Movie Clerks

Filed under: Romance, New Releases, Sony, Fan Rant
Due to a snafu (my own fault), I did not have a seat at Tuesday night’s Iron Man screening in Philadelphia. So while everybody who is anybody hereabouts was giddily watching Tony Stark transform from an arms dealer to an ass-kicking, metal-suited superhero, I was in a different theater one block away watching Patrick Dempsey be a bridesmaid in Made of Honor. There’ll be a Cinematical review of this film on Friday, but for now I’d like to ask a very specific question: what on earth could that title possibly mean?
Others who have seen the movie have referred to “Made of Honor” as “a pun,” or even an “appalling pun.” Okay, but a pun usually involves conflating two words or expressions that make sense in the same context and happen to sound alike. In this case, I only count one. Yes, I get […]

Tags: PatrickDempsey, patrick dempsey, MadeOfHonor, Made of Honor, summer2008 by
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Filed under: Action, Universal, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips

It’s here, in glorious Quicktime, and not a moment too soon for a June movie. Head over to Apple to watch it. This trailer is a vast improvement on the first, shades of the television show abounding everywhere. And this is definitely going to be much more action packed than Ang Lee’s version. Erik Davis was right on the money in his NYCC report — read his take on the trailer here.
I can’t help but feel it was too long though — between the two trailers, I feel like I’ve seen the whole movie, barring 18 minutes of that purported 20 minute fight between Abomination and Hulk. The encounter (pictured above) between Tim Roth and the Hulk is absolutely priceless, though. I won’t say what it is and spoil it — but I can’t say I haven’t […]

Tags: The Incredible Hulk, The Incredible Hulk trailer, TheIncredibleHulk, TheIncredibleHulkTrailer, NewTrailer, new trailer, summer 2008, Edward Norton, EdwardNorton, summer2008 by
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Filed under: Action, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Unscripted, Trailers and Clips

Who’s excited about Iron Man? We are, we are! And we know you, like us, are counting the days — nay, the hours — until May 2, when Iron Man hits the big screen. In the meantime, though, we have this little behind-the-scenes tidbit from Moviefone’s recent Unscripted interview with the Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr., Jon Favreau and Terrence Howard, interviewing each other with your questions.
The clip above (which is not included in the full interview over on Moviefone) is short, but funny — how can you not like a video that includes Robert Downey, Jr. talking in a Jersey accent and saying, “What?! You feeling froggy, bitch? Jump!” Oh, yeah. If only I’d been there myself for this, perhaps Downey, Jr. would finally recognize his long unrequited love for me. Oh, wait, I’m the one who’s […]

Tags: TerrenceHoward, Tony Stark, terrence howard, robert downey jr, IronMan, jon favreau, iron man by
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Filed under: Documentary, New Releases, Tribeca, Celebrities and Controversy, Politics

In Bigger, Stronger, Faster, a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, documentarian Christopher Bell takes a hard look at steroid culture and the bad rap it gets from mainstream America, tackling the Western obsession with body image. Clocking in just under two hours, Bell’s sprawling overview deals with the impact of 1980’s pop culture icons like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, then dives into the gritty details of steroid usage in sports and the recent congressional hearings where baseball players were reprimanded on national television.
Bell doesn’t view the issue in black-and-white terms: His own brothers, featured in the film, continually use steroids to enhance their bodybuilding careers. Contrasting the personal with the political, Bigger, Stronger, Faster diagnoses a distinctly American malady. Cinematical spoke with Bell last week in New York, where Bigger, Stronger, Faster has been screening […]

Tags: MagnoliaPictures, magnolia pictures, congress, steroids, steroids investigation, sundance2008, sundance, steroidsinvestigation, ChristopherBell, christopher bell, bigger stronger faster, ArnoldSchwarzenegger, arnold schwarzenegger, bigger-stronger-faster, BiggerStrongerFaster, ChrisBell, chris bell, arnold by
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Filed under: Comedy, Paramount, Movie Marketing, Trailers and Clips

The movie might not be popular with religious leaders, but I am happy to report that there is a still a really good chance that The Love Guru could be funny after all. Mike Myers, in the form of Pitka the Love Guru, has been posting what he calls ‘Mini-Sutras’ in anticipation of the release of Guru this summer. There are seven videos in total, and promises of more to come with Pitka’s musings on love, parenthood, and the importance of a good mantra.
Continue reading More ‘Love Guru’ Teasers - The Wisdom of Pitka

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Tags: TheLoveGuru, justin timberlake, JustinTimberlake, the love guru, MikeMyers, JessicaAlba, mike myers, jessica alba by
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Filed under: Drama, Music & Musicals, Casting, RumorMonger, Nicole Kidman
So Nicole Kidman might have already proven she can sing (a little), but is she really good enough to tackle the White Queen of Soul? Michael Cunningham, writer of The Hours and A Home at the End of the World, told NY Magazine that Kidman will star as singing legend Dusty Springfield in a music biopic that he is currently writing the screenplay for.
Springfield began her career at the tender age of 11, and by 1963 she had recorded her first major hit, I Only Want to Be With You. By 1967, the star had tired of show business and proceeded to record a string of flops from 1971 to 1986. Her comeback came in 1987 when The Pet Shop Boys asked her to sing on their hit What Have I Done to Deserve This? Springfield passed away from breast […]

Tags: nicole kidman, NicoleKidman, the hours, TheHours, MichaelCunningham, michael cunningham, AHomeAtTheEndOfTheWorld, dusty springfield, DustySpringfield, A Home at the End of the World by
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Filed under: Documentary, Festival Reports, Other Festivals
Sturla Gunnarsson introducing Air India 182.
Last year was the easy selection of Hot Docs. I got to see a ton of films, and most of them were pretty damned uplifting. I laughed at the sheer awesomeness of Billy the Kid, cheered for Girls Rock!, got a huge craving for tea with All in This Tea, got some art on with A Walk Into the Sea, gaped at Seven Dumpsters and a Corpse, and was in awe of Jessica Yu’s Protagonist.
It wasn’t a smile fest this year. This time around, the theme was death, tragedy, and all sorts of seriousness. Most of them were pretty damn good, but it’s been an exhausting week and a half seeing these films, thinking about them, and then writing about them. I still wish scheduling had permitted me to dip into the worlds of Wesley Willis and Kathy Acker, […]

Tags: Green Porno, DearZachary, GreenPorno, Hot Docs 2008 recap, HotDocs2008Recap, Dear Zachary, HotDocs2008, HotDocs, Hot Docs, Sturla Gunnarsson, SturlaGunnarsson, Hot Docs 2008, Cinematical by
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Filed under: Thrillers, Sundance, Magnolia, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
I told you a couple weeks ago how THINKFilm had picked up the gritty prison thriller The Escapist, and how the film, which stars Brian Cox, was the last thing I saw at Sundance this year. Well, I actually had a double helping of Cox that January night, because right before The Escapist I watched Red, another film boasting a terrific Cox performance — and now it’s headed for theaters, too.
Via The Hollywood Reporter we learn that Magnolia has picked up Red, with plans to release it late this summer. The film (which I reviewed here) is a thriller along the lines of Death Wish, only instead of avenging his wife’s murder, the Cox character is going after the punks who killed his dog. (Do not mess with a man’s dog!)

Continue reading Magnolia Will Serve Up ‘Red,’ Cox

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Tags: red, magnolia, BrianCox, brian cox by
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Filed under: Action, Thrillers, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips

An alternate version of the new trailer for The Dark Knight has been whispered about online for two days now, but I hadn’t seen a decent bootleg version with my very own eyes. At last, one was put up on YouTube — check it out above. As you probably remember, during that (patently unfair) viral campaign that saw about three hundred lucky fans invited to theatres all over the planet, from Seattle to London, one lucky fan in each group got a film reel of the trailer to keep. Everyone assumed it was just a standard copy of the thing.
Wrong. It turns out this version has been edited by the Joker — lots of black-eyed smiley faces and “HA HAs.” I haven’t watched the whole thing because, again, I want to see the new trailer […]

Tags: Jokerized Trailer, JokerizedTrailer, TheDarkKnight, The Dark Knight, summer 2008, summer2008 by
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Filed under: Foreign Language, New Releases, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, San Francisco International Film Festival

If nothing else, Eric Rohmer’s The Romance of Astrea and Celadon raises many interesting questions about the nature of the auteur theory and film canons in general. Rohmer is a certified auteur, and a world master. He has made many, many good films and a few great ones, especially when adding entries to his three celebrated series: “Six Moral Tales” (in the 1960s and 1970s), “Comedies and Proverbs” (six films in the 1980s) and “Tales of the Four Seasons” (in the 1990s).
These films, which often have a relaxed, al fresco quality, mainly focus on young, smart, attractive contemporary French people who talk a lot get themselves into romantic situations. When he departs from this successful formula, as with his last two films, The Lady and the Duke (2001) and Triple Agent (2004), the results are […]

Tags: stephanie crayencour, StephanieCrayencour, the romance of astrea and celadon, TheRomanceOfAstreaAndCeladon, EricRohmer, eric rohmer, film, movie, andy gillet, AndyGillet, Cinematical by
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