The director Thomas Vinterberg discusses a sequence from “Far From the Madding Crowd,” his film adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel with Carey Mulligan and Tom Sturridge
Thursday, 30 April 2015
Watch: Marvel Cinematic Universe Tribute Before 'Avengers' Tonight
Just after the emotions of Pixar Animation's Inside Out reacted to a trailer for The Avengers: Age of Ultron, audiences will be reacting to the entire film once it starts screening around the United States this evening. And for one last piece of hype before the Marvel Studios sequel arrives, why not take a look back at the entire Marvel cinematic universe up until this point? This is bound to happen before each installment of The Avengers every few years, and it's a cool montage of the great stuff we've seen from Marvel so far on the big screen, from the first Iron Man back in 2008 up through The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Let's do this!
Here's the video tribute to the Marvel cinematic universe from JoBlo:
You can still watch the latest trailer for The Avengers: Age of Ultron right here.
The Avengers: Age of Ultron is written & directed by Joss Whedon (The Avengers, Serenity). Earth's mightiest heroes must once again assemble when a super intelligent robot created by Tony Stark created to help fight any threats that might harm the world actually turns against him and the human race. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson all return in the sequel to Marvel's The Avengers with new names like Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen joining the team. Disney & Marvel release the film this summer on May 1st. You ready?
The Last Witch Hunter Trailer: Vin Diesel Armed With a Flaming Sword
Is this Vin Diesel‘s next failed franchise attempt? The guy is the center of the Fast and the Furious movies, but he hasn’t had much luck with other blockbuster efforts. I won’t count his vocal work as Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy. Or the Riddick movies, which have managed three installments without anyone really caring about them. Of course, his other potential franchise, xXx, was something he walked away from, so maybe it’s his own damn fault.
This one is called The Last Witch Hunter, a movie that sounds like a sequel to Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters where one of the siblings hasn’t survived. Diesel plays an immortal witch hunter — the last, presumably — named Kaulder who now must go up against the Queen Witch (Julie Engelbrecht) and other sorceresses in modern day New York City (shot in Pittsburg, it seems). Question: do any of these kinds of movies set in modern day New York City ever do well?
Maybe Diesel can make it work with help from a wildling (Game of Thrones‘ Rose Leslie), a hobbit (LOTR‘s Elijah Wood) and a guy who’ll apparently do any thing these days (Journey 2: Mysterious Island‘s Michael Caine). Plus, the original script by Cory Goodman made the 2010 Black List, so that’s a plus. We’ll see about the execution from director Breck Eisner (The Crazies) when it opens on October 23rd.
Here’s the official long synopsis:
The modern world holds many secrets, but the most astounding secret of all is that witches still live amongst us; vicious supernatural creatures intent on unleashing the Black Death upon the world. Armies of witch hunters battled the unnatural enemy across the globe for centuries, including KAULDER, a valiant warrior who managed to slay the all-powerful QUEEN WITCH, decimating her followers in the process. In the moments right before her death, the QUEEN curses KAULDER with her own immortality, forever separating him from his beloved wife and daughter in the afterlife. Today KAULDER is the only one of his kind remaining, and has spent centuries hunting down rogue witches, all the while yearning for his long-lost loved ones. However, unbeknownst to KAULDER, the QUEEN WITCH is resurrected and seeks revenge on her killer causing an epic battle that will determine the survival of the human race.
"The Last Witch Hunter Trailer: Vin Diesel Armed With a Flaming Sword" was originally published on Film School Rejects for our wonderful readers to enjoy. It is not intended to be reproduced on other websites. If you aren't reading this in your favorite RSS reader or on Film School Rejects, you're being bamboozled. We hope you'll come find us and enjoy the best articles about movies, television and culture right from the source.
Get Nostalgic for 'Jurassic Park' with a Featurette for 'Jurassic World'
Even though blockbuster summer officially begins with The Avengers: Age of Ultron kicking off with 7pm screenings all over the United States tonight, we've still got a little while to wait for one of the other anticipated releases this season, Jurassic World. Just recently we got a slew of dinosaur action in the second theatrical trailer, finally showing off the intimidating Indominus Rex, and now we get a new featurette, complete with nostalgia from stars Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, director Colin Trevorrow and more for the original 1993 action adventure where everything started, Jurassic Park. And then it shifts gears to begin talking about Jurassic World, with some words from Steven Spielberg.
Here's the new featurette for Colin Trevorrow's Jurassic World from Yahoo:
You can still watch the second trailer for Jurassic World right here.
Jurassic World is directed by Colin Trevorrow (Safety Not Guaranteed), who rewrote the script with Derek Connolly from an earlier draft by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). No plot details are available yet, but the film has been said to feature a new operational dinosaur theme park, just as John Hammond imagined over 20 years ago. The cast includes Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Nick Robinson, Jake Johnson, Ty Simpkins, Vincent D'Onofrio, Irrfan Khan and B.D. Wong, reprising his role from Jurassic Park. Universal Pictures releases the film on June 12th. Excited?
Jake Gyllenhaal Fights Back in First TV Spot for 'Southpaw' Drama
If you're into boxing, then you probably know that there's a big fight heading into the ring this weekend with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao finally making good on the fight fans have wanted for years. But for those of us who only care about boxing when there's a compelling character with a story to be told in a motion picture, we have a new TV spot for Antoine Fuqua's forthcoming boxing drama Southpaw starring Jake Gyllenhaal. In fact, this TV spot will actually air during the big fight this weekend, to hit the boxing audience at the perfect time. It's basically a condensed version of the trailer we've seen. Watch it!
Here's the first TV spot for Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw from The Weinstein Company:
You can still watch the first trailer for Southpaw right here.
Southpaw is directed by Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer, Olympus Has Fallen, Shooter, Training Day) and written by Kurt Sutter ("Sons of Anarchy" and "The Shield"). Jake Gyllenhaal plays Junior Middleweight Champion Billy “The Great” Hope, a lefty champ who loses his wife, daughter and life as he knows it after a personal tragedy, forcing him to literally fight his way to redemption. Rachel McAdams, Naomie Harris, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and more star in the film which will hit theaters on July 31st late this summer.
Remedial Film School: Watching All About Eve with Special Guest Amy Nicholson
Screencap (20th Century Fox)
I am a film critic, but almost all of the movies I watch are new releases. That is going to change. With Jeff Bayer’s Remedial Film School a notable film critic or personality will assign me (and you) one film per month. Amy Nicholson from LA Weekly is our guest, and she chose All About Eve (currently available on Netflix Instant). It’s Bette Davis’s birthday this month (April 5). Plus, the film The Clouds of Sils Maria starring Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz is out now in limited release and is being compared to Eve. Seems like the perfect time to watch this 1950 classic. Each section begins with a quote from the film.
“Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” (Nicholson explains): All About Eve is hit-the-brakes fantastic, a movie so good that you shouldn’t watch anything else until you cue it on Netflix. For film fans who are just starting to get into the classic Hollywood canon, or have heard that Davis is one of the best actresses this city ever had, this is where to start.
Davis plays Margo Channing, a theater star as big and frightening on Broadway as she herself was in pictures. She’s got mean quips and big moments — the infamous, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” But she’s also vulnerable, loving, and calculatedly restrained. In her first scene at an awards banquet for an ingenue she despises, Davis channels her disdain just by blinking. And if you’re a Gone Girl fan, listen to Anne Baxter’s scheming Eve Harrington — you can hear where Rosamund Pike borrowed her numbed line readings.
Writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz could fill a closet with his Oscars. (And his brother Herman wrote Citizen Kane.) Maybe that’s why All About Eve’s bitingly funny insights into the industry still feel sharp: producers nervously trying to make a buck, writers and directors dismissed as second tier talents, ingenues (including an unknown Marilyn Monroe) fluttering into parties trying to get powerful people’s attention, and critics on the sidelines tracking every cruelty and making things worse. Well, I hope the last part isn’t true. As you can tell, I’m beyond excited Bayer is going to watch this for the first time.
“A lamb loose in our big stone jungle.” (Bayer watches): Heck, I didn’t even realize Davis doesn’t play the title character Eve, but instead Margo. That was the first of many twists for me. Going into the film, I knew it starred Davis. Here’s my relationship with Davis up until this point: In a song, Madonna declared that we all love her, and Kim Carnes thinks another woman has her eyes. I also assumed this film won an Oscar. Let me go find out … It actually won six, but no woman won for acting, even though four were nominated (Davis, Baxter, Celeste Holm, and Thelma Ritter).
It’s insane to me that a film from 1950 can still hold up as one of the best portraits of women in Hollywood. More importantly, this is about a powerful actress, and I’m just going to say it, she’s a dame in all of the good ways that could possibly be taken. After watching this film I have a huge Davis crush. Right from the beginning we know this is a comedy because Addison DeWitt (George Sanders) explains during a narration that, “It’s not important what [a man on stage] says.” And he delivers that line with all of the wit we critics hope we have with our writing. The key moment in the opening scene is when two women aren’t clapping for another one who is being awarded. Otherwise, I’m not sure the flash forward is necessary. The film goes on to bounce from comedy to drama.
At a glance I thought Gregory Peck might be in the film, but it turns out it’s just Gary Merrill as Bill Simpson. This becomes especially weird when Bill refers to himself as NOT being Peck. He’s the weak link of the acting chain for me. The more we get to know Eve, a woman desperate to please her idol, the more we wonder what is real with this woman. The voice drives me nuts, which I think is slightly on purpose. Eve speaks in audible, apologetic whispers. Currently, Paula Patton does this in some roles, and you’re right, I didn’t notice at the time, but Pike and Baxter definitely are cut from the same cloth.
The running time made me wonder where exactly this film is going (it’s 2:18). There seems to be a little Lord of the Rings: Return of the King here. They can’t decide on one ending, so they just have them all. I feel like it could have ended in the Cub Room (the film’s true highlight). I didn’t love the actual final scene. It felt too perfect. Though it did reaffirm my feeling that Single White Female and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle received a lot of inspiration from this film. This movie is steps away from being horror.
The two funniest tiny moments are when someone refers to Eve and Margo’s honeymoon period, it just consists of Margo lying back and eating fried chicken. The other is when Eve and Addison are walking outside of New Haven. It’s an incredibly fake looking backdrop. Any time I see something like that I wonder if I’ll be able to looks at today’s movies the same way 50 years from now.
You might hate this, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but every time I watch a classic or foreign language film, I wonder who would be cast in the remake. So far I have Angelina Jolie as Margo Channing, Emma Stone as Eve Harrington, and Colin Firth as Addison DeWitt. Care to fill out the rest of the cast? Hate me for even bringing this up?
My final random thoughts; I didn’t need the narration (especially with the long breaks and from multiple people), or the flash forward. What’s the equivalent in today’s world for the word “harpy”? I love how much Davis smokes in this film, and my favorite line of dialogue is when she talks of her age (“Now I suddenly feel as if I’ve taken all my clothes off.”) Also, her dress has pockets? That was a thing back then? I assumed that was recently invented. Most importantly, Thelma Ritter, they don’t make them like that anymore. What a brilliant character actor.
Movie Score: 8/10
“Now I suddenly feel as if I’ve taken all my clothes off.” (Nicholson responds): Glad you’ve finally discovered Davis. If you’re hooked, check out a few more of my favorites: Jezebel, Mr. Skeffington, Now Voyager, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane — that last one is like All About Eve on LSD doing primal scream therapy. (And co-stars Davis’ rival Joan Crawford.)
We don’t have many female stars in Davis’ mold, or maybe they just aren’t getting parts that show off what they can do. I don’t think Jolie has the fire or wit to play Channing — she’s way more of a cool-toned killer like Eve. Maybe Nicole Kidman, an aged-up Charlize Theron, or my current dream girl, Taraji P. Henson.
I’m a big fan of that final scene, especially how it implies that in the future, stars will have even less time on top. Margo Channing had decades. Eve has a year. Eighteen years later, Andy Warhol would downgrade it to 15 minutes — and in real life right afterwards, the actress who played the ingenue in that last shot committed suicide, in part because her own career never took off. If it had ended earlier, we’d have lost the film’s bleakest message: that in the entertainment business, stone-cold scheming killers like Eve win. At least for a while.
Margo Channing is forced to redefine her own happy ending. Maybe she won’t win any more awards, but she can stop having to care so much about her looks and eat some more damned fried chicken. That might not be the recipe for eternal fame, but it’s a fine way to spend an afternoon. Just like watching All About Eve, for anyone out there who hasn’t. Dig in.
Bill’s 32. He looks 32. He looked it five years ago, he’ll look it 20 years from now. I hate men. (Bayer concludes): Davis has MORE movies? Ugh, why does TV have to be so good right now? Between the new episodes of Mad Men, Louie, Veep, Game of Thrones, The Last Man on Earth, plus the two to three wide releases I see each week, and the NBA Playoffs, when’s a boy supposed to find the time? I really need to spend less time with my kid. Nicholson, you completely convinced me about the ending. I like to believe I would have gotten there on my own after watching All About Eve again, but that might be giving me too much credit. Also, I love Theron, so I decided to look up her age to see how long it would be until she was able to play the aging Margo. Davis was 42, Theron is 39. Wow.
Any questions, answers, deep dive trivia about the film, or suggestions for future films or special guests? Add to the comments below.
Your Next Assignment: Guest critic Vince Mancini (@Filmdrunk) selected Seconds. It is available to rent on Amazon, Google Play, and iTunes. Your due date is May 28.
"Remedial Film School: Watching All About Eve with Special Guest Amy Nicholson" was originally published on Film School Rejects for our wonderful readers to enjoy. It is not intended to be reproduced on other websites. If you aren't reading this in your favorite RSS reader or on Film School Rejects, you're being bamboozled. We hope you'll come find us and enjoy the best articles about movies, television and culture right from the source.
Beyond the Brick Trailer: This Summer’s Must-See LEGO Movie
Did you even know there was a new LEGO movie coming out this summer? If you don’t pay attention to documentaries, probably not. Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary actually made its debut a year ago at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, which is when I saw it and was pleasantly surprised by just how “clever and lively” it is. Yes, I’m using the words blurbed in the above trailer credited to Movies.com, because that’s quoted from my own capsule review over there. Here’s another one: “it’s a really fun doc.”
The feature is co-directed by Kief Davidson, who earned an Oscar nomination in 2013 for his doc short Open Heart, and Daniel Junge, who won an Oscar in 2012 for his doc short Saving Face. In their pairing here, they’ve moved quite a distance away from the heavy subject matter (high-risk heart surgery for Rwandan children and reconstructive plastic surgery for Pakistani women with acid-burned faces, respectively) to profile and celebration of all there is to the iconic toy brand.
Like The LEGO Movie, this overly promotional documentary is at least a very enjoyable time with the brand (and features scenes, including a spoiler, from that franchise-starting animated feature). In Beyond the Brick, Jason Bateman provides his voice for a stop-motion minifig character, a host and narrator who is like the nonfiction film equivalent of Chris Pratt’s character in Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s smash hit of last year.
Unlike The LEGO Movie, though, this upcoming movie will enlighten you. Some things you can learn from the doc include LEGO’s history and the work of LEGO street artists and sculptors, as well as how LEGO is being used to treat autistic children, help in architectural design and influence scientists and engineers of various fields.
Beyond the Brick: A LEGO Brickumentary hits theaters on July 31st.
"Beyond the Brick Trailer: This Summer’s Must-See LEGO Movie" was originally published on Film School Rejects for our wonderful readers to enjoy. It is not intended to be reproduced on other websites. If you aren't reading this in your favorite RSS reader or on Film School Rejects, you're being bamboozled. We hope you'll come find us and enjoy the best articles about movies, television and culture right from the source.
Pharrell Debuts New 'Dope' Poster - It's Hard Out Here for a Geek
Geeks unite! This is one of my favorite films of the year, so I'm happy to keep writing about it, and I love the marketing for it so far. Instead of focusing on prestige and critics, they're selling Rick Famuyiwa's Dope purely based on how awesome the characters and story are - which is fine by me, because it's an excellent film (read my Sundance review) that deserves to find a wide audience. Musician Pharrell Williams, who is an executive producer on the film, debuted this new poster which isn't particularly artsy but does represent this film very nicely. On here you'll see Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons as three friends from Inglewood. Give it a look below, but most importantly mark down this release in your calendar.
Here's the new poster for Rick Famuyiwa's Dope, originally posted by Pharrell on his Instagram. Check it:
You can read also Alex's Sundance review of Rick Famuyiwa's Dope, and catch the first teaser trailer here.
Dope is written and directed by Rick Famuyiwa. Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is a high school geek with a high-top fade, carefully navigating life in The Bottoms, one of the toughest neighborhoods in Inglewood, California. He and his fellow outcasts (Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons) share a voracious appreciation for all things '90s hip-hop. He dreams of attending Harvard, but first he has to make it home every day. When a drug dealer takes a shine to Malcolm and invites him to his birthday party, Malcolm’s crew is swirled into a hilarious blender of offbeat characters and bad choices where redemption can only be found in Bitcoin. The film first premiered at Sundance earlier this year and it will hit limited theaters on June 19th this summer.
This Week’s Game of Thrones Spoiler Theory Involves Another Bloody Wedding
HBO
One of my favorite things to do is talk about Game of Thrones spoilers. Not so much the kind where I ruin things that are definitely going to happen in the show, mind you. I’m more into the speculation. Combining book knowledge, little clues and my own wild imagination to come up with a theory that could very well pan out. I’ve even parlayed that love into a co-hosting gig on the Storm of Spoilers podcast, on which I chat weekly with Dave Gonzales and Joanna Robinson.
The brilliance of Game of Thrones season 5 is that it has inspired some of our best theories to date. In this new weekly look at spoilers, I’d like to explain them for those of you who would like to dig deeper into the Game of Thrones hypotheticals than is considered healthy. With that in mind, you should know that what follows includes potential spoilers for the show. These theories are fueled by having read the books by George R.R. Martin, an unhealthy amount of time spent on the Wiki of Ice and Fire and plenty of wild speculation. Consider yourself warned.
If you choose to pass beyond Walter White Walker, Lord of Spoilers, you’ll be rewarded with my explanation of The Grey Wedding, the next nasty nuptials of Westeros.
We’ve mentioned The Grey Wedding several times on A Storm of Spoilers, mostly in a coy fashion until this week. In episode 3, “High Sparrow,” the path toward another wedding in The North has been set. We see Littlefinger and Sansa Stark standing outside Moat Cailin, talking about the wedding proposal mentioned in earlier episodes. It turns out that it wasn’t a proposal for Littlefinger, but a deal being struck between Littlefinger and Roose Bolton. Despite having been the orchestrator of the murder of her brother and mother, Sansa is going to align with Bolton (at least in outward appearance) and marry his son and heir Ramsay.
This is a large departure from the books, as it involves Sansa, but there is a wedding used by the Boltons to solidify their hold on The North. As we understand from the scene between Roose and Ramsay, the other houses of The North are not fans of being under the thumb of House Bolton. Having to peel the skin off of an entire family just to get them to pay their taxes is a bit much, even for Lord Roose. As a practical and strategic man, Roose knows that marriage is the only way to seal his hold on The North.
In the books the wedding that takes place is between Ramsay and Arya Stark, only it’s not really Arya Stark. The Bolton’s capitalize on the fact that Arya has not been seen since the death of her father and use Jeyne Poole, a former friend of Sansa, in her place. There’s also another grisly detail from the book, in which another northern lord named Wyman Manderly murders several Freys (remember them?) and cooks them into a pie that is served at the wedding of “Arya” and Ramsay. After a fracas breaks out between the Manderlys and Freys, Theon (now Reek) and fake Arya escape Winterfell and ultimately end up captives of Stannis Baratheon and his oncoming army.
How much of this will make it into the show?
There’s a lot of setup in just this episode that leads us to believe that some of this is going to make it into season five. The big change is that Sansa is the player on the Stark side of the equation. Theon is at Winterfell and has already begun to throw longing looks in Sansa’s direction. And there’s been talk from Littlefinger of “avenging” the deaths of Catelyn and Robb. So far as we can tell, he needs to get Sansa in the game and giving her the opportunity for revenge is a good motivator.
There is also a trail of breadcrumbs being left by the show’s cast. Sophie Turner had the following to say in December:
“There was one scene that I did do that was super, super traumatic and I love doing those scenes. It was just really kind of horrible for everyone to be on set, but those scenes are just kind of what feed me, that’s why I started out, to do all the crappy, horrible stuff.”
Alfie Allen has since added this about Theon’s perspective on horrible events in season 5:
“There’s something that happens about halfway through this season that is really going to make huge waves, and people aren’t going to be happy about it. It’s hard to watch.”
It all goes back to an article that my Storm of Spoilers co-host Joanna Robinson wrote in February about Sansa becoming a badass. Her theory at the time was that Sansa would be the ones to bake some Frey pies.
I now have a few alternative theories for what may happen with Sansa and Ramsay’s unholy matrimony, or more specifically this “horrible event” that the cast appears to be promising:
Option A: Sansa and Ramsay are wed, then Sansa pulls a Gone Girl in their wedding bed, killing Ramsay as vengeance for her brother, mother, sister-in-law and unborn nephew (among others).
Option B: Reek/Theon tries to warn Sansa about the fact that Ramsay is a monster, is caught by Ramsay and is tortured in a very public way as a show of Ramsay’s strength. The further humiliation and beating of Theon is not very savory for audiences, but since when has Game of Thrones been a show about righteous vengeance?
Option C: Brienne and Pod (still following Sansa and Littlefinger) sneak into Winterfell in an attempt to rescue Sansa. They break up the wedding and Brienne uses that very sharp sword to disembowel the groom. Okay, this one is wishful thinking, but it’s possible that Brienne and Pod will be involved.
Here’s what we know:
- There will be a wedding at Winterfell this season.
- “Something horrible” is going to happen and it involves at least Sansa, Ramsay and Theon.
- The reason why Sansa has agreed to this plan is that Littlefinger has offered her a shot at vengeance.
All of this leads me to believe that whether it involves Frey Pies, wedding night throat slashings, heroic go-for-broke rescue missions, public torture or even a good old fashioned poisoning, The Grey Wedding will be one of the more memorable events of season 5.
For more talk of this theory, give a listen to the last two episodes of A Storm of Spoilers, available below:
Episode 2: “The House of Black and White” (with some Grey Wedding discussion)
Episode 3: “High Sparrow” (with more Grey Wedding discussion)
I’ve got a feeling that we’ll be talking about this for at least a few more weeks.
"This Week’s Game of Thrones Spoiler Theory Involves Another Bloody Wedding" was originally published on Film School Rejects for our wonderful readers to enjoy. It is not intended to be reproduced on other websites. If you aren't reading this in your favorite RSS reader or on Film School Rejects, you're being bamboozled. We hope you'll come find us and enjoy the best articles about movies, television and culture right from the source.
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