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Dabangg 2

2013-01-11T09:48:00.003-08:00

Cast: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Prakash Raj, Arbaaz Khan

Direction: Arbaaz Khan

Rating: ***

Arbaaz Khan knows that he owns a very successful franchise and to score big with ‘Dabangg 2’ he needed to do more than just replicate the same format. ‘Dabangg 2’ tries to deliver on its promise as much as possible and our hero indulges his fans in true Salman Khan-ishtyle.

Chulbul/Robinhood Pandey (Salman Khan) has now taken a transfer to Kanpur where goon-turned-politician Thakur Bachcha Lal (Prakash Raj) needs to be tamed. There are quite a few encounters between Chulbul and Bachcha bhaiya’s men and every time our supercop manages to beat the bad boys to a pulp in his inimitable style.

Chulbul has made peace with his stepbrother and stepfather and is a more domesticated man now. He is no longer the brash, presumptuous lover but a more romantic and understanding husband. While some of the interaction between Chulbul and his once-estranged father and brother is endearing, I somehow liked the arrogant Chulbul Pandey much better than this one.

The problem with ‘Dabangg 2’ is the same that plagues most sequels; unless there is an essentially original plot and an unpredictable twist, there is nothing new in this story. The gags, the stunts, the catch phrases, even the song placement at regular intervals give the film a very repetitive feel.

What works for the film is the fact that the length is just right and prevents the film from becoming tedious. Salman Khan is at his entertaining best as Chulbul/Robinhood Pandey.

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Dabangg 2 Trailer

Rajdhani Express

2013-01-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of stories that go wrong, that don’t play out the way the director conceives it, that has drawbacks that pull down the pace of the film but this one is so disjointed and incoherent that it makes you wonder what was Ashok Kohli thinking when he decided to make ‘Rajdhani Express’.

Actually it took me a while to wrap my mind around the actual premise, if any. A fashion designer (Sudhanshu Pandey), an item girl (Pooja Bose), a scriptwriter (Priyanshu Chatterjee) and an impostor (Leander Paes) are all aboard the Rajdhani Express. Since they are all traveling in the same compartment, they decide to get drunk and play a game where they will reveal each other’s secrets. Each secret reinforces every Bollywood stereotype possible – the item girl has sex for money, so much so, that she starts soliciting her co-passengers, the fashion designer says he is gay but has no issues engaging in some harmless hanky-panky with the item girl in the train restroom. And our impostor is an angry young man who has been wronged in every way possible by society and therefore, has the license to be obnoxious and pass the most chauvinistic comments making it impossible for the audience to feel any sympathy for this protagonist with a troubled past.

You have hardly come to terms with the shoddy storytelling when the plot trajectory goes off in a complete tangent. There is a bomb threat and alleged terrorists on this train and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Jimmy Shergill) decides to take matters into his own hand. The omnipresent media can’t be left far behind and they are roped in to play a bizarre part. The narrative is interspersed with needless drama, random flashback sequences and totally dispensable romantic numbers.

I had hoped that at least the performances will salvage this film. Leander Paes has definitely lost his first game, set and match in Bollywood. Priyanshu Chatterjee, who is usually dependable, completely hams it up trying to speak Hindi in a Bengali accent. The .5 rating in this film is only and only for Jimmy Shergill, who approaches and executes his role with complete sincerity.

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Rajdhani Express Trailer

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola

2013-01-11T09:33:00.002-08:00

‘Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola’ has a lot of things going for it but somehow it lacks the edge of other Vishal Bharadwaj films. Except his last production (7 Khoon Maaf), Vishal Bharadwaj’s productions are commendable for their tight, flawless scripts but in ‘Matru…’ too much time is spent on background and creating context before the story unfolds.

While the plot is basically about illegal land acquisition; here the story revolves around industrialist Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapur), his daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma) and Mandola’s odd-job man Matru (Imran Khan). Bijlee is all set to marry the local politician’s (Shabana Azmi) dumb son Badal (Arya Babbar). The wedding is a mutually beneficial deal between the industrialist and the politician. But of course, there has to be the typical Bollywood-style twist where Bijlee falls in love with Matru, putting the entire arrangement in jeopardy.

The reason why it is difficult to grasp the narrative immediately is because the plot oscillates quite a bit; it’s a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of the fight for the villager’s rights, there’s a bit of the absurd but the direction is not as sure-footed. The pace of the first half is quite slow and the story tends to drag a bit till interval. Except a few songs, there’s nothing outstanding about the music.

What works for the film is the solid performance by its lead actors. Imran Khan has obviously put in a lot of lot of hard work to make the transformation to a Haryanvi hero. He almost gets the accent and pronunciation; maybe he needed to be a little more arrogant, as far as his body language was concerned. Shabana Azmi is a delight to watch as the scheming, manipulative politician. But it is Pankaj Kapur’s film all the way; he plays Harry Mandola with élan as his eccentric character switches between the shrewd opportunist and the endearing drunk.

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Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola Trailer

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2013-01-11T02:49:00.001-08:00

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Hollywood News

2013-01-08T02:06:00.000-08:00

Barca end the year on a high as Real lose

MADRID (Reuters) - Unbeaten La Liga leaders Barcelona ended 2012 on a high when Lionel Messi struck his 91st goal of the year in a 3-1 win at Real Valladolid while their arch-rivals Real Madrid slumped to a 3-2 defeat at Malaga.

It was the perfect tonic for Barca following the news that coach Tito Vilanova had to have throat surgery last Thursday.

The 44-year-old was released from hospital earlier on Saturday and was absent from Valladolid's Jose Zorrilla stadium as Barca racked up a record 16th win in 17 games this season.

Real's woes deepened after the stuttering champions suffered a second consecutive setback following last weekend's 2-2 draw at home to Espanyol.

Coach Jose Mourinho sprung a surprise by leaving captain and goalkeeper Iker Casillas on the bench and the defeat left Real 16 points adrift of Barca.

They are seven behind second-placed Atletico Madrid, who won 1-0 at home to Celta Vigo on Friday, and their lead over Malaga in fourth was cut to two points.

Mourinho told a post-match news conference Real were "facing an insurmountable gap" but dismissed a question about whether he feared for his job.

"Football is football, why should I fear for my job?" the Portuguese said.

"We coaches know perfectly well that football has no memory. The titles you have won don't count, the work you have done doesn't count.

"Losing always hurts but it hurts me more when you don't give what you are able to give.

"In the brief chat I had with the players I told them they can go home sad at losing but in the knowledge that they did their job to the best of their ability."

Barca have 49 points from 17 matches, a record for this stage of a La Liga campaign, and the only match they failed to win was a 2-2 draw at home to Real in October.

Atletico, resurgent under Argentine coach Diego Simeone, have 40, with Real on 33 and Malaga, who are coached by Mourinho's predecessor at Real, Manuel Pellegrini, on 31.

TRADEMARK RUN

Valladolid kept a dominant Barca at bay until two minutes before halftime when Messi, who earlier shook the frame of the goal with a free kick, played Jordi Alba through on the left and Xavi turned his low cross into the net.

Messi uncharacteristically fluffed a simple chance early in the second half but the Argentine World Player of the Year doubled Barca's lead in the 59th minute with a trademark run and finish.

Xavi's clever back heel set the Argentine on his way and Messi dinked the ball between a defender's legs before firing a low shot into the far corner.

It was his 26th La Liga goal of the campaign and his 91st of 2012, extending the calendar year record he broke earlier this month when he overhauled Gerd Mueller's 40-year-old mark of 85.

Javi Guerra pulled a goal back for Valladolid in the 89th minute before Cristian Tello added a third for Barca in added time moments after coming off the bench.

Barcelona's assistant coach Jordi Roura has taken charge on a temporary basis until Vilanova, who is starting a course of chemo- and radiotherapy, is well enough to return.

"We are on a good run and we had to make a final effort for the year to dedicate the win to Tito," Xavi told reporters.

"We should have killed off the game earlier by taking a three-goal lead so as not to suffer but they made it 2-1 in one of their few attacks," added the Spain midfielder.

Malaga goalkeeper Willy Caballero palmed a swerving Cristiano Ronaldo free kick onto the crossbar early in the match at the Rosaleda before Isco fired the home side ahead with a low shot from the edge of the area four minutes after the break.

A Sergio Sanchez own goal in the 66th minute brought Real level but two goals in quick succession from substitute Roque Santa Cruz left the visitors reeling.

Mesut Ozil made the most of a stray pass to set up Karim Benzema for Real's second eight minutes from time but Malaga held on for their first home win against the Madrid club in almost 30 years.

Real Betis, who are fifth, slipped three points behind Andalusian rivals Malaga with a 2-1 defeat at home to Real Mallorca.

Mallorca ended a run of nine defeats and three draws stretching back to the beginning of October and are 16th on 16 points.

Athletic Bilbao's erratic form continued when they lost 2-0 at home to Real Zaragoza, leaving last season's Europa League finalists in 13th on 21 points, a point behind Zaragoza in 12th.

The Kraken wakes: first images of giant squid filmed in deep ocean

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese-led team of scientists has captured on film the world's first live images of a giant squid, journeying to the depths of the ocean in search of the mysterious creature thought to have inspired the myth of the "kraken", a tentacled monster.

The images of the silvery, three-metre (10 feet) long cephalopod, looming out of the darkness nearly 1 km below the surface, were taken last July near the Ogasawara islands, 1,000 km (620 miles) south of Tokyo.

Though the beast was small by giant squid standards - the largest ever caught stretched 18 metres long, tentacles and all - filming it secretly in its natural habitat was a key step towards understanding the animal, researchers said.

"Many people have tried to capture an image of a giant squid alive in its natural habitat, whether researchers or film crews. But they all failed," said Tsunemi Kubodera, a zoologist at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, who led the team.

"These are the first ever images of a real live giant squid," Kubodera said of the footage, shot by Japanese national broadcaster NHK and the Discovery Channel.

The key to their success, said Kubodera, was a small submersible rigged with lights invisible to both human and cephalopod eyes.

He, a cameraman and the submersible's pilot drifted silently down to 630 metres and released a one-metre-long squid as bait. In all, they descended around 100 times.

"If you try and approach making a load of noise, using a bright white light, then the squid won't come anywhere near you. That was our basic thinking," Kubodera said.

"So we sat there in the pitch black, using a near-infrared light invisible even to the human eye, waiting for the giant squid to approach."

As the squid neared they began to film, following it into the depths to around 900 metres.

"I've seen a lot of giant squid specimens in my time, but mainly those hauled out of the ocean. This was the first time for me to see with my own eyes a giant squid swimming," he said. "It was stunning, I couldn't have dreamt that it would be so beautiful. It was such a wonderful creature."

Until recently, little was known about the creature believed to be the real face of the mythical kraken, a sea-monster blamed by sailors for sinking ships off Norway in the 18th century.

But for Kubodera, the animal held no such terror.

"A giant squid essentially lives a solitary existence, swimming about all alone in the deep sea. It doesn't live in a group," he said. "So when I saw it, well, it looked to me like it was rather lonely."

With Kimmel move, ABC aims to copy morning success late at night

REUTERS - After toppling NBC's "Today" show in the morning show ratings for overall viewers for the first time in 16 years, ABC is now taking aim at NBC's iconic "Tonight Show" franchise.

The network, owned by the Walt Disney Co , launches on Tuesday evening its most ambitious - and riskiest - effort to grab a slice of television's late-night audience, moving "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to the 11:35 p.m. time slot and displacing the hour's top-rated show, news program "Nightline."

Pushing Kimmel's show to 11:35 p.m. from its usual midnight airing puts the popular and pudgy young host in direct competition with Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" on NBC and "The Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS Corp , not to mention Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," hosted by Stephen Colbert.

Moving "Kimmel" earlier may help ABC capitalize on both advertiser demand for entertainment programming and provide a boost to its prime time schedule. Late-night shows, like morning news programs, are among the most profitable for networks because they cost less to produce. Their ratings are also steadier than prime time shows because there are fewer repeats.

The network calculus goes like this: Advertisers will pay higher rates for entertainment shows at that hour compared with news programs. Plus, more regular "Kimmel" viewers means more people will see promotions for ABC's prime time slate, driving a bigger audience there and potentially boosting the network's overall financial performance.

According to Jason Maltby, lead TV ad buyer at media buying firm Mindshare, late-night is one of "two areas where (ABC) can make more money." The other is early morning, where its "Good Morning America" usurped NBC's "Today" show in ratings.

"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" currently leads the late-night broadcast comedy race with 3.4 million viewers on average, according to Nielsen. "The Late Show with David Letterman" pulls in 3.0 million, while "Jimmy Kimmel Live" grabs 1.9 million.

In 2011, companies spent $425.8 million to advertise during Leno, Letterman or Kimmel, according to the most recent yearly data from Kantar Media. Leno's show led the pack, grabbing $160.8 million. Letterman brought in $157.4 million, while Kimmel earned $107.7 million. "The Colbert Report," which runs for 30 minutes starting at 11:30 p.m., collected $41 million.

"Nightline," the 33-year-old newscast that began as a daily update during the 1980 Iran hostage crisis, actually draws more viewers than all of its entertainment-focused late-night competition, averaging 3.9 million viewers nightly. The 30-minute "Nightline" will move to 12:35 a.m. and also will air in a new one-hour prime time slot on Fridays.

Although "Nightline" attracts more viewers than "Kimmel," ABC says switching the two shows will allow it to secure higher ad rates, known as cost-per-thousand viewers or CPMs, because advertisers prefer an entertainment audience over a news audience at 11:35 p.m.

YOUNGER AUDIENCE

At 45, Kimmel is two decades younger than Leno, 62, and Letterman, 65. ABC believes that fact coupled with his younger, tech-savvy audience will make his show more appealing to advertisers. The network's marketing blitz features ads with the tagline: "Younger. Smarter. Funnier. Earlier." Kimmel has been making the media interview rounds and exposed his butt crack for a Rolling Stone magazine cover story.

"Jimmy attracts a really fantastic demo," ABC Entertainment President Paul Lee said in an interview. "He will start to make the audience younger and, because it is entertainment, he will bring in higher CPMs."

Maltby agrees, saying Kimmel's show gives ABC "the opportunity to get a larger audience, which means more revenue."

Kimmel is kicking off the time shift with big-name guests, including Jennifer Aniston and Ryan Gosling. The comedian said he will continue to experiment with new segments on his show, but he does not plan any changes based on the earlier start.

"It will pretty much be the same show that we've been doing," he told reporters during a December 19 conference call.

Advertisers will watch Kimmel's ratings over the next few weeks to see if the initial audience sampling generated from the hype leads to viewers sticking with the show, said Jackie Kulesza, video activation director for Starcom USA.

NBC executives expected initial interest in Kimmel's move to impact Leno's ratings, although they declined to be specific.

"The reason we're not that concerned is because of Jay's legacy all these years," NBC Entertainment Chairman Robert Greenblatt said at a Television Critics Association meeting.

With the "Nightline" move, "there's going to be some viewers freed up and I'm not sure they're going to go to Jimmy Kimmel necessarily."

ABC OVERALL

As it shuffles the late-night schedule, ABC is experiencing mixed results in other time periods. "Good Morning America," the network's marquee morning show, knocked NBC's "Today" show from the top ratings spot it held for 16 years. In 2012's fourth quarter, "Good Morning America" ranked No. 1 with an average of 5.1 million viewers, ahead of the 4.6 million for "Today," according to ABC.

It is unclear how the ratings victory has impacted the "Today" show's historic lead in the race for morning-show ad dollars. The first two hours of "Today," from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., collected $278 million in ad revenue in the first half of 2012, according to Kantar Media. "GMA" took in $167 million during that time period. Full 2012 data is not yet available.

In prime time, ABC is staring at a year-over-year ratings decline that also hit rivals CBS and Fox in the fall.

ABC's prime time lineup fell 6 percent among viewers 18 to 49, the age group prized by advertisers, according to Nielsen measurements of viewing on the day a show airs. CBS dropped 13 percent and Fox slumped 23 percent. NBC, boosted by "Sunday Night Football" and singing competition "The Voice," gained 22 percent.

From the start of the fall season through the end of 2012, ABC and Fox were roughly tied for third place among broadcasters, with an average of 3 million viewers each based on same-day viewing.

During the fall, ABC canceled new dramas "666 Park Avenue" and "Last Resort." The network ordered full seasons of alien comedy "The Neighbors" and musical drama "Nashville."

Lee noted that ABC finished first among 18- to 49-year-olds for non-sports programming on a ratings measurement known as C3, which captures viewers who watch a recorded show and its commercials within three days. C3 is the metric advertisers use when they buy and sell commercial time.

"We did what we were trying to do," Lee said. "We were number one in C3 for entertainment."

This week, ABC will highlight upcoming mid-season shows in front of reporters at a Television Critics Association meeting. They include drama "Zero Hour" starring Anthony Edwards and "Red Widow," about a woman who hunts for the truth behind her husband's death. (Reporting By Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Peter Lauria and Andre Grenon)

Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters

2013-01-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

Catching up with Hansel and Gretel (Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton), fifteen years after the traumatic incident involving a gingerbread house, the siblings have grown into vengeful bounty hunters dedicated to exterminating witches. Over the years, the siblings became expert hunters, famous for their proficiency at tracking and taking down their prey. Although still recovering from their ordeal, their work is relatively easy as for an unknown reason harmful spells and curses do not work well against them.

The Mayor of Augsburg, Germany recruits them to rid the town and nearby forests of an evil sorceress (Famke Janssen) who is planning to sacrifice many local children at the witches' gathering during the upcoming 'Blood Moon' night in two days time. To make things worse, the duo also has to deal with the brutal Sheriff Berringer (Peter Stormare) who has taken power in Augsburg and conducts a very indiscriminate witch-hunt of his own.

According to a 2009 interview with Wirkola, "it's an action-adventure horror movie that finds Hansel and Gretel fifteen years [after their first witch incident] and they've grown up to become merciless witch hunters. Blood and gore and action, all the stuff that I love. (...) It's definitely an R-rated movie, the first draft has a lot of blood and guts. First and foremost, it's an action movie, I think, with horror elements. And of course some dark humor as well. But the action and horror are the most import feelings I want."According to Adam McKay in 2010, "the idea is, they’ve grown up and they hunt witches. It’s a hybrid sort of old-timey feeling, yet there’s pump-action shotguns. Modern technology but in an old style. We heard it and we were just like, ‘That’s a freakin’ franchise! You could make three of those!'" McKay added, "the witches are awesome in it. Nasty, mean witches, and we'll get some great actresses for them as well."

Filming began in March 2011 and is taking place in Potsdam Babelsberg and in the city of Braunschweig, Germany On December 3, 2011, Entertainment Weekly released the first publicity photo of the film. Initially slated for a March 2, 2012 release, Paramount Pictures pushed it to a ten month delay for January 11, 2013. The first trailer for the film was released on September 5, 2012. The film was then delayed by two weeks to January 25, 2013 to avoid competition with Gangster Squad.

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The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D

2013-01-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

On August 19th, 1973, the people of Newt, Texas, led by Mayor Burt Hartman (Paul Rae), burn down the farmhouse of the Sawyer family for their role in aiding Jedidiah "Jed" Sawyer, also known as "Leatherface", in several murders. The arsonists are celebrated as heroes in the town, and the entire family is presumed dead. However, an infant, Edith Sawyer, is found by one of the townsmen, Gavin Miller (David Born) who promptly murders her mother, Loretta Sawyer (Dodie Brown), and adopts Edith with his wife, Arlene (Sue Rock).

23 years later in 2012, Edith has been raised by her abusive parents, Gavin (David Born) and Arlene as Heather Miller (Alexandra Daddario). One day, a lawyer, Farnsworth (Richard Riehle), informs her that her long lost grandmother, Verna Carson (Marilyn Burns), has left her an inheritance, and Heather learns of her adoption. Angered, she sets out on a trip through Texas with her boyfriend Ryan (Tremaine Neverson) and two other friends, Nikki (Tania Raymonde) and Kenny (Keram Malicki-Sánchez), with little regard to her mother's warning. They also pick up hitchhiker Darryl (Shaun Sipos).

When they arrive, Farnsworth gives her the keys to the house along with a letter from Verna. Excited about the property she now owns, Heather and her friends look through the house, decide to stay the night, and immediately set off to buy supplies and food, trusting Darryl to stay and look over the house. Darryl begins looting it and believes he will find valuables in a locked room in the cellar of the house; however, upon entering the locked room he is bludgeoned by Leatherface. Heather and her friends return and discover the house has been ransacked, but choose to let it go.

As Kenny prepares dinner, he finds the butler's cellar, where Darryl was killed, and Leatherface impales him. Nikki seduces Ryan into a barn, where they have sex. Heather finds a deceased body upstairs and while trying to find her friends. In the kitchen she finds Leatherface cooking part of a human body; she is knocked out by Leatherface. Waking up in Leatherface's room, she witnesses him saw through Kenny's body, and manages to escape to the graveyard. Hearing the screams and chainsaw, Ryan and Nikki shout and draw the attention of Leatherface, while Heather gets the minivan and frantically picks up her friends.

In the ensuing chase, Leatherface catches up with the minivan and slashes one of it's tires. As the three try to escape, the minivan crashes and flips over, killing Ryan. Heather escapes and makes her way into the carnival where Leatherface follows, but escapes. Heather is taken in by the police, one of whom, Sheriff Hooper (Thom Barry), suspects Leatherface survived the fire and is still alive. Heather looks through the official police records and learns about her family's and the town's histories. She finds the public information which declares the townsfolk who murdered the Sawyer family heroes and also finds the classified report from Sheriff Hooper, which details that the townsfolk were the assaulters. Hartman sends a police officer, Officer Marvin (James MacDonald) to the Sawyer farm to kill Leatherface. However, Officer Marvin is startled and accidentally kills Nikki, before being killed by Leatherface.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D Trailer

Hollywood movies released in 2013

2013-01-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

List Of Upcoming Hollywood Movies Released In Theaters Worldwide From Jun 2012 To End Of 2013 January, 2013
January 4	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D	Lionsgate

January 11	Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters	Paramount Pictures
January 11	Scary Movie 5	Weinstein Co.

January 18	Monsters, Inc 3D (Re-Release)	Walt Disney Pictures
January 18	Broken City	20th Century Fox
January 18	The Last Stand	Lionsgate

January 25	Battle of the Year: The Dream Team	Sony/Screen Gems
January 25	Parker	FilmDistrict
January 25	Untitled Farrelly Brothers Wessler Comedy	Relativity
February, 2013
February 1	Bullet to the Head	Warner Bros.
February 1	Warm Bodies	Summit Entertainment

February 8	47 Ronin	Universal
February 8	The Bitter Pill	Open Road
February 8	Safe Haven	Relativity

February 13	Beautiful Creatures	Warner Bros.

February 14	A Good Day to Die Hard	20th Century Fox
February 14	Escape From Planet Earth	Weinstein Co.

February 22	I, Frankenstein	Lionsgate

TBA	Tyler Perry's The Marriage Counselor	Lionsgate
March, 2013
March 1	Elysium	Sony Pictures

March 8	Oz, The Great and Powerful	Walt Disney Pictures

March 15	Carrie	Sony/Screen Gems
March 15	Now You See Me	Summit Entertainment

March 22	The Croods	Paramount Pictures
March 22	Captain Phillips	Sony Pictures
March 22	Jack the Giant Killer	Warner Bros.
March 22	The Croods (IMAX)	Paramount Pictures

March 29	G.I. Joe: Retaliation	Paramount Pictures
March 29	The Host	Open Road

TBA	Trance
April, 2013
April 5	Untitled Paul Feig Comedy	20th Century Fox

April 12	42	Warner Bros.
April 12	Evil Dead	Sony/TriStar

April 26	Oblivion	Universal
May, 2013
May 3	Iron Man 3	Walt Disney Pictures

May 10	Identity Thief	Universal
May 10	Tyler Perry's We the Peeples	Lionsgate

May 17	Star Trek 2	Paramount Pictures
May 17	Pixels	Sony Pictures

May 24	Fast and Furious 6	Universal
May 24	The Hangover 3	Warner Bros.
May 24	Epic	Fox Searchlight
June, 2013
June 7	After Earth	Sony Pictures

June 14	Superman: The Man of Steel	Warner Bros.
June 14	The End of the World	Sony Pictures

June 19	Turbo	Paramount Pictures

June 21	Monsters University	Walt Disney Pictures
June 21	World War Z	Paramount Pictures

June 28	The Internship	20th Century Fox
June 28	RIPD	Universal

June 30	Tai Chi O (Limited)	Well Go USA
July, 2013
July 3	The Lone Ranger	Walt Disney Pictures
July 3	Despicable Me 2	Universal
July 3	Independence Day 3D (Re-Release)	20th Century Fox

July 12	Grown Ups 2	Sony Pictures
July 12	Pacific Rim	Warner Bros.
July 12	The Smurfs 2	Sony Pictures

July 19	Jurassic Park 3D (Re-Release)	Universal

July 26	Dirty Dancing	Lionsgate
July 26	Phineas and Ferb	Walt Disney Pictures
July 26	The Wolverine	20th Century Fox
August, 2013
August 2	300: The Battle of Artemisium	Warner Bros.
August 2	RED 2	Summit Entertainment

August 9	RoboCop (Re-Release)	Sony Pictures

August 16	Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters	20th Century Fox

August 23	The Mortal Insturments	Sony/Screen Gems

August 30	Leo the Lion (Limited)	Weinstein Co.
September, 2013
September 7	Paranoia	Relativity

September 13	The Little Mermaid 3D (Re-Release)	Walt Disney Pictures
October, 2013
October 4	Sin City: A Dame to Kell For	Dimension Pictures
October 4	Unititled Henry Selick Disney Project (Limited)	Walt Disney Pictures

October 18	Seventh Son	Warner Bros.

October 25	The Trick or Treaters	Weinstein Co.
November, 2013
November 1	Enders Game	Summit Entertainment
November 1	One Direction Concert Film	Sony Pictures
November 1	Singularity	Sony Pictures
November 1	White House Down

November 8	Me and My Shadow	Walt Disney Pictures
November 8	Thor 2	Paramount Pictures

November 22	The Hunger Games: Catching Fire	Lionsgate

November 27	Frozen	Walt Disney Pictures
December, 2013
December 6	Santapprentice (Limited)	Weinstein Co.

December 13	The Hobbit: There and Back Again	Warner Bros.

December 20	Walking with Dinosaurs	20th Century Fox

December 25	The Secret Life of Walter Mitty	20th Century Fox
December 25	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Paramount Pictures

To Be Announced 2013
TBA	The Dark Tower	Universal
TBA	Gravity 3D	Warner Bros.
TBA	King of the Elves	Walt Disney Pictures
TBA	Mommy and Me	Sony Pictures
TBA	Ouija	Universal
TBA	Replicas (Limited)	IFC Midnight

Best Movies 2012

2013-01-05T09:32:00.001-08:00

The Dark Knight Rises July 2012

The Legend Ends

Director: Christopher Nolan. Cast: Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Juno Temple, Nestor Carbonell, Marion Cotillard, Josh Pence, Vincent van Ommen, Tom Conti, Matthew Modine, Joey King.

Overview: Following the death of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman assumes responsibility for Dent's crimes to protect Dent's reputation and is subsequently hunted by the Gotham City Police Department. Eight years later The Dark Knight, returns to Gotham, where he encounters the mysterious Selina Kyle and the villainous Bane, a new terrorist leader who overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.

Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller. Country: United States of America. Runtime: 2h 45m. Rated:PG-13.

Movie links: Trailer IMDb TMDb RT Homepage

Hollywood Best Movies of 2012

2013-01-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

#1 Gun November 2012

Thuppakki

Director: A.R. Murugadoss. Cast: Vijay, Kajal Agarwal, Vidyut Jamwal.

Overview: The story revolves around a youngster from a Mumbai-based Tamil family and his decisions he takes after his life undergoes a sudden turn. The film, which commenced production in December 2011 in Mumbai, was released on 13 November 2012, coinciding with the festival of Diwali.

Runtime: 2h 45m.

Movie links: Trailer IMDb TMDb RT

Barfi Bollywood Movie

2013-01-05T03:48:00.002-08:00

Anurag Basu's 'Barfi!' manages to string together beautiful moments: moments of love, friendship, loss and discovery. It's commendable how much the film says through unspoken words. There are few movies that strike a chord and leave you overwhelmed when the lights come on and 'Barfi!' is definitely one such movie.

It's interesting that this film has a deaf-mute hero and an autistic female lead and yet, has one of the most coherent narratives we have seen recently. As Basu's plot unfolds, his characters tell an endearing tale of love, longing, togetherness and hope. There's the rush of first love, the mirage of impossible relationships, the compromise of right choices and eventually the acceptance of irrational emotions.

Ranbir's performance is well nuanced and each expression is priceless. RK just keeps getting better with each performance. As 'Barfi!' his Chaplinesque antics are the most endearing but we see him play a whole gamut of characters in this film, there's his mischief, his antics, his proposal, his heartbreak, his moments of loneliness and, above all, his disarming charm. Ranbir's performance towers not only way above his co-stars but also all of his contemporaries.

Priyanka and Ileana have done justice to their roles, but Ranbir's allure is too overwhelming for others to even have a chance at being noticed. Saurabh Shukla, as the hassled police officer, is the only other character who makes an impact. Their constant chases, the near-captures and Barfi's repeated escapes make for the most entertaining part of the movie.

There are many memorable moments in the film, like Barfi's naïve wooing of a girl he just meets, or his anger when he realizes that his proposal of marriage was just presumptuous and the time when he is being protective of Jhilmil (Priyanka) when he catches someone ogling at her. These and many other such instances steer clear of melodrama and yet, leave you either in splits or teary-eyed.

I don't know if Pritam's music is 'inspired' from elsewhere but the songs work really well with the story. If the success of a film lies in not only how much it entertains you while you are watching the film but also in the infinite moments that stay with you long after you have left the theatre, then 'Barfi!' is a clear winner.

Raaz 3 Bollywood Movie

2013-01-05T03:40:00.004-08:00

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Esha Gupta, Bipasha Basu
Directed by Vikram Bhatt
Rating: 1/2*

The world is made of up of good and evil forces. Aatmas and Parmatmas. Those with chalk-smeared faces and those who merely appear as blinding lights and speak with an echo. But none of them can be immortal enough to live through a show of 'Raaz 3'. The prospect of getting horrified in three-dimension could be promising. But Indian horror films, as pioneered by the Ramsays, have rarely gone beyond junior artists in Halloween costumes grunting like death-metal vocalists. Here you have just that, and perhaps a few mouth-to-mouth adventures and some Kentucky fried frights. Yes, it is no raaz that you're up for some good ol' Bhatt kicking.

Pat! Pat! Shanaya Shekhar (Bipasha Basu) whacks her five-inch lashes uncomfortably as she has just lost the best actress award to budding newcomer Sanjana Krishnan (Esha Gupta). Her obvious assumption: There is no God or he has better films to watch. Luckily, an ex-domestic help happens to introduce her to another force, one who redresses those who've been ignored by the almighty. The light in the mandir is switched off, 'doosri shakti'- on.

Tara Dutt (Manish Choudhary) is a man who wears just the right amount of mascara to maaro lines like, "Main aatma hoon." He comes to Shanaya's rescue by offering her a jar of purified evil water. Once Sanjana consumes it, her soul will be trapped. But this liquid has to be offered to her only by a reliable person. Why? Because unreliable people can't really be relied on anymore.

Enter film director Aditya Arora (Emraan Hashmi), who is indebted to Shanaya for offering herself a few times too many. So you can guess who will spill what in whose drink and who will then have hallucinations of women wailing, clowns playing hide and seek and a certain domestic servant hanging herself after being severed by giant shards of glass. Predictably, Aditya is completely charmed by Sanjana' sob story and when she has an outburst, he calms her not by offering the filmy 'hosh mein aao, Sanjana' slap but with a more sociable mouth-to-mouth. And while all this will leave your imagination a little doped, we present a few dialogues that will spill alcohol on your wounds.

"Bachcha aur kutta sirf pyaar ka bhooka hota hai, aur mere dad ne mujhe sirf mere hisse ka pyaar diya hai," — Sanjana to Aditya. This roughly translates as, infants and dogs both crave love and my father loved me for my part.

"Ek zinda aurat ek zinda mard ke saath kya karti hai, wohi karegi tu," — Aatma to Shanaya. Yes, she does him too.

Doctor to Aditya: "Would you believe it if I tell you that I believe you. Schizophrenia aur bhoot-pret mein jyaada farak nahin hai. Bas science isse nahin maanti." So now we know the dialogue writer's precise disorder.

If you're still hungry for more, we have some tandoori ghosts inspired by Body Worlds who can change shape, disappear on demand, wreck havoc but when they have to convey a message- they're conventional enough to make a phone call.

The songs in the film are composed carelessly and can be forgotten without much effort. ButBipasha's Lady Ghagra jig in 'Kya Raaz Hai' will be as painful to swallow as it will be to forget. But to her credit, she can move better than Esha Gupta, who masters the art of managing all her steps without splaying any of her limbs.

Being a film where the VFX could've been a game changer, the technicians fail to impress. And the much-tweeted about 'attack of the flying cockroaches' scene looks more like a sewage pipe exploding. If director Vikram Bhatt has applied himself completely into this project, it says quite poorly of his sensibilities as it conforms to every cliché that one associates with Bollywood horror from the beginning of time. Good over evil. Dig out the idol of Ganpati and he will show you the way. Even a few drops of Gangajal flow in towards the end.

If Bipasha Basu had a career, it would be ruined. But since she doesn't, there's little that this film can take away from her. Her character isn't possessed but that doesn't stop her from rolling on the floor or laughing deliriously or doing anything that would suggest an unsound mind. Esha Gupta is a stunning portrait of a beautiful girl playing poker. While she makes a pretty face on the screen, she can't create creases on it to form any recognizable expression. Even in the scene where her character realizes that she has been cheated, all she does is cover her ears. Perhaps the reason she couldn't hear the director scream, "Emote! Emote!" Emraan Hashmi has now moved on to a league of actors who can't be dispirited for being associated with a possible Ghanta award winner. He takes his role as seriously as he could but his efforts couldn't exorcise the devilishly terrible plot from spelling doom for this film.

From being transported to a parallel universe to finding the 'chosen one' for the job, this film is quite like 'The Matrix'. Only difference, here you need both the pills. The first- to go down the Bhatt hole and the second for the ensuing headache.

Joker Bollywood movie

2013-01-05T03:35:00.004-08:00

Well, Shirish Kunder has done the impossible; he has outdone himself at bad filmmaking, 'Joker' is worse than 'Tees Maar Khan'. I guess it's time that Kunder considered outsourcing some of his work because clearly, story, direction and editing was too much on his plate.

Raja Sen in his review says that 'Joker' is a daft comedy:

So what happens if a film -- one ostensibly in the guise of a comedy -- doesn't try too hard? The humour here isn't grating, overdone, outrageous, offensive, excruciating, unwatchable. This, then, may just be an approach that could be called a step forward in an Akshay Kumar comedy if only the aforementioned humour wasn't also nonexistent. There isn't a single line in Kunder's film that actually works, leaving us with a film that, while commendably brisk in a 100-minute package, refuses to get going at all.

Maybe you thought star power would make this film work but even Sonakshi Sinha's good luck charm seems to have failed this time. Anupama Chopra writes:

Akshay is no stranger to bad movies so he gamely ambles through the film. Sonakshi Sinha, playing his girlfriend, is barely there; I think Asrani has more screen time than her. The biggest tragedy is that writer-director Shirish Kunder hasn't even made one of those sublimely bad films that become unintentionally funny. Joker is just exhausting. This time, the joke's on us.

Rajeev Masand is the only critic who was willing to overlook some of the flaws:

It's easy to write off Joker as a complete failure, but to give credit where it's due, the film is less offensive than many Akshay Kumar films we've seen recently. Devoid of double-meaning dialogues and sexist jokes, there is stuff here that might have made for an engaging children's film, had Kunder not fallen prey to that oldest mistake — of treating his audience like fools.

Taran Adarsh is totally unforgiving and says, "JOKER is a joke of a film,":

JAAN-E-MANN, Kunder's directorial debut, had style and substance both, but Kunder's intention of making an entertainer that hits the right notes fails this time. Choosing an unconventional story is great, but coming up with a gripping 2-hour film is nothing short of a challenge and that's where this film boomerangs [thankfully, the run time of the film is less than 2 hours!]. In fact, it gets cumbersome to sit through the film after a point, since what unfurls is ridiculous and bizarre.

English Vinglish - Sridevi

2013-01-05T03:24:00.002-08:00

When buzz got around that Sridevi was making her Bollywood comeback after 15 years, I was a little wary. 'Return of the (once) divas' after marriage, childbirth or a brief hiatus, marked with lot of publicity and fanfare, hasn't historically set the cash registers ringing (remember, Madhuri's 'Aaja Nachle', Rani's 'Dil Bole Hadippa' and more recently, Karisma's 'Dangerous Ishq'). However, Sridevi has chosen a director who manages to competently exploit her craft and she delivers with poise and aplomb.

Like the promos have made it evident, 'English Vinglish' is about a housewife whose only handicap is that she does not know English. It's a small problem but it has huge ramifications for Sashi (Sridevi) who feels isolated and disconnected from her own family because of the language barrier. When we inadvertently make fun of people's accents and pronunciation, we operate on the premise that knowledge of the English language is imperative for everyone despite their background.

Gauri Shinde has used everyday instances, like a parent-teacher meeting, a visa interview or an international travel to show how daunting it can all seem when you don't know English. Something as simple as ordering a sandwich in the US can become the most intimidating experience. While Sashi struggles with her spoken English, along the way, she meets people like Father Vincent or her co-passenger (Amitabh Bachchan), a fellow customer at the café, Laurent (Mehdi Nebbou) or her niece (Priya Anand), who understand her weakness and try to help her in their own little way.

Shinde creates characters who remain memorable even though they have bit roles in the film. Each character in the spoken English class is unique and endearing in their own way. I wanted to see a little more of the class and their funny interactions but I guess, if you have seen 'Mind Your Language', the gags would have been repetitive. I also liked the fact that she did not go overboard with the romantic track. The pace of the first half was a little slow but Sridevi manages to keep the viewers engaged.

It's encouraging to see that a forty plus actress can still have a role that seems completely written for her. Sridevi stands tall with a commendable performance which is so well nuanced. She is spot on as the sensitive wife and mother, who is only looking for some respect; her body language changes as she learns the language and feels more confident of herself; you can understand her restlessness when she wants to quietly slip away for her English class. The best thing about her is that she doesn't try to play to the gallery by doing jhatkas and thumkas at this age. She lets her acting speak for her, forget any rust, Sridevi seems to have got better at her craft with age.

The premiere show of 'English Vinglish' had got a standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival and the film deserves every bit of it. Gauri Shinde's debut as a director is sure-footed and confident and Sridevi is back as if she had never been gone.

English Vinglish sridevi trailer

Today's self-serving, social media-obsessed pop stars are a far cry from the original power couple in bed -- John Lennon and Yoko Ono -- who had something to say.

2013-01-04T23:24:00.001-08:00

The evidence came by way of bedding -- specifically: an identical-looking black and white polka-dotted comforter seen in the pair’s respective photo journals, leaving fans and critics alike to speculate once more about their seemingly on-again relationship.

It's clear that the two have been trying to rehabilitate their image as a couple since Brown’s scandalous assault of Rihanna on Grammy weekend in 2009, for which he was sentenced to five years probation and 1,400 hours of comunity service. The duo's sometimes-shrewd use of social media as well as a recent appearance at a Los Angeles Lakers game has certainly kept them in the news -- not that either of them need any help -- adding fuel to the firestorm over their controversial (abuser-abusee) rapport.

PHOTOS: The Beatles to The Wanted: The Evolution of Boy Bands

Sadly, all this self-serving personal effort and grand media manipulation is a far cry from the original “power couple in bed” scenario. I refer, of course, to John Lennon andYoko Ono, who in 1969 coordinated two well-publicized “bed-ins” for peace. In stark opposition to the Vietnam War, John and Yoko used their marriage and honeymoon as a tool to promote world harmony by holding press conferences in bed for a solid week at the Amsterdam Hilton (March 25th through March 31) and then again in the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal (May 26 through June 2).

Unlike the semi-estranged/semi-devoted and spotlight-addicted Chris and Rihanna, John and Yoko appeared together between the sheets and made themselves available to the media and others from morning to night. They conducted interviews, hung out with famous friends, and spoke with curious fans, all in the name of World Peace. Lennon even wrote and sang the song “Give Peace A Chance” during the course of their now-famous bed-ins.

While these well-publicized appearances were made viable by the newlyweds’ celebrity and the overwhelming popularity of The Beatles, John and Yoko weren’t taken very seriously at the time and more often than not treated as a comic punch-line. Their controversial travails were then duly documented in The Beatles’ hit single, “The Ballad Of John and Yoko” (and it must be noted: the couple's whirlwind travels -- from Southhampton to Paris, then Amsterdam, Vienna and Gibraltar -- could easily rival Rihanna's recent "777" tour).

VIDEO: Chris Brown Hints at Rihanna Romance in Confessional Clip

Regardless of the lukewarm reception to their maudlin plea for peace, the couple managed to stay on message and concluded that year by posting billboards in eleven cities across the world stating “WAR IS OVER! If You Want It ... Happy Christmas From John and Yoko.”In the time since Lennon’s tragic assassination in 1980,Yoko has continued to keep the dream alive with more billboards, a documentary entitled Bed Peace on YouTube, a commemorative Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland and regular holiday advertisements in the New York Times.

Yes, even on the same New Year’s Day that Chris Brown and Rihanna were playing hide-and-seek with the media and teasing their ambivalent -- and many might say unhealthy -- relationship with tweets and Instagram photos, Yoko Ono placed yet another full-page ad in the New York Times saying only, “Imagine Peace.”

VIDEO: Rihanna 777 Tour Incites Chaos, Journalist Rebellion

That's not to say that Breezy and RiRi, as each is affectionately called, don't have their causes. Chris Brown recently launched his Symphonic Love Foundation while Rihanna has contributed her voice to many charities, from organizations that fight cancer to those that benefit sick children and others in need.And, even while separated by four-plus decades, one could imagine the chorus to “The Ballad Of John and Yoko” even applying to Chris and Rihanna -- at least the line when Lennon sang, "Christ you know it ain't easy / You know how hard it can be / The way things are going / They're going to crucify me."

But where John and Yoko showed us all that there’s a better way to use celebrity than simply to promote one’s self, it seems the contemporary couple -- with its instant access to tens of millions -- has a lot to learn.

The Shonda Rhimes drama will wrap its six-season run on Jan. 22 with the romantic conclusion to Addison's journey.

2013-01-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

The ABC medical drama fromGrey's Anatomy creatorShonda Rhimes will wrap its six seasons on Jan. 22 with Addison Montgomery's (Kate Walsh) dream wedding to Jake Reilly (Benjamin Bratt), The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

STORY: 'Private Practice' Cast Plays 'Death, Wedding or Baby'

"Shonda had hinted and indicated that that's probably where it would go and I knew that she'd deliver and make it an amazing episode," star Walsh told The Hollywood Reporter. "It was clear she wanted to give Addison her happy ending. After all Addison has suffered and struggled with throughout the series -- all the heartache and hardship -- Shonda really wanted to have her find a meaningful relationship and she got to have her child and find a guy that was her match."

After opening the season with a decision to pick Jake over Sam (Taye Diggs), Addison -- who adopted son Henry in season five -- moved closer to having the fairy tale life she's dreamed of for more than eight and a half years, dating back to the character's origin onGrey's Anatomy.

STORY: 'Private Practice' to End After 13-Episode Sixth Season

"The show is about Addison Montgomery's life and it's kind of a fairy tale so it's certainly an appropriate ending that she gets the baby and the marriage -- she gets the guy and she gets the happiness," co-star Bratt told THR. "Audiences have not only been rooting for that but they'll be gratified to see that's finally what she does receive."

Showrunner Rhimes told THR in August ahead of what would become the final season ofPrivate that the character deserved "some semblance of a happy ending."

"We're not going to end the show and the 13 episodes with Addison dead; that's not going to happen," she said ahead of the season six premiere. "That character has been on such a journey and started out so hated by audiences and became so beloved by audiences that I feel like she's been on an emotional journey to change who she is from being this woman who cheated on her husband to a different person. You're just going to see what happens. I don't think it's going to be a dark ending."

STORY: 'Private Practice': Intervention and 'What Happened to Charlotte King' Among Cast, Creator's Favorites

Meanwhile, Walsh -- who's working hard on the NBC comedy she's developing with boyfriend Chris Case -- says the series finale won't be entirely about Addison and Jake.

"It can't just be viewed as Addison getting married off and getting the fairy tale," she said, noting there are some "juciy" surprises coming. "It's a holistic thing; it's a wrap up of the entire series. That's certainly part of it but it's very profound and meaningful the way Shonda wraps up all the characters and story lines and that's certainly a part of it. It will be very emotional for fans and very satisfying." The series finale, fittingly titled "In Which We Say Goodbye," airs Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. on ABC.

HOLLYWOOD SEX SCENE : LATEST ORAL EDITION

2013-01-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

Barbara mori sex clip

Unseen Sex Clip of Drew Barrymore

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone sex scene

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

2013-01-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

Release Date: December 14, 2012 (3D/2D theaters and IMAX 3D)
Studio: New Line Cinema (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Director: Peter Jackson

Screenwriter: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Guillermo del Toro, Peter Jackson

Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Hugo Weaving, Elijah Wood, Evangeline Lilly, Andy Serkis, Richard Armitage, John Bell, Jed Brophy, Adam Brown, John Callen, Luke Evans, Stephen Fry, Ryan Gage, Mark Hadlow, Peter Hambleton, Barry Humphries, Stephen Hunter, William Kircher, Sylvester McCoy, Bret McKenzie, Graham McTavish, Mike Mizrahi, James Nesbitt, Dean O'Gorman, Lee Pace, Mikael Persbrandt, Conan Stevens, Ken Stott, Jeffrey Thomas, Aidan Turner, Billy Connolly

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy

MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence, and frightening images)
Official Website: TheHobbit.com
Review: 6/10 rating | 8.5/10 rating
DVD Review: Not Available
DVD: Not Available
Movie Poster: One-Sheet | Comic-Con Poster | Poster | Wallpaper
Production Stills: View here

Plot Summary: "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" follows title character Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, which was long ago conquered by the dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Giant Spiders, Shapeshifters and Sorcerers. Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever... Gollum. Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of guile and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities... A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.

The Guilt Trip

2013-01-03T08:58:00.002-08:00

Adam Scott as Andrew Margolis Jr.
Ari Graynor as Joyce Margolis
Casey Wilson as Amanda
Colin Hanks as Rob
Yvonne Strahovski as Jessica
Jeff Kober as Jimmy

Directed by Anne Fletcher

Review:

Everyone has a mother like Joyce (Barbara Streisand); loving but smothering, interested but myopic, important but annoying. The kind of woman who claims her son (Seth Rogen) is the most important person in her life, far too important to allow him to live his own life. And certainly the last person you'd ever want to drive across country with.

Certainly director Anne Fletcher ("The Proposal") hopes so. Because if you don't, you will quickly see through the gentle hook of "The Guilt Trip" to the pale, clichéd film underneath.

So much so that if you were given this hook and asked to come up with the gags which would go with it, you would probably end up with a list not unlike the one writer Dan Fogelman ("Crazy, Stupid, Love") has come up with. Embarrassing mom talking him out of a choice he's already made because it's cheaper? Check. Having to listen to embarrassing novel with many sex scenes in it during the drive? Check. Embarrassing mom trying to hook him up with his ex-girlfriend? Check. Embarrassing mom calling him at all hours of the day and night? Check. His mom interrupting his meetings to tell him how he should be selling his materials? Check.

And when they run out of those they start pulling in some others, like that old classic about the free meal if you can eat a five-pound steak in under an hour. I was waiting for some old "I Love Lucy" chestnuts to get thrown in, but thankfully we were spared somewhat.

Not that the filmmakers are completely clueless. In between the well-worn gags and set ups, Fletcher and Fogelman have actually sat down and given some thought to Joyce and Andy's relationship and how to develop it. Joyce, who has deliberately chosen to have no life other than her son, reveals early on that he was named after the love of her life who was not his father, leading to their cross country trip. Joyce in particular consistently reveals how much more she understands about Andy and his life than he thinks she does, and how little she actually resembles the caricature he thinks she is.

Which would be worth a lot more if the filmmakers didn't insist on actually making a caricature out of her. Streisand actually handles it with aplomb, getting far more out of Joyce (most of the time) than is really there. Rogen, on the other hand, is reduced to muttering under his breath most of the time or shuffling his feet and looking embarrassed, with most of his natural comic timing repressed until the very end where it will make no difference.

There's nothing either original or particularly well done about "The Guilt Trip." The filmmakers have tied a batch of old tropes and a heavy-handed hook together, stood back and declared "We have made a story," but it takes more than that. It takes real love, like a mother for a child, and there's none of that here.

Amour

2013-01-03T08:56:00.004-08:00

Cast:
Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges
Emmanuelle Riva as Anne
Isabelle Huppert as Eva
Alexandre Tharaud as Alexandre
William Shimell as Geoff
Rita Blanco as Concierge
Carole Franck as Nurse
Dinara Droukarova as Nurse

Review:

What is the real definition of love? Not the immediate flash of romance and drama on first meeting or during high tension, but the day in, day out slog of living with someone through their best and worst impulses. The responsibility and follow through of taking complete care of someone, be it an infant son or an elderly parent, without giving in to the aggravations of such care. That is what writer-director Michael Haneke ("Funny Games") is after in his extremely spare, uncompromising drama.

His focus for the question is a married couple who are about to be tested on the needs and limits of love. A successful pair of music teachers, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are living a comfortable, near-retired existence, going to the odd concert and keeping a long distance, strained relationship with their daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert) and generally going about their daily routine.

Or at least they did, until Anne suffers a brief trance-like state which becomes eventually a small stroke, paralyzing the right side of her body and becoming the precursor to an increasing bout of dementia and loss of self. And with no one to bear witness, or the responsibility, Georges refuses to give her up no matter how hard their new life becomes.

The result is absolutely gripping.

Much of that comes down to the actors themselves. Haneke has wisely decided to stay out of the way of his own story, filming "Amour" largely as a series of masters and two-shots (set almost entirely within the couple's apartment barring one scene early on) and letting them just play out, leaving the viewer intensely aware of their nature as a voyeur looking on two people's shared lives.

Semi-shared, at least. As Anne drifts further and further away, "Amour" becomes a portrait of patience and suffering as Georges refuses to give her up or give up his time with her despite the protestations of friends and family. In particular Eva, who herself is in a failing marriage with a philandering husband she cannot yet separate herself from and who (likely because of her different perspective on the reality of amour) can't understand why her father insists on caring for her mother himself.

Just as with his shot selection, Haneke stays out of the way of his story, only occasionally letting us glimpse Georges and Anne's past to compare with the present, but only occasionally.

The rest of the time it is just Georges and Anne, Jean-Louis and Emmanuelle, who are riveting. On the face of it, Riva has the most difficult job, realistically sinking into Anne's living decomposition and baring herself completely in the process. But if acting is reacting then it is Trintignant who is carrying "Amour" on his shoulders as he is ultimately the one dealing with Anne's disease.

As to be expected from a Haneke film, it is completely unsparing in the avenues it heads down, while also quite slow, offering few details and little in the way of obvious panache. Sometimes the simpleness seems a waste of the talent of a photographer like Darius Khondji, but the result is much more rich and fulfilling than it might sound.

"Amour" is not an easy film by any stretch of the imagination, but for those in search of art without pretension or affectation, this is the way it's done.

Not Fade Away

2013-01-03T08:55:00.001-08:00

Cast:
John Magaro as Douglas
Bella Heathcote as Grace Deitz
Will Brill as Wells
Jack Huston as Eugene
James Gandolfini as Pat
Molly Price as Antoinette
Meg Guzulescu as Evelyn
Dominique McElliogott as Joy Deitz
Christopher McDonald as Jack Deitz
Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Landers
Justine Lupe as Candace
Lisa Lampanelli as Aunt Josie
Robert Funaro as Uncle Murph
John Tormey as Uncle Paul
Charlie Plummer as Kenneth Dietz
Brad Garrett as Jerry

Directed by David Chase

Story:

In 1960s New Jersey, the influence of the Rolling Stones and the British Invasion leads Doug (John Magaro) and his friends Eugene (Jack Huston) and Wells (Will Brill) to form a band, but as Doug gets into a relationship with the rich popular girl named Grace (Bella Heathcote), she gives him the confidence to get in front of the band as singer, causing friction within the group.

Analysis:

Anyone who wondered how David Chase might follow up the highly-debated finale of his HBO show "The Sopranos" may not be surprised his feature film directorial debut would also involve Italian-Americans living in New Jersey. This one has absolutely nothing to do with crime or mobsters, instead taking a look at the '60s through a group of young friends trying to form a band.

It mostly centers around John Magaro's Doug, a recent high school graduate who forms a cover band with his friends Eugene (Jack Huston) and Wells (Will Brill) after seeing the Rolling Stones on television. Doug spent most of his high school years lusting after the wealthy Grace, played by Bella Heathcote, but she only starts paying Doug any heed when he comes out from behind his drum kit to sing a song when Eugene falls ill. This incident will eventually lead to friction between the two friends as the band starts getting around and becoming more successful.

"Not Fade Away" isn't so much of a coming of age movie as it is a look at a time when the country was changing following the assassination of Kennedy and at the height of the Civil Rights movement and sexual revolution, as seen through Doug's eyes.

The realities of playing in a band and how some bands make it while others languish in New Jersey without ever being recognized is tough material to handle well, especially following in the footsteps of a classic like Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous," but Chase gives it an equally personal touch making everything feel real. As might be expected when you have Bruce Springsteen's right-hand man "Little Steven" Van Zandt as your executive producer and musical director, the music is great including the couple of songs he wrote specifically for the fledgling band. Chase also helps set the tone by intercutting Doug and Grace's story with black and white footage from television, most notably performances by the Stones and other groups.

Now, if you were to tell me that the mopey kid from Josh Radnor's "Liberal Arts" was going to play the lead in a movie, let alone playing a believable rock singer, I'd think you were absolutely nuts, but John Magaro does a surprisingly solid job carrying a role that offers lots of challenges. Some of the actors playing Doug's bandmates aren't as good with Jack Huston seeming way too old for the role he's playing.

As someone who has played in many bands, covering rock tunes at parties, I probably could relate to some of the situations more than most, even if I'm not quite old enough to appreciate the ‘60s. Chase finds a way of being nostalgic without being overly sentimental, although it's not just about the band and their music. Once Grace and Doug are together, it's just as much about their relationship and her family life, which is fine since Heathcote has a great on-screen presence as does Dominique McElliogott as her older hippie sister. As much as the slice of life piece eventually starts veering towards the dramatic, there are many funny moments, particularly Doug's family life with James Gandolfini as his disapproving father and Molly Pryce as his always complaining mother. Of all the things in the movies, these interactions are something the movie could have used more of since they are the most entertaining bits.

What almost kills any good will Chase has established is the absolutely ridiculous ending that tries to tie things up without resolving anything--this may sound all too familiar to fans of Chase's "Sopranos" fans--although it does explain why Doug's younger sister has been sporadically narrating the movie from the beginning, which isn't clear up until that point.

Despite that awkward and unsatisfying ending, Chase proves himself to be as capable a film director as he is at creating riveting television and "Not Fade Away" is an excellent transition into film even if it's likely to have a far more limited audience than "The Sopranos" - probably older people who dig British Invasion music.

Jack Reacher

2013-01-03T08:52:00.000-08:00

Cast:
Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher
Rosamund Pike as Helen
Richard Jenkins as Rodin
David Oyelowo as Emerson
Herzog as The Zec
Jai Courtney as Charlie
Vladimir Sizov as Vlad
Joseph Sikora as Barr
Michael Raymond-James as Linsky
Alexia Fast as Sandy
Josh Helman as Jeb
Robert Duvall as Martin Cash
James Martin Kelly as Rob Farrior
Dylan Kussman as Gary
Denver Milord as Punk

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie

Story:

Military sniper James Barr has been arrested for shooting five seemingly random people in Pittsburgh and he has asked for one "Jack Reacher," a former Military Police who has become a mysterious wanderer and doesn't want to be found. When Reacher (Tom Cruise) shows up in town, he begins to work with the shooter's defense attorney Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike) and a local detective (David Oyelowo) to try to find out the truth behind the shootings and prove Barr's innocence.

Analysis:

The idea of adapting a novel of any kind can be a daunting process, but especially when the novel's been read by so many people who already have a good idea how things should play out. Jonathan Demme faced that challenge with "The Silence of the Lambs" and David Fincher did the same with last year's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Although Lee Child's "One Shot," the basis for Christopher McQuarrie's second film as a writer/director, never entered the public consciousness quite on a level as those other two, wandering justice seeker Jack Reacher has enough fans from Child's 17 novels that it was only a matter of time before he made his way to the screen.

Many critics and fans of the books may have already written this movie off due to the obvious physical differences between Tom Cruise and Jack Reacher as described in Child's books, but what may be tougher to get past is the opening scene as we watch random passers-by being shot by a sniper. Even though the situation is different from the recent murders in Newtown, it still casts enough of a shadow that when a woman with a child is in the killer's gun sight, it's jarring and hard to watch.

Wisely, the film doesn't spend nearly as much time setting things up as the novel before bringing Tom Cruise's Jack Reacher into frame and regardless of your image of Reacher from reading the books, there's no denying that what Tom Cruise brings to the table as a bonafide leading man goes a long way towards making the movie work. It's nice seeing Cruise playing the kind of tough guy we might normally see from someone like Bruce Willis, not taking crap from anyone and taking out assailants with brutal quickness when attacked.

Cruise's timing is spot-on when it comes to a quick quip and McQuarrie gives him lots of chances to deliver Child's rapid-fire patter, especially with Rosamund Pike as lawyer Helen Rodin, who ends up having the most screen time with Cruise. The character doesn't give Pike a chance to show off much of a range but they are good together, even playing up the assumed romance one might expect when you have two good-looking people of the opposite sex on screen together.

Even more brilliant casting comes in the form of German filmmaker Werner Herzog making a rare dramatic on-screen appearance as the main overlord, known only as The Zec, who has some really juicy scenes. The same can be said for getting Robert Duvall to play Martin Chase, a former Marine who runs a rifle range, and his scenes with Cruise show off a similar rapport as the younger Cruise had with Paul Newman in "The Color of Money." If nothing else, those scenes help save the last act and make up for some of the weaker sections earlier in the film.

The amount of humor is surprising, but it's always done with a dry delivery that keeps it from distracting from the serious nature of Reacher's mission. Sometimes it can be seen simply with an exasperated look from Helen over Reacher's behavior or the fact that the only auto parts store in town is called "Default Auto Parts" - that one probably went over many heads but got a laugh out of me both times. It's that sort of cleverness that makes McQuarrie the perfect filmmaker to tackle this material with the results being a pleasant mix of McQuarrie's sensibilities with those of Child. While there's dialogue taken directly from the book, McQuarrie adds many of his own nice touches like making the victims more human and also playing up the father-daughter connection between the otherwise under-utilized Richard Jenkins with Pike.

Even so, it's hard to ignore that McQuarrie is a far better writer than he is a director. Outside of the action, he takes a simple and non-flashy approach to telling the character-driven story, and there are long sections of the movie that drag, especially when Cruise isn't on screen. A more experienced director may have found a better way to deal with the film's more obvious pacing problems, but at least McQuarrie finds an innovative way to shoot the film's single car chase sequences using Pittsburgh in the same way last year's "Drive" used Los Angeles. It's also hard to ignore the fact the movie feels so long and there could have easily been 15-20 minutes cut from the movie, and other than the principals, the casting of some of the smaller satellite character roles are lacking.

The Bottom Line:

Whether or not you're already a fan of Lee Child's books, there's something to be said about this grown-up suspense thriller that relies as much on the procedural of solving the mystery as it does on the action. The pace is slow at times, but the results are satisfying enough to want more.

The Impossible

2013-01-03T08:48:00.002-08:00

Cast:
Ewan McGregor as Henry
Naomi Watts as Maria
Tom Holland as Lucas
Ploy Jindachote as Caregiver
Marta Etura as Simone
Oaklee Pendergast as Simon
Samuel Joslin as Thomas
Philippe Durand as Shanque
Geraldine Chaplin as Old Woman

Directed by J.A. Bayona

Story:

On December 26, 2004, one of the worst tsunamis in recorded history hit South East Asia. One family vacationing in Thailand at a resort is torn apart by the tsunami crashing down upon them.

Analysis:

Juan Bayona's debut "The Orphanage" helped pave the way for a new wave in Spanish genre films and knowing the plot and the premise for "The Impossible," it's hard to think of a movie that could be any more of a departure. Bayona proves himself up to that challenge, reassembling much of the same team to make a movie that's far more impressive for its scale, not just in recreating tsunami-stricken Thailand, but also at creating waves of emotions that affect you as much as the death and destruction. Of course, this should be expected when you have Naomi Watts in your cast, but she's not the only one who shines.

The opening crawl pretty much lets you know what you're in for and that's a really simple story of a family torn apart by the 2004 tsunami, and it makes it very clear that like so many great films it's based on a true story. We meet the family on the airplane from Japan, where Ewan McGregor's character works, to Thailand, where him, his wife and their three boys are vacationing at a seaside resort. The film does quick work at establishing this family and their dynamics and 15 minutes into the movie is where the giant wave rises high above the people at the resort, tearing a path through everything. It's quite devastating to watch the tsunami play out and it feels far more realistic and less sensationalistic than the one Clint Eastwood created for "Hereafter."

For the next hour we follow Naomi Watts' Maria and her son Lucas (Holland) as they try to survive after the tsunami, her having been severely wounded after being dragged through trees and debris in the tide. Watts' skill and prowess as an actor is certainly tested and proven by the way she sells the agony and pain her character endures over the course of the movie, but if "The Impossible" achieves nothing else, it will forever be remembered as the movie that marked the discovery of Tom Holland, a young actor who not only is able to hold his own again Watts, one of the strongest dramatic actors on the planet, but also is able to carry his own scenes quite ably as we watch him trying to find his family. If it's not already obvious how Watts' character was put through the wringer physically, then it's reiterated in a dream-like sequence later in the film, which follows her as she's dragged underwater by that first wave.

Roughly an hour into the movie, we learn what happened to Ewan McGregor and the other two sons, and that's probably the weakest portion of the film. I generally have a great respect for McGregor as an actor but his performance is night and day compared to Watts and Holland, made more obvious by the amount of time we just spent with them. Things start getting a little bit too melodramatic as we get into the last act, but by that point, you're so invested in the family you'll forgive how many coincidences are necessary to bring them back together.

Regardless, "The Impossible" never feels like the work of a filmmaker making their second film but one from a far more experienced director, one who not only can create situations and a setting that feels real and authentic, but also one that can get astounding performances out of his actors. The production design and visual FX used to create the scale of the carnage and destruction is absolutely breathtaking, while the score by Fernando Velázquez pulls every single drop of emotion from the quieter scenes. Bayona's use of a mostly Spanish crew to make a movie that has absolutely nothing to do with Spain is quite commendable as well.

The Bottom Line:

"The Impossible" is a fantastic sophomore effort from Juan Bayona that reaches the emotional and filmmaking heights that Spielberg and Eastwood have been trying to achieve for years.

Les Misérables

2013-01-03T08:45:00.001-08:00

Cast:
Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
Russell Crowe as Javert
Anne Hathaway as Fantine
Eddie Redmayne as Marius
Amanda Seyfried as Cosette
Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thénardier
Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier
Samantha Barks as Éponine
Isabelle Allen as Young Cosette
Aaron Tveit as Enjolras
Colm Wilkinson as Bishop of Digne
Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche
Patrick Godfrey as Gillnormande
Marc Pickering as Montparnasse
George Blagden as Grantaire
Bertie Carvel as Bamatabois
Alistair Brammer as Jean Prouvaire
Fra Fee as Courfeyrac
Natalya Angel Wallace as Young Eponine
Killian Donnelly as Combeferre

Directed by Tom Hooper

Review:

Victor Hugo's 19th Century epic set during the French Revolution was first adapted into a stage musical during the '80s and it quickly became a classic period musical on par with "Sweeney Todd" and "Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera," which preceded and followed it, respectively. Leave it to "The King's Speech" director Tom Hooper to take it on as his next project after winning the Oscar and creating a movie musical that can hold its own against the likes of "Cabaret" and "Camelot."

This is the story of two lives intertwined over the course of decades as their paths cross repeatedly and often coincidentally, as the film opens with a huge set piece of hundreds of prison convicts pulling a large ship into a dock. Unrecognizable at first, Hugh Jackman's Jean Val-Jean, prisoner #24601, has been incarcerated for 19 years, but we meet him just as he's been given his parole by his jailer Javert, played by Russell Crowe. From the second we meet them, there's clear animosity between them, which will grow over the course of the film.

We cut forward eight years later and we meet Anne Hathaway's Fantine, a seamstress trying to earn a wage to support her daughter Cosette, who falls upon hard times. Valjean has somehow become major of this French town and he reencounters Javert while trying to protect her.

Calling "Les Mis" a "musical" is a bit of a misnomer because this is straight opera with all dialogue being sung over two-and-a-half hours of straight music, going directly from one number to the next. Many of the themes and melodies are reprised, which may make it feel repetitive to anyone who knows music, but fans of the musical will be on the edge of their seat awaiting the familiar numbers.

As cliché as it may be, Jean Valjean is a role Hugh Jackman was born to play, his voice a perfect tenor, bringing powerful emotions to every scene. Jackman has never had a chance to show off what he could do on this level. Russell Crowe takes a little more time to find his footing, maybe since he doesn't seem as comfortable with the sung dialogue, but he has two numbers that are just as powerful as anything by the other actors.

As fans of the musical might expect, the real piece de resistance is when Hathaway sings "I Dreamed a Dream," one of those showstopping moments on par with Jennifer Hudson singing "I Am Telling You" in "Dreamgirls." It only takes place a half hour into the movie, but in the ten minutes of watching what Fantine must endure to survive after losing her job, it's beyond heartbreaking and if the song doesn't bring you to tears, you're probably not human.

The next time the story jumps forward, we're in Paris and Cosette has grown into a lovely young woman, played by Amanda Seyfried, and the focus shifts to the younger cast as the French Revolution has kicked into high gear and a band of students are ready to take action against their military oppressors. This is where the younger cast takes over with Eddie Redmayne cutting a dashing figure as a young soldier who falls for Cosette despite his friend Éponine being smitten with him. The latter is played by Samantha Barks, a bit of a ringer, having already played the role of on stage, but the fact Redmayne can hold his own in their numbers together is one of the film's many astounding feats.

Even so, the film does take a slight dip in this middle section when Jackman's Valjean takes on a smaller role, giving time to introduce these new characters and their ongoing love triangle before things pick up with the military conflict on the barrier that plays such a huge part of the stage production. Despite the time period, it's hard not to relate to some of the story's many layers and how they reflect what we're seeing on every day on the news.

What's great about the way Tom Hooper transitions the musical to film is that from the very beginning, he creates an immense scale to the film just by having Valjean against the expansive landscape, so when the film moves onto the interior sets, we don't feel as if we're just watching a filmed stage musical. And yet, Hooper also uses the close-up to make sure the camera is right on each actor's face during their key moments, something that could never be experienced on stage.

It's a long film at two-and-a-half hours, but it's the type of experience that really pulls you into it and never lets you go, especially if you're a fan of the original musical and know the story with each actor in the ensemble being given a moment of the spotlight and delivering a suitably breathtaking performance, from the actress playing the younger Cosette to Daniel Huttlestone's Gavroche, the ragamuffin giving running commentary for the second act, and the good-looking Aaron Tveit as the revolutionary Enjolras.

Fortunately, there's some welcome comedy in the form of Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter, reunited from Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd," as a conman innkeeper and his wife, who have been put in charge of Cosette and who return a few times. There are so many great moments though, including Jackman doing a scene opposite Colm Wilkinson, the originator of the Valjean role, and the new song "Suddenly," written by the original composers, which beautifully transitions into the second act.

Every aspect of the production design, the make-up and the musical orchestrations are exemplary, but it's just as amazing an achievement on Hooper's part that he could create such a solid ensemble from such a disparate mix of stage and film actors.

The Bottom Line:

Tom Hooper has created an unprecedented musical experience, a powerful and unforgettable showstopper of a film. If you like the original musical, you're likely to love the movie's way of telling the story on a larger scale, although like most musicals, not everyone will appreciate it as much as those already in love with it.

Django Unchained

2013-01-03T08:42:00.001-08:00

Cast:
Jamie Foxx as Django
Christolph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz
Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin J. Candie
Kerry Washington as Broomhilda Von Shaft
Walton Goggins as Billy Crash
Don Johnson as Spencer 'Big Daddy' Bennett
Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen
Laura Cayouette as Lara Lee Candie-Fitzwily
Denis Christopher as Leonide Moguy
Cooper Huckabee as Roger 'Little Raj' Brittle
Doc Duhame as Ellis Brittle
M. C. Gainey as Big John Brittle
Tom Savini as Tracker Cheney
Bruce Dern as Curtis Carrucan
James Russo as Dicky Speck
James Rema as Ace Speck
Tom Wopat as Marshall Gill Tatum
Franko Nero as Amerigo Vassepi

Review:

The time: two years before the Civil War. The place: the deep south. The person: Django (Jamie Foxx) slave being slow walked across to auction in Texas. Or at least he was until his band his stopped by dentist turned bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz (Christolph Waltz) who needs a man who has seen the vile Brittle Brothers in person and can point them out and help take them down. A man like Django.

It can be argued that Quentin Tarantino has already taken on the Spaghetti Western (by his own admission his favorite genre) in "Inglourious Basterds" albeit by a circuitous route as just one part of his strange concoction of war film and revenge. In "Django Unchained," he approaches the Spaghetti Western in a more head on manner and a Quentin Tarantino Spaghetti Western is about exactly what you'd expect one to be. As with most of his films since "Kill Bill" revenge is on the menu, it's served up in a high pressure spray of blood and laughter.

Yes laughter, as Tarantino willfully, gleefully casts off the remorse and ponderous gravity of his heavier meditations on revenge and what it does to the soul in favor of unrivaled entertainment. Entertainment fueled by violence, just the way we like it.

"Kill Bill" is actually the best comparison to be made of all of Tarantino's films from Robert Richardson's gorgeous cinematography to the high-flying, quick-moving violence albeit with gun fu replacing kung fu. The action (far more sparse than you might think) is aided not just by the typically well-defined Tarantino characterization, but also a rich sense of humor which he has not always displayed. One particularly well-drawn beat of a posse lynchers complaining about not being able to see through the eye holes in their Ku Klux Klan like hoods almost verges on "Blazing Saddles" territory and yet does not feel at all out of place.

Django, it turns out, is a natural at the bounty hunter game, sharp with the eye and quick with the lead and able to subsume himself into a role as needed to sidle up to his prey, be it a ridiculously dressed valet or a cold hearted black slaver. He and Schultz quickly take to each other as Schultz teaches him the ropes, so much so that when Django tells him the story of his long lost wife the beautiful Broomhilda Von Shaft (it makes sense in context), Schultz feels honor bound to help him rescue her.

Unfortunately rescuing her means traveling into the belly of Candyland, the Mississippi plantation of one Calvin J. Candie (Leonardo DiCaprio), the king of the mandingo fight rang, where slaves are bought to fight one another to the death with their bare hands.

Much has been made of DiCaprio's performance in the film and he does not disappoint, flying between suave and crazed with equal vigor. The performances across the board are high, with Foxx and Waltz enjoying great on screen chemistry. One of the few downsides is Schultz's built-in showmanship often pushing Django to the sidelines, leaving him to shine only when he has the screen to himself.

That said, in a nearly three-hour film there's plenty of opportunity for him to get time to himself, particularly in the last act as he faces off against Candie's various henchman, from gunman Billy Crash (Walton Goggins) to head house slave Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) who truly epitomizes the film and eras' villainy as a black man who accepts slavery as the way things are meant to be and enjoys his place in that hierarchy.

Which is about as preachy as "Django Unchained" gets. Tarantino definitely has a point to make about slavery, and it is there, but it is well hidden behind a stout curtain of fun, which is ultimately what you'll get from "Django." If it doesn't reach the heights of some his other films, it's more than worthy of what happened.

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