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Movie Reviews: “Sherlock Holmes”
4 hours ago | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
Most critics agree that the new Sherlock Holmes remains an intellectual superman -- just as he was in the original Conan Doyle stories. He's also a physical superman, too. A.O. Scott in the New York Times remarks that "the chief innovation" of the Sherlock Holmes movie is that Holmes is "in addition to everything else, a brawling, head-butting, fist-in-the-gut, knee-in-the-groin action hero," all of which results in a movie that is "intermittently diverting." Of course, Downey has played a full-fledged action hero in Iron Man, Joe Morgenstern notes in the Wall Street Journal, so "it's great fun to watch him [as Holmes] do the detective work he always does, finding laughs and bright surprises in every scene." Writes Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post: "This is not your grandparents', or even your parents', Holmes. Vim and vigor have been restored to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famously cerebral master of deduction." Likewise, Peter Howell in the Toronto Star, while finding fault with the script and the direction, writes that Downey "is arguably more true to Doyle's vision than Basil Rathbone's enduring pipe smoker of earlier films." And Joy Tipping in the Dallas Morning News gives the movie her unqualified praise. "Despite the deviations from writer Arthur Conan Doyle's version of his hero, however, I strongly suspect the author would have approved of the script's originality and excitement. This is rip-roaring action-adventure of high order, a sometimes dizzying but ultimately thrilling display of showmanship on the part of the actors, director and screenwriters." But Kyle Smith in the New York Post is not at all pleased by what the filmmakers have done to Holmes. The movie, he writes, "dumbs down a century-old synonym for intelligence with S&M gags, witless sarcasm, murky bombast and twirling action-hero moves that belong in a ninja flick." Most of the movie, he concludes, "could scarcely have been more off-base if Sherlock had worn a backwards Yankee cap instead of a deerstalker and Watson had inquired of him, 'What up, Holmes?'" Claudia Puig in USA Today is less censorious, but she nevertheless sums up: "While this incarnation has visual flair and attitude, it is too modern, and it blithely jettisons Holmes' wit and wisdom." »
MTV News Doles Out Our Christmas Movie Awards
4 hours ago | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »
Merry Christmas, gentle readers! Today is a day for spending time with loved ones, yelling at those loved ones, giving them gifts, refilling their drinks. It's also a day for popping in a DVD in the living room while working through a food coma. What will it be? The list of movies that have explored this eggnog-drenched holiday is nearly as long as Santa's own. Now action, now rom-com, now satire and thriller!
With some strong 'nog in hand, we took a look back at some of the very best and very worst a big screen Noel has to offer and plucked out our favorite elements from each. Gather the family round the computer screen and take in MTV News' Christmas Movie Awards.
Best Santa – Dan Aykroyd in "Trading Places"
When Louis Winthorpe III hits rock bottom, he soars to the highest ranks of cinematic Santas. Booted from his cushy »
- Eric Ditzian
Robert Duvall Video Interview Crazy Heart
2 hours ago | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »
As I wrote when I posted my video interviews with Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, currently playing in limited release is Fox Searchlight’s Crazy Heart. Originally scheduled for release next year, Fox Searchlight has mounted an impressive last minute campaign to get the film into theaters as they’re trying to get Jeff Bridges his long deserved Oscar.
In Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges stars as the anti-hero Bad Blake in the debut feature film from writer-director Scott Cooper. Bad Blake is a broken-down, hard-living country music singer who’s had way too many marriages, far too many years on the road and one too many drinks way too many times. And yet, Bad can’t help but reach for salvation with the help of Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who discovers the real man behind the musician.
While the story of a musician overcoming his demons has been told many times, »
- Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub
Sundance Photo/Trailer Preview: Obselidia
54 minutes ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
Director/screenwriter Diane Bell's Obselidia is one of 16 films selected from 1,058 submissions for the Dramatic Competition for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. Described as a "save-the-world love story", the film tells the story of a lonely librarian believes love is obsolete until a road trip to Death Valley with a beguiling cinema projectionist teaches him otherwise. Shot on the Red Camera, featuring a score by UK musician Liam Howe (Spin Spin Sugar, 6 Underground) and starring a mostly unknown cast Gaynor Howe (Home and Away), Michael Piccirilli, and Frank Hoyt Taylor. Sundance calls the film "soft spoken, profound, and disarmingly charming" offering a "rare and humane lens through which we can view a world increasingly preoccupied with and inhabited by extinction." A few more photos, trailer and poster, after the jump. [gallery order="Desc" columns="2" orderby="ID"] Movie Trailer: Here is the official plot synopsis: Ever feel like the whole world is disappearing? »
- Peter Sciretta
Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
1 hour ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
In a year that brought us Coraline, Where the Wild Things Are, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Princess and the Frog, and Up, how can you justify the existence of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel as anything less than a mind-numbingly generic brand-name cash grab? It's a shame too, because I honestly like the Chipmunks -- or maybe I liked the Chipmunks. It has been almost twenty-five years since I watched them on television (and in their first feature film, The Chipmunk Adventure). Were they always this boring?
Forcing the Chipmunks to attend an average high school after a taste of rock and roll superstardom could've made for a pretty decent fish-out-of-water comedy (munk-out-of-tree comedy?), but that potential is wasted in favor of an uninspired battle of the bands story, pitting our boys against an all-girl group of chipmunks called the Chipettes. The girls, who are also huge Alvin and the Chipmunks fans, »
- John Gholson
Collider Watches the Inglorious Basterds Take Over the New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood
2 hours ago | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »
Last week, members of the cast and crew from Inglorious Basterds stormed the red carpet at the New Beverly Cinema to celebrate the release of their film on DVD/Blu-ray. Though just a DVD premiere, spotlights shone into the night, flashbulbs flashed, and pens scribbled on notepads. There were a few surprises - the arrival of stunt-woman extraordinaire and Tarantino alum Zoe Bell, for instance. Or the lovely Diane Krueger (Nina Von Hammersmark) arriving with a dapperly dressed Joshua Jackson on her arm.
But for the most part, the focus of the evening was the cast and crew of the critically acclaimed World War II opus. Among them, most of the titular Basterds, including: Sam Levine, Eli Roth, Omar Doom, B.J. Novak, producer Lawrence Bender and, of course, the biggest “basterd” of them all - Quentin Tarantino.
Collider grabbed a few words with some of the cast before enjoying an evening of disemboweled, »
- Jonathan Callan
Plastic Man The Complete Series DVD Review
2 hours ago | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »
We all know the Justice League and it’s main characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. But do many remember the spin-off series about the witty one-line shooting, elastic bodied, silly superhero Plastic Man? Maybe not as much. I do vaguely, so I was really intrigued to dive into the full series when it was released on DVD. And what I discovered was 35 episodes of vintage glorious cheese-ball fun. My full review after the jump:
First off the show was called The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, which is pretty much exactly what you get. Classic 70’s cartoon style good vs. evil, with an ironic wink to the audience and goofy characters galore. Plastic Man doesn’t fly solo, by the way, he rolls with Hula Hula the bumbling Hawaiian sidekick who, in a more paranoid PC world, could be deemed slightly racist as the obligatory ethnic goofball, but this was a simpler time. »
- Ben Begley
The Best of the Decade: Family Films (Live Action)
3 hours ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
When our managing editor assigned me to list the Best Family Films of the Decade, I thought, "Woohoo! There's Ratatouille, Coraline, and --" then he added, "No animated films. We've got another list for those." I wilted. Do you know how hard it is to talk about films that are suitable for children but also fun for adults, and not include animation? I kept accidentally sneaking them on the list and then reminding myself that, no, Persepolis is in fact animated, and so is everything by Hayao Miyazaki. Gaaaaah.
But once I started looking at my video shelf, and the reviews I've written, ten great "family friendly" films from the 2000s weren't that difficult to find. I did have to determine what qualifies as "family friendly." Just because a movie is about a family doesn't mean it qualifies -- there went The Royal Tenenbaums and World's Greatest Dad. (Kidding. Sort of. »
- Jette Kernion
This Week In Trailers: Violent Blue, Tony, Snabba Cash, Portrait of a Zombie, The Ghost (Domovoy)
3 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Violent Blue Trailer Consider this my Christmas present to all of you. A lot of times I present movies that appeal to me on some level and try to explain, »
- Christopher Stipp
The Return Of Sherlock Holmes
4 hours ago | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
They've been making movies about Sherlock Holmes almost from the dawn of filmed entertainment. The first one appeared in 1905, and a slew of them appeared in both the silent era and the beginning of "talkies." But it was not until 1939, when Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce first appeared as Holmes and Dr. Watson that the character became the world's most fascinating detective. Between that year and the end of the '40s, Rathbone and Bruce appeared in some 16 Holmes movies while also starring in a popular weekly radio series that was also based on the Arthur Conan Doyle character. In the early '50s, they brought their characters to television, and they might have continued to play Holmes and Watson for another decade if Bruce hadn't died in 1953 at the age of 58. Others have played Holmes before and since -- most notably Jeremy Brett, Peter Cushing, John Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Michael Caine, Peter O'Toole, Christopher Lee, Leonard Nimoy, and a Muppet. But it was Rathbone who established the template -- or Conan Doyle, who might have been describing Rathbone when he originally depicted Holmes. And all his successors attempted to fit into it -- even the Muppet. Now, an all-new Sherlock Holmes has arrived in the person of Robert Downey Jr., and admirers and detractors all agree -- he's no Basil Rathbone. For older moviegoers, those earlier images of Holmes may stand in the way of enjoying the movie, several critics suggest. "The less I thought about Sherlock Holmes, the more I liked Sherlock Holmes, Roger Ebert writes in his Chicago Sun-Times review. "But block bookings are not likely from the Baker Steet Irregulars," the society dedicated to all things Holmes. Ebert, however, may be surprised to discover that the society and its various offshoots have posted links to online sites selling tickets to the movie and that their reaction to it is, on the whole, positive. One member wrote, "The trailers had me all set to detest the movie but, and not at all grudgingly, I enjoyed it." (He added, however, that Downey "is simply miscast.") Several critics note that the ending sets up the promise of a sequel. It's unlikely, however, that Downey and Law will ever break Rathbone and Bruce's record for Holmes installments. »
Movie Reviews: “Nine”
4 hours ago | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
Movie musicals have struggled at the box office since their heyday in the '40s and '50s, and few have found favor with critics. Last year's Mamma Mia! did solid business in the U.S. and was a standout blockbuster overseas, but most critics hated it. That's the way Nine, based on he Fellini classic 8 1/2, appears to be performing. As it rolled out in a handful of theaters, it drew big crowds. Now, as it opens wide, some analysts are predicting that it will do decent business even in the face of mostly negative reviews. A.O. Scott in the New York Times noted that in one song, a lead character played by Daniel Day-Lewis sings, "I can't make this movie." Comments Scott: "Substitute "watch" for "make" and provide your own music." The director, Rob Marshall, also directed the movie version of Chicago, but unlike that musical, writes Claudia Puig in USA Today, "there are no show-stopping musical numbers here. It takes a couple viewings/listenings to appreciate -- or even distinguish -- its songs." The problem, some critics suggest, is not the songs themselves but the actors who perform them. In the old days, beginning with Al Jolson and continuing later with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, popular singers were cast in movies and asked to act. Now the reverse is true. Nine features a raft of high-power stars, but only Oscar winner Marion Cotillard is a trained singer. Comments Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times about the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis: "Because Nine is a musical, it would help if your leading man could sing. ... Love Daniel Day-Lewis, excellent racing shirtless through the forest, but a song-and-dance man he is not." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post comments that the movie has been contrived "to suit the vocal limitations of its Weinstein-gerrymandered cast." Adds Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Rarely have so many Oscar-winners struggled so strenuously for such meager payoff." Wesley Morris in the Boston Globe writes that Nine is the "Olive Garden version" of 8 1/2. "You can easily imagine the movie's catchiest song, "be Italian," used to sell bowls of spaghetti." And Roger Ebert closes his exasperated review of Nine with this advice."In the life of anyone who loves movies, there must be time to see 8 1/2. You can watch it instantly right now on Netflix or Amazon. What are you waiting for?" »
Movie Reviews: “It’s Complicated”
4 hours ago | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »
Like other Nancy Meyers-directed movies (Something's Gotta Give, What Women Want, The Holiday), It's Complicated's target audience is women over 40 -- an underserved market to be sure, but one that has managed to buy up a lot of movie tickets. The Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert, who suggests that It's Complicated will likely draw a big crowd from "gal pals taking a movie break after returning Christmas presents," notes that "not everybody is in a mood for Avatar." But Lou Lumenick in the New York Post suggests that the movie is really "Avatar for women of a certain age, with blond highlights replacing blue skin." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, who has chastised Hollywood's major studios for overlooking female directors, heaps much praise on Meyers, while at the same time observing that her "vision can be maddeningly narrow and not only because her movies take place in cosseted, largely white worlds where the help is discreetly out of view." Most of the critics reviewing It's Complicated are women and at times sound as if they're leading a cheering section. For example, Linda Barnard writes in the Toronto Star: "A rarity among Hollywood movies, where senior sex is usually either an aberration or a punchline, It's Complicated really isn't. It's just entertaining. Let's hope the studios are listening." Lisa Kennedy in the Denver Post agrees, writing, "Making us laugh in telling ways, especially in a time-worn genre like the romantic comedy, can be tough. There's a reason for the saying 'Death is easy, comedy is hard.'" Most male critics seem equally charmed. "It's Complicated isn't; it's pretty simple," writes Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. "It's simply a good time, a relatively adult and easygoing conveyance for three ace performers of a certain age, working through a few comic machinations created by writer-director Nancy Meyers. »
The best films of 2009
4 hours ago | blogs.suntimes.com/ebert | See recent Roger Ebert's Blog news »
Since Moses brought the tablets down from the mountain, lists have come in tens, not that we couldn't have done with several more commandments. Who says a year has Ten Best Films, anyway? Nobody but readers, editors, and most other movie critics. There was hell to pay last year when I published my list of Twenty Best. You'd have thought I belched at a funeral. So this year I have devoutly limited myself to exactly ten films.
On each of two lists.
The lists are divided into Mainstream Films and Independent Films. This neatly sidesteps two frequent complaints: (1) "You name all those little films most people have never heard of," and (2) "You pick all blockbusters and ignore the indie pictures." Which is is my official Top Ten? They both are equal, and every film here is entitled to name itself "One of the Year's 10 Best!"
Alphabetically:
¶ The Top 10 Mainstream Films
Bad Lieutenant. »
- Roger Ebert
David Tennant Talks 'Doctor Who' Season Finale: Time War Secrets, Familiar Faces And A 'Brilliant' Twist
4 hours ago | MTV Movies Blog | See recent MTV Movies Blog news »
"Doctor Who," the long-running BBC science-fiction series that follows a time- and space-traveling explorer known as The Doctor, concludes its current season this weekend with a two-part finale that kicks off Christmas Day, December 25. Not only does "The End of Time" finale conclude the latest season, but it will also see the departure actor David Tennant, who's played The Doctor for the last three seasons and seen the series' popularity explode to unprecedented levels here in the U.S., spawning spin-offs such as "Torchwood" and "The Sarah Jane Chronicles."
As MTV's resident "Doctor Who" geek, I jumped at the opportunity to chat with Tennant about the impending conclusion to his run as The Doctor — and what we can expect to see in the season finale.
"I can't give anything away, that would go against the grain, wouldn't it?" smiled Tennant, who went on to tease some of what we might »
- Rick Marshall
Owen Gleiberman's 10 Best Movies of the Decade
5 hours ago | EW.com - The Movie Critics | See recent EW.com - The Movie Critics news »
I confess, looking back, that I have no great generalizations to make about the movies that came along this decade. Except for this: There were more films of extraordinary and inspiring quality than I can count -- or include on this list. Without any trouble at all, I could easily have compiled a Top 100 list. Yet there's something about that magical arbitrary number 10 that focuses you, disciplines you, forces you to ask yourself what matters. Here, in order of preference, are the movies of the last 10 years that thrilled, moved, delighted, fascinated, and meant the most to this critic. They're »
- Owen Gleiberman
Review: Sherlock Holmes
5 hours ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
If there exists another film, TV show, or book that makes deductive reasoning and Victorian era procedural investigations as invigorating as the new Sherlock Holmes does, then I am sorely missing out. Don't get me wrong. I've always loved the character in all of his incarnations, but Guy Ritchie's film is positively bursting with an energetic infatuation with the classic logician that is so infectious that by the 10 minute mark only the most prickly purists around will be able to resit its considerable charms.
In retrospect, this should come as no surprise. After a string of indelible, charismatic performances across a wide array of genres, Robert Downey Jr. seemed a perfect match for the curious sleuth. RocknRolla broke director Ritchie's dry spell, announcing a return to form for the man who created Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The supporting cast filled out nicely, particularly Jude Law »
- Peter Hall
The ten best animated films of 2009
6 hours ago | blogs.suntimes.com/ebert | See recent Roger Ebert's Blog news »
True, the once neglected art of animation has undergone a rebirth in both artistry and popularity. Yet having escaped one blind alley, it seems headed into another one: The dumbing-down of stories out of preference for meaningless nonstop action. Classic animated features were models of three-act stories: Recall "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" or "The Lion King." The characters were embedded in stories that made sense and involved making decisions based on values. Now too many stories end in brain-numbing battles, often starring heroes the age of the younger audience members. Here is no food for growth and for the imagination, just brainless kinetic behavior.
The year saw more animated films intended instead for adults, and a film like "Waltz with Bashir" used the freedom of the form to show matters unthinkable in a live action feature. Several of these films were true crossovers, truly freed from the demographic vise. »
- Roger Ebert
Top 9 of '09: DVD and Blu-ray
6 hours ago | FEARnet | See recent FEARnet news »
You can always count on the studio horror titles (the ones worth seeing, like Drag Me to Hell and Paranormal Activity) to show up on DVD, like clockwork, only a few short months after their theatrical release. That's a reliable and comforting schedule for the horror geek who constantly needs something new to watch, savor, and then listen to a commentary on. And that's probably why the old-school no-nonsense horror film fans love the "catalog" releases so much. They're like buried treasure sprinkled across the DVD shops. "Hey, they're putting out Face Chompers 2 from '87! And they put back the crotch-bite scene! And there's a cast commentary!" Yeah, stuff like that. Big time fun. So with »
Cinematical Seven: Your Very-Last-Minute Blu-ray/DVD Shopping Guide
7 hours ago | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »
What's this? You've waited until the very last second to get your holiday shopping done? No worries! Welcome to our ultra last-minute shopping guide, aimed at keeping you in the good graces of everyone on your lists this year. A quick trip to a nearby retailer, or a few clicks and some online shopping, and you should be right as rain. Or, alternatively, if you're stacking up the holiday loot and collecting a lot of gift cards and cash, you can happily spend them on the items in this list.
While this list tends to be fairly Blu-ray heavy, the standard definition of many movies and shows on this list will do you just fine if you haven't yet joined the ranks of the highly defined. Read on for our list of last minute ideas, broken down for you in seven handy categories.
For the Comedy Junkie
Everyone spent the »
- Kevin Kelly
Cool Stuff: Adrian Pavic’s What’s Under Your Mask?
7 hours ago | Slash Film | See recent Slash Film news »
What’s Under Your Mask? is a series of prints created by German illustrator Adrian Pavic honoring the masked icons in Western society, ranging from Darth Vader, to Point Break, to Spider-Man. No word on if Pavic will be making his prints available for public purchase, but you can view some of the art in the series, after the jump. I'd love to see Chop Shop produce a t-shirt based on this series. [gallery order="Desc" columns="2" orderby="ID"] Cool Stuff is a daily feature of slashfilm.com. Know of any geekarific creations or cool products which should be featured on Cool Stuff? E-Mail us at orfilms@gmail.com. via: behance »
- Peter Sciretta
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