Dahl. Since I didn’t read “Fantastic Mr. Fox” growing up, Wes Anderson’s adaptation, which is exceptionally creative in its animation, doesn’t work for me on the level of a nostalgia kick. It looks pretty cuss spiffy, though.

Você está muito longe de Forks…

Se você estiver procurando um filme sobre vampiros que não envolva garotos sem camisa e vampiros que andam no sol, sua escolha no momento será Daybreakers.

Seu lançamento ocorrerá em janeiro de 2010, sua história : em um futuro próximo, os vampiros assumiram o poder no mundo, só que os meros mortais de sangue quente, os humanos querem que isso acabe.

Para os vampiros os humanos são nada mais que um “gado”, e sendo assim nenhum respeito ou direito existe.

O filme é estrelado por Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill e Willem Dafoe, assista o trailer abaixo da película.

Now that we have a brief respite between Twilight movies let’s take a look at a good vampire movie.  This trailer isn’t too different from the first trailer, but that’s alright, probably you never watched that one anyways.  Here’s the rundown on the plot.  The vampires have taken over the world and they’re running out of humans.  But secretly the humans are building resistence cells.  Also there’s a cure for the vampires.  Add that to some gloriously good cinematography and some good actors and I think we have an exciting movie.

Click on the better poster for the trailer.

From Yahoo.

- izi

The trailer for Ethan Hawke’s new vampire film “Daybreakers” has been posted on the Internet.

In Daybreakers, nearly all of the world’s population are vampires. The remaining humans left on Earth are hunted down and harvested for blood. A discovery is made that the blood supply is running low and that there is only enough blood to feed to population until the end of the month. The government is trying to find a new source of blood to survive, but all their experiments are not working.

A human ambush’s Hawke’s character and he finds out that their is a cure that will turn vampires back to their human selves. Hawke’s character races to save humanity from extinction and prevent the vampires from starving to death.

Daybreakers stars Ethan Hawke (Gattaca), Willem Dafoe (Spiderman), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), Claudia Kraven, Isabel Lucas (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen), Vince Colosimo (Body of Lies).

Daybreakers hits theaters nation wide on January 8, 2010.