A Splice of Life.

Here is a look at a potentially very interesting movie that is making rounds on the festival scene and stars Adrian Brody and Sarah Polley. It is called “Splice” and looks just a little disturbing. The premise? Two scientist, despite legal and ethical boundaries, successfully splice animal and human DNA together into something that looks like it has a butt for a head. (Actually it becomes a Chimera like creature.) The result is, of course, a disaster as this mysterious creature named “Dren” turns deadly. It is to be released in February in Europe and hopefully will pick up some screenings here as well.

Here is a link to the website with an overly introspective video.

http://www.splicethefilm.com/

Dear John ends Avatar’s box office dominance

 

After an 8 week run, Avatar ends its domination at #1 at the box office. Adding its domestic gross of $630 million to its 1.5 billion, Avatar my have slipped from #1 but continues with world-wide domination a 2.2 billion. Romantic drama Dear John, was able to de-throne James Cameron’s juggernaut with a $32 million opening weekend. Avatar still boasts impressive numbers after two months with $23 million. Big movie openings this coming weekend from Wolfman and Valentine’s Day will also contribute to the end of Avatar dominance in the box office.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Dear John	Sony Pictures Releasing	$32,400,000	$32,400,000	1
2		Avatar	20th Century Fox	$23,600,000	$630,093,000	8
3		From Paris With Love	Lionsgate	$8,120,000	$8,120,000	1
4		Edge of Darkness	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$7,005,000	$29,097,000	2
5		Tooth Fairy	20th Century Fox Distribution	$6,500,000	$34,333,000	3

Wes Anderson reboots Spiderman?!?

Well, not quite. If he, though, it might look something like this.

Mad kudos to the group that put this together. Creative, clever, and classically Anderson-esque. I give it an unofficial three out of Five Babbles (Points deducted for the Owen Wilson impression being too good.)

3/5 Babbles

The Fantastic Mr Fox – For the Win!

Congratulations to Wes Anderson for winning the National Board of Review’s “Special Filmmaking Achievement” award for 2009!

Check out our own Jeff Jordan’s review on The Fantastic Mr Fox here, and check out Wes’s acceptance speech below.

Here Come the Razzies!

So with all the Oscar talk and Golden Globe nominees, the 2010 Razzies have just been released and the nominations are shocking! Not really…

Here are a few…

For Worst Picture the nominations are:

 Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. The Rise of Cobra, Old Dogs, All About Steve, and Land of the Lost.

I am proud to say that I have only seen two of these, yeah Transformers 2: Revenge of Mass Marketing and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Ripoff.

For Worst Actor the nominations are:

The Jonas Brothers (for Jonas Brothers 3-D), Will Ferrell (Land of the Lost), Steve Martin (Pink Panther 2), Eddie Murphy (Imagine That) and John Travolta (Old Dogs).

I am proud to say I have not seen a single one of these.

For Worst Actress the nominations are:

Sandra Bullock (All About Steve) , Beyonce (Obsessed), Mylie Cyrus (Hannah Montana: The Movie) Megan Fox (For Jennifers Body AND Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen) and Sarah Jessica Parker (Did You Hear About the Morgans)

Hold up, hold up, I bet Kanye has something to say about Beyonce’s nomination. Sandra Bullock probably wishes we could turn a blind side to hers but could it be possible for her to win BEST (The Blind Side) and WORST (All About Steve) actress in one year? That is quite an accomplishment and probably merits it’s own award.

Equally impressive is Megan Fox’s double nomination for Transformers 2: Revenge of Jennifer’s Body. I would also like to nominate Megan Fox for Worst Slow Motion While Running in Skimpy Outfit scene, except that it was freaking hawt.

Twilighter’s feeling left out? Don’t worry, Robert Pattinson still got a Worst Supporting actor nod for his fine follow up work to Twilight for his bold portrayal of an angst ridden Manpire in New Moon .

I am surprised that the Chipmonks 2: the Squeaquel  didn’t make it but good for Zachery Levi. I was certain it was going to be a Stinkquel.

Here is the Razzies website.    http://www.razzies.com/

Babblers, tell us your thoughts!

I see blue people…

After years of oppression, the blue community is finally vindicated with the success of Avatar. Blue people, unjustly enslaved to a life of servitude in the entertainment industry, are finally able to celebrate cinema domination with their Na’vi brethren from Pandora. After breaking the world-wide record last week, Avatar is just millions shy of breaking the all time domestic record of $600 million- the last stronghold held by Titanic. The ’Blues’ creative voices will finally be legitimized and they will no longer be relegated to trivial children’s programming or Las Vegas shows. Although the Blue Man Group helped paved the way years early, Avatar’s enormous success has ushered in a new era in ‘blue rights’. Still yielding ‘opening day’ numbers at $30 million this past weekend, Avatar will no doubt hold this record for many years to come. Not only is this a celebration of the American dream but to the to red, white, and BLUE.  

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Avatar	20th Century Fox	$30,000,000	$594,472,000	7
2		Edge of Darkness	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$17,120,000	$17,120,000	1
3		When in Rome	Walt Disney Studios Distribution	$12,065,000	$12,065,000	1
4		Tooth Fairy	20th Century Fox Distribution	$10,000,000	$26,106,000	2
5		The Book of Eli	Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution	$8,770,000	$74,373,000	3

the imaginarium of doctor parnassus

G’day mates! That’s so cliché, but I’m a proud Aussie. What are you gonna do?  Oy, it’s Heath Ledger, here to tell you about my farewell to Hollywood film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. As fate would have it, this would serve as my last movie. Had I known it would be my last, I definitely would have let my Joker performance in The Dark Knight be my swan song. Be that as it may, working for Terry Gilliam was no dull experience and certainly nothing to be ashamed of. Quite the contrary.

Gilliam co-pens and directs this ornate morality tale, set in modern London. It’s the story of an unsuccessful traveling sideshow, the center of which is Dr. Parnassus’ ‘Imaginarium.’ Patrons have the splendid opportunity to step into a dream world of their own imagination. Once there, they must choose between good and evil. Should they choose evil, they become property of Mr. Nick, the Devil himself.  Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) and Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) have a long history.  The doctor once won a wager with Mr. Nick that earned him immortality.  In one fateful deal with the Devil, Dr. Parnassus asked to have his youth restored for romantic reasons in exchange for his immortality. The Devil obliged with the caveat that Parnassus surrender his first born at the age of 16. At collection time, Mr. Nick makes one more wager to give Parnassus a chance to keep his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole). They would compete through the Imaginarium. The first to claim 5 souls, keeps Valentina. As Parnassus and company search for willing customers, they find me, Tony, hanging around. I join the band of players and my winsome spirit lures several candidates into the Imaginarium. I try to help Dr. Parnassus mend his past and retain his lovely daughter.

It sounds like a good enough story but somewhere in the execution of the film the story gets jumbled and sloppy. Gilliam’s penchant for strange imagery and animation seemed to overshadow the potential of the story. It seemed some of his images were recycled from his Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life days. Visually, you could leave the film feeling like it was made seven years ago. I believe many viewers will feel okay about this film about 40% of the way through, especially sheilas happy to see me on screen again. As it starts to lull, it’s awakened briefly by my good friends Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Ferrell playing alternate forms of my Tony character inside the Imaginarium. I love those blokes for stepping in to rescue the film.  That part is done so well that you wouldn’t know it wasn’t a part of the original plan. Once the novelty of that wears off, the story struggles to land.

You know, on second thought, I’m relieved that my farewell to your lovely faces was not done behind white make up and a sinister laugh. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is not the stellar send off some hoped it would be, but it is a gentle smile and nod from me to you after our ten year silver screen journey. It could have been worse. What if Monsters Ball or A Knight’s Tale was my final film? I give Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus a 2.5 out of 5 babbles.

AVATAR breaks historic record!

January 26th, 2010 marks a significant day in the history of cinema. The 12-year-old world-wide record previously held by Cameron’s own Titanic has officially been sunk. Experts thought it would never happen considering today’s ‘fast food’ movie era in which the average theatrical run is about 6 weeks. The 1997 Titanic domestically and internationally made $1.84 billion. Today’s reports is that Avatar has made $1.85 billion and is still growing. Which is pretty impressive considering the current economic crunch. Titanic still retains the domestic record at just over $600 million. Avatar just climbed to #2 with $554 million bumping the Dark Knight to #3 with $533 million. It is projected that Avatar will make the domestic record within the next few weeks. Looks like 3-D is here to stay. Congrats Jimmy.

Check out our posts, reviews, and exclusives on AVATAR.

Hot Tub Time Machine

The 80’s was my decade. I reflect back and remember, my first kiss, my first car, graduating high school, and going off to college. Many fond memories. However, I typically don’t have fond feelings for ‘road trip’ buddy movies. But since it takes place in the era of my youth, I will have to see it. I’m a Jon Cusack fan- but my John, how far you have fallen. This looks pretty awful, but hey so were the 80s. Hot Tub Time Machine opens March 19th.

Legion

*spoiler filled review (you can’t spoil what is already rotten!)*
I’m not a big fan of zombie or vampire movies but give me a good ‘end of the world’ story any day. I’m a sucker for angels, demons, and judgment day movies. However, against the better judgement of my peers, critics, and the entire Western hemisphere (13% on RottenTomatoes), I caught Legion in hopes of having something worthy to review for the faithful readers of B5. I apologize a head of time and please consider this a public service warning to protect your sense of good taste.

Legion starts with less than angelic Michael, played by Paul Bettany (Da Vinci Code, Beautiful Mind), dropping down from the heavens as a rogue agent on a mission of mercy. After inexplicably cutting off his wings, he heads off by car (?) into the darkness (not sure why he couldn’t just land at his destination). Meantime, a motley crue of characters are stranded at a crappy diner in a desolate town called Paradise Falls (I guess referring to Milton’s Paradise Lost?). 8 months pregnant Charlie, gets a visit from a sweet, old grannie traveler that turns out to be a freaky, wall crawling beast. After loss of power, loss of communications, and some serious bug problems, the panicking group is finally visited by the gun-toting Michael. The wingless angel explains that for some reason God is done with humanity and is about to destroy it with an army of heavenly hosts. However, for some inexplicable (you’re going to get tired of this word) reason, Charlie’s baby is the key for mankind’s survival. So like a video game, the new recruits have to gun down wave after wave of angel-possessed human-zombies as they try to break into the diner and kill Charlie’s baby. Eventually, there is a showdown between Gabriel and Michael. Michael somehow dies (I guess he’s a human now?) and returns just in the nick of time to save Charlie and baby for their inexplicable destiny. Whew, the only thing worse that watching it was writing it all out.

Legion had potential. There is not a lot of movies out there about angels, and even fewer that focus on heavenly warfare. The first half of this film sets up ok. The remote diner turns into a ’haunted house’ with zombies running around outside so that was pretty cool. However, it started to feel like they were trying to tell an ‘end of the world’ story within the confines of an aquarium. Instead of being about epic cataclysmic events, it just turns into a claustrophobic shoot out that takes place in about 2,500 square feet. To make it worst, when the plot tries to shift into high gear, the thing comes apart forcing you to suspend belief and all reason. Why are angels ‘possessing’ the weakling humans and try to zombie-walk their way up to the diner when they could just swoop down and tear the roof off? Why do the ‘angel possessed’ humans look more like demonic zombies? How exactly do bullets stop angels anyways? Angels seem to be able to possess anyone, why can’t they possess the principal characters? How did Paul Bettany get this gig? I’m thinking about this way too much…

By the time it reached its way to cliché, car chasing climax I was kind of hoping the good guys would lose just to see what would happen. The big shocker ending? Michael is elevated back to his angelic status because he was brave enough to turn on God and compassionate enough to save the baby- oh geez. By the end, the good guys win and drive off into the cliché sunset.

Tipped off by the trailer, the special effects are pretty amateur. Certainly nothing you wouldn’t see in a direct to DVD or cable TV program. It also didn’t help that this was one of the first movies for rookie Director Scott Stewart. I could have thought of about 100 other actors other than Paul Bettany to play Michael. His slim build and English accent hardly does the mighty archangel justice. A few of the other characters do an okay job but they had little to work with. A few cool things: The crazy grannie from the trailer was pretty freaky. There is also a brief toddler killer which was disturbing. I thought about 30 seconds of the final showdown between Michael and Gabriel was entertaining. Gabriel flapping around wielding a giant mace and slicing things up with his metallic wings was the best part of the movie. That was it for the likes.

For a movie named Legion, there was nothing big, epic, or interesting about this movie. With the exception of a little gore, this looked like something Christian broadcasting like TBN or Left Behind’s Kirk Cameron would have produced. Which is unfortunate because this is a topic still unexplored. With the right story, director, and budget, the next big genre could be discovered. Until then, I think even God will have trouble forgiving this sinful act.

I give Legion a 1.5 Babbles out of 5

Avatar = energizer bunny…

 

For a 6th straight week, Avatar has dominated the box office. Avatar’s run is reminiscent of the good ol’ days when movies like Star Wars and ET remained king of the box office for months at a time. Not only is it only 50 million short of the domestic record held by Titanic, its international sales has also been very strong. With it continually amassing profits for the next month, it looks like Cameron’s ‘Unobtainium’ of sinking his own record will become a reality. 

A smattering throw away movies didn’t stand a chance this weekend. Wolfman (Feb 10th) might be the first movie to challenge Avatar’s firstplace status anytime soon.

This Wk		Title	Dist.	Weekend Gross	Cumulative Gross	Rlse Wks
1		Avatar	20th Century Fox	$36,000,000	$552,797,000	6
2		Legion	Sony Pictures Releasing	$18,200,000	$18,200,000	1
3		The Book of Eli	Warner Bros. Pictures	$17,000,000	$62,003,000	2
4		Tooth Fairy	20th Century Fox	$14,500,000	$14,500,000	1
5		The Lovely Bones	Paramount Pictures	$8,800,000	$31,624,000	7

Team Spidey?

 

So there have been many disconcerting reports floating around about the new Spiderman movie and it looks like at least some of it has become true. For starters, Sam Raimi, who had originally expressed interest in the film, is now out as director. On top of that, Toby Maguire is out as well and Sony is basically calling this a reboot.

Instead Marc Webb will be directing. Who? Yeah, Marc Webb, who has one film under belt, “500 Days of Summer,” is going to be in charge. On top of that Sony is pressing for a quick release date and has given it a 80 million dollar budget. Worst of all, they have rotated through 4 different writers so far, no wonder Raimi wanted out. New director, 4 writers, new cast and an impatient movie studio have my spider sense that this could spell disaster and what could have been a pretty good series (the first two were great) could easily become a joke. Just look at the Batman movies from the early 90’s.

Could it get worse? Yep. Raimi’s Spiderman was based off the classic comic book we grew up with in the 80’s and early 90’s. This new film is most likely to focus more on the Ultimate Spider Man and the angst ridden youth of Peter Parker. Yes, I said angst which is what I am experiencing at this moment. It is thought that angst will appeal to the, gulp, Twilight market. Shake your head, take a deep breath, you heard it correctly. That is where the rumors of Robert Pattinson as Parker come in. While this is still a rumor, the thought is the new parker will fit more into this mold.

If Pattinson is in then I am totally out. Will Kristen Stewart play MJ? Maybe Taylor Lautner could even play Team Venom, except he would have to keep his shirt on.

Spiderman is not a girls movie, it is a guys comic book hero, to even think of changing it is sacrilegious. If our favorite wall crawling, web slinger sparkles then I am going to turn in my nerd card. I choose Team Toby.

In honor of this I wrote this song. Sung to the tune of “Spiderman” from the cartoon series.

“Emo man, Emo man. Doin’ the things, emo can.

Slashing wrist, he hates his life.

Uses angst, to win his fights.

Oh ohhh, here comes the emo man.”