Showing posts with label M. Night Shyamalan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label M. Night Shyamalan. Show all posts

Friday, February 3, 2023

Review: "KNOCK AT THE CABIN" is Not Worth the Ticket Price; Stream It

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 of 2023 (No. 1895) by Leroy Douresseaux

Knock at the Cabin (2023)
Running time:  100 minutes
MPA – R for violence and language
DIRECTOR:  M. Night Shyamalan
WRITERS:  M. Night Shyamalan, Steve Desmond, and Michael Sherman (based on the book, The Cabin at the End of the World, by Paul Tremblay)
PRODUCERS:  Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Jarin Blaschke (D.o.P.) and Lowell A. Meyer (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Noemi Katharina Preiswerk
COMPOSER:  Herdis Stefansdottir

FANTASY/THRILLER/HORROR

Starring:  Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, Kristen Cui, and M. Night Shyamalan

Knock at the Cabin is a 2023 fantasy, thriller, and horror film from director M. Night Shyamalan.  The film is based on the 2018 novel, The Cabin at the End of the World, from author Paul Tremblay.  Knock at the Cabin focuses on a small family of three and the four armed strangers who take them hostage and demand that the three members sacrifice one of their own … in order to stop the end of the world.

Knock at the Cabin introduces Andrew (Ben Aldridge) and his husband, Eric (Jonathan Groff), and their adopted daughter, Wen (Kirsten Cui).  They are vacationing at a remote cabin in the woods, but during their first day at the cabin, terror strikes.  Four strangers break into the cabin and tie up Andrew and Eric.

The strangers identify themselves as Redmond (Rupert Grint), Adriane (Abby Quinn), Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird), and Leonard (Dave Bautista), the apparent leader.  Leonard explains that the Apocalypse is coming.  The oceans will rise, a plague will descend, and the sky will fall to the earth like pieces of shattered glass; then, there will only be unending darkness.  These horrors can only be averted if this family of three kills one of their own as a sacrifice.

Leonard tells Andrew, Eric, and Wren that if they do not chose, they will survive the Apocalypse, but they will be doomed to be the last people alive on a dead world.  Andrew and Eric believe that these people are delusional, and Andrew believes that this situation is rooted in bigoted hate against their family.  But bad things are starting to happen … all around the world...

I saw Knock at the Cabin just last night (as of this writing) at a Thursday night preview.  When the credits started rolling, I started laughing, not loud enough to draw attention, but I found that I had a hard time not laughing.  In Shyamalan's filmography, I have a personal favorite, The Lady in the Water (2006), and two films I enjoyed quite a bit, After Earth (2013) and Old (2021).  There are two movies that I thought were really good, but had ridiculous endings that ruined the movies for me, Unbreakable (2000) and The Village (2004).

Knock at the Cabin reminds me of 2010's The Last Airbender.  Both are films that are good concepts and that begin with good ideas.  Ultimately, however, both have something missing, or maybe a lot missing.  For instance, in Knock at the Cabin, Andrew and Eric are well-developed characters, and the actors playing them give performances that convinced me Andrew and Eric were in love and were a committed couple.  However, the flashbacks about their lives are more vague than they are informative.  Also, I was quite put-off by the fact that the couple lied to adopt Wen.

For an apocalyptic movie, Shyamalan is stingy with the apocalyptic imagery.  The tsunami was a little impressive; the plague was underwhelming; and the plane crashes were impressive … mostly.  When Leonard warn Andrew and Eric that not making a choice means that a hundred thousand people will die, it does not feel like a real threat.  And honestly, when a disaster is shown onscreen, it does not look like something that will kill a hundred thousand.  I think Shyamalan wanted to play it cute with Leonard and his companions for the audience.  Maybe, they are deranged and delusional.  Maybe, the disasters are a coincidence.  It's when I thought that maybe the Apocalypse is real, but Leonard and company are too crazy to do their part correctly that I knew this film had story development issues.

As an end of the world scenario, Knock at the Cabin doesn't have real traction.  Yes, the actors give good performances, especially Dave Bautista as Leonard and Nikki Amuka-Bird as Sabrina.  However, all the actors are mouthing nonsensical dialogue for a narrative that can't quite escape being ludicrous.  I think that the actors are more convincing about Knock at the Cabin's story that Shyamalan and his co-screenwriters are.  If not for the cast, I would give this film a lower grade that the one I ultimately gave it – maybe much lower.

There are better films about a small group of people trapped in a remote cabin and fighting off supernatural doom, such as The Evil Dead (1981) and Cabin in the Woods (2011).  Shyamalan has a reputation for revealing a big twist at the end of his films.  In Knock at the Cabin, the big twist is that there is no big twist.  I didn't want there to be one, but now I believe that a big twist would have made Knock at the Cabin feel like more than a meaningless story and empty cinematic experience.

4 of 10
C
★★ out of 4 stars

Friday, February 3, 2023


The text is copyright © 2023 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Thursday, December 9, 2021

Review "OLD" is a Crazy, Entertaining, Thrilling Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 69 of 2021 (No. 1807) by Leroy Douresseaux

Old (2021)
Running time:  108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity and brief strong language
DIRECTOR:  M. Night Shyamalan
WRITER:  M. Night Shyamalan (based on the graphic novel, Château de sable, by Pierre-Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters)
PRODUCERS:  Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Micheal Gioulakis (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Brett M. Reed
COMPOSER:  Trevor Gureckis

FANTASY/THRILLER/HORROR

Starring:  Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Aaron Pierre, Kathleen Chalfant, M. Night Shyamalan, Alexa Swinton, Thomasin McKenzie, Embeth Davidtz, Nolan River, Alex Wolff, Emun Elliot, and Kylie Begley, Mikaya Fisher, and Eliza Scanlen

Old is a 2021 horror-thriller and fantasy film from director, M. Night Shyamalan.  The film is based on the 2010 French-language, Swiss graphic novel, Château de sable (2010) by Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters, which was published in English as “Sandcastle” in 2011.  Old the movie focuses on a group of people trapped on a secluded beach where they age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Old introduces husband, Guy Cappa (Gael Garcia Bernal), and his wife, Prisca Cappa (Vicky Krieps).  They are going through a difficult time and decide to take their two children, 11-year-old daughter, Maddox (Alexa Swinton), and six-year-old son, Trent (Nolan River), on a family vacation to a tropical resort.  On their second morning at the resort, the Cappas get an offer from the resort's manager for a trip to a secluded beach.

Although the Cappas initially believe that they will have the beach to themselves, they soon learn they will not.  They meet a surgeon, Charles (Rufus Sewell); his wife, Chrystal (Abbey Lee); their six-year-old daughter, Kara (Kylie Begley); and Charles's elderly mother, Agnes (Kathleen Chalfant).  The late arrivals are the close-knit couple, Jarin Carmichael (Ken Leung) and his, wife Patricia Carmichael (Nikki Amuka-Bird).  Trouble starts when they meet someone who was on the beach before them, the recording artist and rapper, Mid-Sized Sedan (Aaron Pierre), and then, discover the corpse of his female companion.  Accusations fly, but no one is really paying attention to the fact that the three children are changing … rapidly.

The film's of writer-director M. Night Shyamalan can be both sublime, such as his Oscar-nominated breakthrough, The Sixth Sense (1999), or ridiculous like 2004's eye-rolling The Village.  Sometimes, his films can be both, to varying degrees, such as 2000's Unbreakable.  Or his films can be surprisingly inventive and mostly entertaining, such as 2013's After Earth, 2016's Split, and now Old.

People once called Shyamalan the next Steven Spielberg, although his films seem closer to Alfred Hitchcock's.  At the heart of most Shyamalan films is a mystery, and that mystery holds the audience in suspense.  The problem can be that when the mystery is solved in one of his films, sometimes the suspense turns to befuddlement, but that doesn't really happen with Old.

After the first twenty minutes or so of introduction, Old offers about forty minutes of the best mystery and suspense that audiences have gotten in the last two years or so of American films.  Shyamalan builds this killer thriller by depicting his characters' varied reactions to their crazy and increasingly unbelievable situation.  Watching some of them revert to their old melodramas, others fall into to their mental challenges, and some approach their situation with a sense of curiosity and wonder can be invigorating.  Through these characters, Shyamalan offers so many intriguing points of view.

The film's last forty minutes is a mixture of science fiction and horror that is captivating, even when it seems a bit over-the-top.  At this point, Shyamalan turns to the Cappas' domestic drama in a way that bounces between being poignant or edgy or stock melodrama.  There is a happy ending, but it is best, in order to avoid spoilers, that I allow you to decide whether that happy ending is plausible or appropriate, dear readers.

I have never read the comic book, Sandcastle, that inspired Old, but from what I understand, the comic's narrative is a bit more ruthless with its characters.  Still, I found Old satisfying because of Shyamalan's seamless filmmaking and because of the way his uses the characters' aging to keep things hopping in the narrative.  I don't know if M. Night Shyamalan's Old will age well, but I do believe that it will always find an audience willing to be enraptured by its mystery and thrilled by its suspense … to one extent or another … like me.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, December 9, 2021


The text is copyright © 2021 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Saturday, July 31, 2021

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from July 25th to 31st, 2021 - Update #22

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

You can support Leroy via Paypal or on Patreon:

ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE NEWS

BOX OFFICE - From Deadline:   Disney's "Jungle Cruise" looking to lead the weekend box office with an estimated 30+ million dollars grossed in its debut weekend.

DISNEY - From Deadline:  Bryan Lourd, Scarlett Johansson's agent, harshly responds to The Walt Disney Company's response to Scarlett Johansson's breach of contract lawsuit against Disney over her compensation for "Black Widow."

From Deadline:  Women in Film, ReFrame and Time’s Up have weighed in, call out Disney for its response to Scarlett Johansson and her "Black Widow" lawsuit.

MOVIES - From Gizmodo:   The acclaimed science fiction novel, "Parable of the Sower," by the late Octavia Butler will be a film.  A24 has won the film rights.

DISNEY - From Deadline:   The Walt Disney Co. has fired back at Scarlett Johansson over her "Black Widow" lawsuit, which concerns her compensation and the streaming of "Black Widow" on Disney+.  Disney says that Johansson has already made 20 million dollars off the film...

TELEVISION - From Variety:  After 25 seasons, PBS is cancelling "Arthur."  It is the longest-running children's animated series in the history of American television.  The show will wrap up its last season in Winter 2022. 

MOVIES - From THR:  The site has an extensive interview with screenwriter, David S. Goyer ("Blade" and "Batman" films).

JAN. 6 RIOT - From YahooEntertainment:   This voice mail message left on the phone of a Washington D.C. police officer who testified yesterday (July 27th) at the House committee hearings investigating the Jan. 6th insurrection epitomizes much of "Trump base."

TELEVISION - From Variety:   With ratings for the 2021 Olympics on the decline, NBCUniversal and its advertisers are feeling anxious about "make goods" and other forms of reimbursement.

MOVIES - From Variety:   Universal is spending 400 million dollars on a new trilogy of films based on the legendary horror film, "The Exorcist."  Oscar-winning actress, Ellen Burstyn, will reprise her role as "Chris MacNeil" from the 1973 original film.  The first film in the trilogy will arrive in theaters in 2023, while the second and third films likely will debut on Universal's "Peacock" streaming platform.

TELEVISION - From Variety:   Actor Bob Odenkirk has been hospitalized after collapsing on the set of the AMC series, "Better Call Saul," which is currently filming its sixth and final season.

From YahooEntertainment:  Former "Batwoman" actress, Ruby Rose, had to return to the hospital recently due to surgical complications ... but she had trouble finding an ER that would take her.

CELEBRITY - From YahooEntertainment:  Actress Lucy Liu talks about her infamous clash with actor Bill Murray on the set of "Charlie's Angels" (2000).

STAR TREK - From Space:   The first official trailer for the much-anticipated Nickelodeon and Paramount+ animated series, "Star Trek: Prodigy," arrives.  We hear Capt. Janeway's voice and get a release date, Fall 2021.

TELEVISION - From Variety:   LeVar Burton begins his stint as a “Jeopardy!” guest host today, Monday, July 26th.

BOX OFFICE - Variety:   The winner of the 7/23 to 7/25/2021 weekend box office is "Old" with an estimated gross of 16.5 million dollars.

From Deadline:  "Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdaine" tops the specialty box office.

MUSIC - From Deadline:  The estate of the late singer, Grammy-winner James Brown, has been settled after nearly 15 years of legal battles.  The estate had been in dispute since Brown died Christmas Day 2006.

NETFLIX - From Variety:   The site has a huge piece on Kevin Smith, the development of Netflix's "Master of the Universe" animated series, and about online fan backlash against the series.

CELEBRITY - From YahooPeople:    Judge John Ouderkirk, the judge involved in Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie's ongoing custody case, will be disqualified after he was found to have "violated his ethical obligations," according to an opinion submitted by three appellate judges on Friday.

OBITS:

From NPR:   Civil rights activist, Robert Parris "Bob" Moses, has died at the age of 86, Sunday, July 25, 2021.  Moses was known for his work as a leader of the "Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee" (SNCC) on voter education and registration in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement.  He was also known for co-founding of the "Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party."  Moses was shot at and endured beatings and jail while leading Black voter registration drives in the American South during the 1960s.  He later helped improve minority education in math.

From Deadline:  The actor Mike Mitchell has died at the age of 65, Friday, July 23, 2021.  Mitchell was a former "Mr. Universe" and won several "World Fitness Federation World Championships."  He appeared in such films as "Braveheart" (1995) and "Gladiator" (2000).

TRAILERS:

From THR:  "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" drops a new trailer (July 27th) and has a release date, November 11th, 2021.


Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from September 20th to 30th, 2020 - Update #39

by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

Support Leroy on Patreon:

TELEVISION - From Variety:  NBC has set the cast for Dwayne Johnson's comedy about his younger years, "Young Rock."  Adrian Groulx will play 10-year-old Dwayne.

STREAMING - From Deadline:  Netflix has published the first stills of Gillian Anderson as Margaret Thatcher and newcomer Emma Corrin as Princess Diana in Season 4 of The Crown.

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Dozens of organizations are appealing to the Congress of the United States to help save the movie theater business.

MOVIES - From Deadline:   Oscar-winning director, Barry Levinson ("Rain Man"), has a new film, "Francis and the Godfather," about the making of the legendary, Oscar-winning film, "The Godfather."  Oscar Isaac will play the film's director, Franics Ford Coppola, and Jake Gyllenhaal will play the film's producer, Robert Evans.

COVID-19 - From Deadline:   Emmy-winning actor Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") has revealed that both he and his husband, Todd Spiewak, was diagnosed with COVID-19 back in March.

AMAZON - From Deadline:  Amazon has bought Sacha Baron Cohen's sequel to his 2006 film, "Borat."  It will debut on Amazon in late October 2020.

DISNEY - From Deadline:  Disney will produce a sequel to it hit, live-action version of "The Lion King."  Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins will direct the sequel.

AVATAR - From Deadline:   Director James Cameron says that his "Avatar 2" is 100 percent complete and that "Avatar 3" is 95 percent finished.

CHADWICK BOSEMAN - From Deadline:   Sienna Miller has said that the late actor Chadwick Boseman ("Black Panther") raised her salary on their film, "21 Bridges," by giving up part of his.

NETFLIX - From Deadline:  A Netflix price hike is "probable."

MOVIES - From THR:   Director M. Night Shyamalan reveals the title ("Old") and artwork for his new film.

BOX OFFICE - From Deadline:   The winner of the 9/25 to 9/27/2020 weekend box office is "Tenet" with an estimated take of $3.4 million.

MUSIC - From YahooLife:   Sign O' The Times: how Prince created a masterpiece – and ruined his career

STREAMING - From Deadline:   Apple has apparently bought directors Joe and Anthony Russo's film, "Cherry," starring Tom Holland ("Spider-Man: Homeing") and Ciara Bravo.

POLITICS - From YahooEntertainment:   Dwayne Johnson, a political independent who has voted for both Democratic and Republican candidates, has made his first ever presidential endorsement, choosing the Democratic presidential tickets of Joe Bidden and Kamala Harris.

ANIMATION - From Deadline:   YouTube star Arif Zahir will replace Mike Henry as the voice of "Cleveland Brown" on Fox's long-running animated series, "Family Guy."

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Ice Cube to star in an untitled science fiction film for director Rich Lee with Timur Bekmambetov and Patrick Aiello producing.

MOVIES - From CBR:  Well, bless his heart - is what you're going to say after reading this "analysis" of the great film director, the late Stanley Kubrick.

MOVIES - From Deadline:  Disney moves Marvel Studios' "Black Widow" release date to May 2021, a full year after its original release date, the latest in release date changes due to the COVID-19 shutdown of movie theaters.  However, Disney holds Pixar's "Soul" to its original release date (Nov. 20th, 2020) and also decides not to move it to Disney+ for streaming.

STREAMING - From Deadline:  Bradley Cooper has chosen Oscar-nominated actress, Carey Mulligan, to play Leonard Bernstein's wife, Felicia, in his Netflix film about Leonard, "Maestro."

LGBTQ - From MensHealth:   16 bisexual movies you need to see.

FILM FESTIVALS - From blogTO:  The blog lists its 10 best films at this year's "Toronto International Film Festival."

STREAMING - From EW:  "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" won recently won an Emmy ("Outstanding Children's Program"), but Netflix has cancelled it after one season.

BOX OFFICE - From Deadline:  The winner of the 9/18 to 9/20/20 weekend box office is "Tenet" with an estimated take of 4.7 million dollars. 

From CNBC:  Movie theater stocks tank after another disappointing box office weekend.

EMMYS - From Deadline:  If you care, this article has a full list of winners at the 2020 / 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards.

From EW:  If you care, this article has a full list of winner at the 2020 / 72nd Annual Creative Arts Emmy Awards. 

From YahooEntertainment:  Last night's Emmy winters delivered impassioned pleas for social reform and for voting.

From Billboard:  Records were set at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Zendaya, at 24, being the youngest actress to win "Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series" (for HBO's "Euphoria") and "Schitt's Creek" being the first comedy series to sweep all seven major awards in the comedy category.

From Deadline:  Actor Ron Cephas Jones and his daughter, Jasmine Cephas Jones, become the first father and daughter to win an Emmy the same year.  Ron won for "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" (This is Us"), and Jasmine won for "Best Actress in a Short From Comedy or Drama" (for Quibi's "#FreeRayshawn").

From YahooEntertainment:  Every year, there is controversy during the Emmy's "In memoriam" segment.

OBITS:  

From ESPN:  Hall of Fame NFL offensive player, Gale Sayers, has died at the age of 77, Wednesday, September 23, 2020.  A halfback, Sayers was known as the "Kansas Comet," and played seven seasons for the Chicago Bears.  Sayers is also famous for his friendship with his cancer-stricken teammate, Brian Piccolo (who died in 1970), and Sayers' biography was the basis for the beloved 1971 TV Emmy Award-winning movie, "Brian's Song."

From WashPost:   Brian Piccolo's eldest daughter, Lori Piccolo, remembers Gale Sayers and his relationship with her late father.

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From THR:   Astrologer and dancer, Jackie Stallone, has died at the age of Monday, September 21, 2020.  Stallone was also the mother Hollywood superstar, Sylvester Stallone, and singer-actor, Frank Stallone, and the late actress, Toni D'Alto.

From YahooSports:   Hall of Fame NFL defensive player, Larry Wilson, has died at the age of 82, Thursday, September 17, 2020.  Playing at the position of "safety," Wilson played all 13 of his NFL seasons (1960-72) with the St. Louis Cardinals (now Arizona Cardinals).  He was the 1966 "NFL Defensive Player of the Year."  He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1978.


CORONAVIRUS/COVID-19 NEWS:

From CDC:   The Centers for Disease Control has a "COVID Data Tracker."

From YahooNews:  Why does COVID-19 kill some people and hardly affects others?

From YahooNews:  Yahoo has a dedicated page of links updating news about COVID-19.

From Deadline:  The news site "Deadline" has a dedicated page for news about coronavirus and the film, TV, and entertainment industries.

From TheNewYorker:  The venerable magazine has a dedicate COVID-19 page free to all readers.

From YahooNews:  Re: the federal government's response to COVID-19: What if the most important election of our lifetime was the last one - 2016?

From YahooLife:  What is "happy hypoxia?"  And do you have this COVID-19 symptom?

From JuanCole:  Remember when President Donald went crazy and suggested that we ingest household cleaning supplies and UV light to fight COVID-19.  Here is the video and commentary from Juan Cole.

From TheIntercept:  The federal government has ramped up security and police-related spending in response to the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic, including issuing contracts for riot gear, disclosures show. The purchase orders include requests for disposable cuffs, gas masks, ballistic helmets, and riot gloves...

From TheAtlanticThe Coronavirus Was an Emergency Until Trump Found Out Who Was Dying. The pandemic has exposed the bitter terms of our racial contract, which deems certain lives of greater value than others.

From ProPublica:  Hospital's Secret COVID-19 Policy Separated Native American Mothers From Their Newborns

From TheGuardian:  More than 20 million Americans could have contracted COVID-19, experts say.

From RSN/WashPost:  The COVID-19 mutation that has taken over the world.

7/13 - From YahooSports:  Maybe a pandemic means that there will not be college football this fall.

7/13- From YahooNews:  The CDC adds four new symptoms (including nausea and purple or blue lesions on feet and toes) to the list of COVID-19 symptoms.

7/19 - From YahooFinance:  Harvard Public Health professor Dr. Howard Koh says the U.S. "needs to regroup" to find COVID-19.

7/22 - From YahooNews:  A public health employee predicted Florida's coronavirus catastrophe — then she was fired.

7/22 - From YahooLifestyle:  Florida mom loses son, 20, to coronavirus, and then days later, her daughter.

7/23 - From TheWrap:  The site has a list of movie and TV stars, entertainment and sports figures who have tested positive for COVID-19

From Bloomberg:  Will the COVID-19 pandemic turn Millennials into socialists?

7/27 - From CNN:   Chief of critical care at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, Dr. Joseph Costa, passes away due to Covid-19 complications... after treating the hospital's sickest COVID-19 patients.  He was 56 and leaves behind family, including a husband of 28 years.

7/30 - From Deadline:  Emmy-winning actor Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad") reveals that he had a bout with COVID-19.

7/31 - From YahooEntertainment:  Writer and actress, Lena Dunham, creator of HBO's "Girls, reveals that she contracted COVID-19 and the symptoms she experiences and still experience.

7/30 - From YahooGMA:  In their bid to crackdown on illegal gatherings amid COVID-19, New York authorities break up an alleged sex party.

7/31 - From Slate:  COVID-19 is airborne - for reals!

8/2 - From TheDailyBeast:  In Mississippi, COVID-19 has coroners terrified.

8/6 - From YahooNews:  Testing everyone constantly could stop the spread of COVID-19... according to this article.

8/8 - From YahooNYT:  The coronavirus is new, but your immune system might recognize it.

8/8 - From YahooNBC:  They thought COVID-19 was a hoax, and they almost died from it or are watching family and loved ones suffer with it or die from it.

8/9 - From YahooNews:  The rest of the world is incredulous at the pitiful U.S. response to COVID-19.

8/9 - From YahooAFP:  According to the real-time tally kept by John Hopkins University, the United States has hit 5 million cases of COVID-19.

8/16 - From Truthout: COVID Deaths Continue to Surge in Countries Led by Far Right Authoritarians

9/19 - From WashPost:  U.S. coronavirus death toll reaches 200,000

9/23 - From CNBC:  Mark Cuban, who owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and star of ABC's "Shark Tank," suggests that every household in American get a $1000 check every two weeks for the next two months.

9/28 - From Deadline:  John Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker reports that over 1 million people have died of COVID-19 worldwide.

BLACK LIVES MATTER:

From RSN:   Judge's Blistering Opinion Says Courts Have Placed Police Beyond Accountability

From TheGuardian:  Yusef Salaam, one of the "Central Park Five," says in an interview, "Trump would have had me hanging from a tree in Central Park."

From NPR:  Prosecutors' plea deal required drug suspect to name Breonna Taylor a "co-defendant."

From ChicagoSunTimes:  Rev. Jesse Jackson: America has millions of people in poverty because Americans choose not to demand the policies that would lift them out of poverty.

From APNews:  No one will be held accountable for the killing of Louisville African-American resident, Breonna Taylor.

From Channel4:  Revealed: Trump campaign strategy to deter millions of Black Americans from voting in 2016


Monday, July 23, 2018

Review: "Spilt" is Shyamalan's Best Film in at Least a Decade

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 5 (of 2018) by Leroy Douresseaux

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

Split (2016 / 2017)
Running time:  117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Marc Bienstock, Jason Blum, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Michael Gioulakis (D.o.P)
EDITOR:  Luke Ciarrocchi
COMPOSER:  West Dylan Thordson

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring:  James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Izzie Coffey, Brad William Henke, Sebastian Arcelus, and Rosemary Howard (with Bruce Willis)

Split is a 2016 horror-thriller from writer-director M. Night Shyamalan.  The film is a standalone sequel to Shyamalan's 2000 film, Unbreakable.  The film received a film festival release in 2016, but was released to theaters in January 2017.  Split focuses on three kidnapped girls who desperately search for a way to escape their captor, a man diagnosed with 23 distinct personalities.

As Split opens, Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), a seemingly emotionally withdrawn teenager, is hanging out with her classmates, Claire Benoit (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula).  The three teens are kidnapped by a mysterious man who has DID – dissociative identity disorder (also and formerly known as “multiple personality disorder”).  The girls' abductor, “Dennis” (James McAvoy), is one of several personalities, as many as 23 according to Dennis' psychologist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley).

The girls are imprisoned in an underground bunker and held in a cell.  Casey tries to befriend a young boy personality named “Hedwig.”  From him, Casey learns that time is running out, as “The Beast” (a 24th personality) is coming, and the teens are to be sacrificed to him.

Although Split has been out in the public for almost a year and a half, a little more including its film festival release, I still want to be careful about spoilers in this review.  I can say that James McAvoy gives a dramatic tour de force performance in multiple roles.

Honestly, I have thought of him as a good actor since I first saw him in two Academy Award-winning film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and The Last King of Scotland (2006).  It is this performance, however, in which McAvoy reveals that he has the techniques and skills of a top-form actor and the qualities of a movie star.  Goodness gracious!  The camera made love to this dude, and I could not get enough of him.  McAvoy took each personality that director M. Night Shyamalan revealed and gave us a unique and alluring individual.

Speaking of Shyamalan, he proves with this film that he has always been a exceptional filmmaker, even when he was making mediocre films (The Last Airbender) and box office bombs (The Lady in the Water – which I love, by the way).  I have thoroughly enjoyed his movies (Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village) even when I hate the “twists” and “shock reveals” in the last acts of those films.  Split is good, beginning to end.  Shyamalan has unleashed his inner Hitchcock to create a film that is difficult to ignore once you start watching its astonishing twists and turns.

I would be remiss if I did not mention Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke.  I think that she is as much the star of this film as James McAvoy is.  In a way, she embodies the heroic journey, and she spins the familiar teen female victim of horror movies and thrillers and turns her into a stalwart figure, the unbreakable, unsinkable heroine.

Obviously, I love Split.  I wish I had seen it in a movie theater, and I am not reluctant to recommend it to fans of thrillers.  It is not just a good movie; it is also one of the best films of 2017.

9 of 10
A+

Thursday, April 26, 2018


The text is copyright © 2018 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

--------------------------------

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from April 23rd to 30th, 2017 - Update #26

Support Leroy on Patreon.

BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 4/28 to 4/30/2017 weekend box office is "The Fate of the Furious" with an estimated take of $19.3 million.

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FILM FESTIVALS - From Variety:  2017 Tribeca Film Festival announces "Audience Award" winners.

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FILM FESTIVALS - From TheWrap:  Roman Polanski's film "Based on a True Story," has been added to the Cannes 2017 lineup where it will screen out-of-competition.

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POLITICS - From Truthout:  White Nationalists are setting immigration policy for the administration of President Trump.

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OBIT - From YahooMovies:  The actor Michael Mantenuto has died at the age of 35, Monday, April 24, 2017.  He starred in Disney's hit film, "Miracle," about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team.

CRIME - From RSN:  Rich-bitch accused murderess out on bail, while poor Black man accused of welfare fraud rots in jail.

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CULTURE - From Truthout:  Monuments to White Supremacy are finally falling in New Orleans, Louisiana.

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MOVIES - Variety:  Paramount Pictures is looking at David Fincher to director "World War Z 2."

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MOVIES - From Variety:  Joe Johnston, director of "Captain America: The First Avenger," will direct "The Chronicles of Narnia" revival, "The Silver Chair."

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  M. Night Shyamalan has announced a film that will be a sequel to both his recent hit, "Split" and his 2000 film, "Unbreakable," which are apparently connected.

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OBIT - From IndieWire:  Film director, Jonathan Demme, has died at the age of 73.  The versatile filmmaker won an Oscar for directing 1991's "The Silence of the Lambs."  He also directed film such as "Melvin and Howard," "Philadelphia," and Married to the Mob (one of my favorites), among many.  RIP, Mr. Demme.

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DISNEY - From THR:  Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner are in talks to voice "Timon" and "Pumbaa" in "The Lion King" reboot.

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DISNEY - From Variety:  Disney announces release dates and release date changes for its upcoming film slate, including "Frozen 2," new Indiana Jones, and "Lion King."

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FILMS - From Variety:  Wes Anderson makes announcements concerning his next film, the stop-motion animation "Isle of Dogs," including cast and a poster reveal.

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COMICS-FILM - From CinemaBlend:  The live-action Teen Titans TV series will appear on a new DC Comics digital streaming service.

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SPORTS - From BET:  Did the late NFL/New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez (who recently committed suicide in prison) commit murder to hide his bisexuality.

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COMICS - From YahooNews:  Marvel Comics announces big comic book event, "Legacy," on "Good Morning America" and it will break the Internet says Marvel Comics EiC Axel Alonso.

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 4/21 to 4/23/2017 weekend box office is "The Fate of the Furious" with an estimated total of $38.6 million.

From YahooMovies:  New releases, "Unforgettable" and "The Promise," crash at the box office.  "The Promise," a historical drama about the Armenian genocide, cost about $90 to $100 mil to make and only grossed $4.1 million at the domestic box office.

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SPORTS - From YahooSports: NFL-Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu unknowingly impresses a family during an airline flight.

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COMICS-FILM - From Gamespot:  The Marvel Cinematic Universe could be a very different thing after 2019.

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MOVIES - From Variety:  Steven Spielberg is working on a drama about the "Pentagon Papers," starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.  The film will received a limited release on December 22, 2017 in order to qualify for the Oscars.

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POLITICS - From RSN:  Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone writes about President Trump and the U.S. war machine.

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COMICS-FILM - From Variety:  Fox sets "Deadpool 2" for June 1, 2018, with Ryan Reynolds returning as Deadpool and Josh Brolin coming on as Cable.

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ERIN MORAN:

OBIT - From YahooTV:  The actress Erin Moran has died at the age of 56, Saturday, April 22, 2017.  Moran was best known for playing the role of Joanie Cunningham on the ABC sitcom, "Happy Days" (1974 to 1984).  Moran also played the character on the short-lived ABC comedy, "Joanie Loves Chachi" (1982 to 1983).

From YahooTV:  Scott Baio, the "Chachi" in "Joanie Loves Chachi" mourns Erin Moran, "Joanie."

From YahooCelebrity:  Erin Moran likely died from Stage 4 cancer.

TRAILERS:

From YouTube:  Watch "The Crossing," the prologue short to "Alien: Covenant,"

From YouTube:  The new trailer for "Kingsman: The Golden Circle."


Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from January 22nd to 31st, 2017 - Update #30

Support Leroy on Patreon.

MOVIES - From YahooMovies:  Ben Affleck steps down as director of the untitled "Batman" movies, in which he will play Batman/Bruce Wayne, because of the box office failure of his recent film, "Live By Night," which he directed and starred.

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CULTURE - From YahooBeauty:   "White Privilege" essay contest creates controversy in wealthy coastal town.

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HISTORY - From NYTimes:  White House statement on "Holocaust Remembrance Day" fails to mentions Jews...

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:   The winner of 1/27 to 1/29/2017 weekend box office is "Split," with an estimated take of $26.26 million.

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AWARDS - From YahooMovies:  Actor Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight") speaks out against President Trump's "Muslim travel ban."

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ECO - From RSN:  Rock music legend, Neil Young, wants people to keep paying attention to Standing Rock.

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OSCARS - From Variety:  His film, "A Salesman," has been nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, but its director, Asghar Farhadi, is from Iran.  Iran is part of the travel ban via an executive order by President Trump.  Farhadi said that he will not travel to the U.S. for the Oscars ceremony even if an exception is made for him.

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AWARDS - From TheWrap:  A complete list of winners at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

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BLM - From YahooNews:  According to a historian, a key witness in the murder of Emmett Till lied.

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OBIT - From TheWrap:  The actress, Barbara Hale, has died at the age of 94, Thursday, January 26, 2017.  Hale was best known for playing "Della Street," on the long-running legal drama, "Perry Mason," and for playing the character again in a series of TV movies during the 1980 and 1990s.

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OBIT - From IndieWire:  The actor John Hurt has died at the age of 77, Wednesday, January 25, 2017.  Hurt's best known work may have been his Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning lead role in David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" (1980).  However, many will remember him for being the victim in the most infamous scene in Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979).

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OBIT - From TheGuardian:  The French actress, Emmanuelle Riva, has died at the age of 89, Friday, January 27, 2017.  Her 60-year career seemed to culminate in director Michael Haneke's "Amour," for which she earned an Oscar nomination and won a BAFTA.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  Millie Bobby Brown, one of the stars of Netflix's "Stranger Things," wills star in Warner Bros. and Legendary's "Godzilla: King of Monsters," which is due March 2019.

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OBIT - From NYTimes:  The actress Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of 80, Wednesday, January 25, 2017.  Through her CBS TV series of the 1970s, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-77), she defined the modern woman in the character, Mary Richards.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:  Netflix has picked up the Keanu Reeves and Lily Collins' "To the Bone" for $8 million.

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COMICS-FILM - From Variety:  Fox has ordered an untitled X-Men action-adventure TV pilot from 20th TV and Marvel Television.

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COMICS - From BleedingCool:  Marvel Comics' next event series, "Secret Empire" begins Wednesday, Jan. 25th, 2016.

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OSCARS 2017 - From Variety:  A complete list of 89th Oscar nominations.

From YahooMovies:  "La La Land" leads the 89th Oscar nominations with a record-tying 14 nominations.  The winners will be announced February 26th, 2017.

From YahooMovies:  A record 6 Black actors were nominated for the 89th Academy Awards.  Viola Davis is the first Black woman to be nominated three times as an actor.  There are also several other Black nominees, including Ava DuVernay as the first Black woman nominated in the "Best Documentary Features" category.

From Variety:  Amazon Studios becomes the first streaming service to land a "Best Picture" Oscar nomination - for "Manchester by the Sea."

From Deadline:  A look at Oscar snubs.

From BBC:  The BBC's website has full 89th Oscars coverage.

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MOVIES - From YahooMovies:  Dee Rees' "Mudbound" is getting much attention at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

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STAR WARS - From Variety:  "Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi," at least that would be the full title under George Lucas.  So Episode VIII is now "Star Wars: The Last Jedi."

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 1/20 to 1/22/2017 weekend box office is "Splits" with a estimated take of $40.18 million.

From Variety:  The winner of the international box office is "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" with an estimated take of $50.5 million dollars in 53 territories.

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POLITICS - From GuardianUK: #WomensMarch signals a return of resistance.

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AWARDS - From Variety:  "La La Land" wins the "Film of the Year" award from the London Film Critics Circle, the only award it won.

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COMICS - From DenofGeek:  Here is a first look at some of the art from "The Wild Storm," Warren Ellis' reboot of the Image/DC Comics' "Wildstorm" line of comics.

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MOVIES - From IndieWire:  James Cameron will return to the "Terminator" franchise after he regains rights to the property in 2019.

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OBIT - From BleedingCool:  The comic book artist John Watkiss has died at the age of 55, Saturday, January 21, 2017.  He worked on Conan and Batman titles and also drew an issue of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" in the 1980s.  He was an accomplished illustrator and painter and also worked in the film industry, including on the Disney's 1999 animated feature, "Tarzan."


Friday, October 16, 2015

Negromancer News Bits and Bites from October 11th to 17th, 2015 - Update #24

Support Leroy on Patreon.

NEWS:

From WeGotThisCovered:  Rosario Dawson will voice Batgirl in the LEGO Batman movie.

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From IndieWire:  John Carpenter wins a plagiarism lawsuit in France against Luc Besson.  It involved the film "Lockout" starring Guy Pearce being a rip off of Carpenter's films, "Escape from New York" and "Escape from LA."

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From CinemaBlend:  More on "Die Hard" prequel.

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From TheWrap:  New Die Hard movie being developed.  It would feature both a young John McClane and an older one (Bruce Willis).  Len Wiseman developing...

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From TheWrap:  "Godzilla vs. Kong" in 2020.

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From Variety:  James Cameron's name has long been attached to a film adaptation of the manga, "Battle Angel Alita."  Now, word is that Cameron will produce and Robert Rodriguez will direct.

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From IndieWire:  Johnny Depp does not want to win an Oscar... he says.  He has been nominated three times, and he says being nominated is enough.

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From DigitalSpy:  The creator of the popular British television series, "Luther," is writing the remake to Escape From New York.

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From InContention:  Quentin Tarantino has cut two version of "The Hateful Eight."

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From Variety:  M. Night Shyamalan's low-budget career rival continues with a new thriller featuring James McAvoy.

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From Deadline:  John Ridley to write and direct a film about the L.A. riots of 1992.

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From IndieWire:  Guillermo del Toro's next film could be about a Mexican wrestler fighting vampire politicians.  I'm in!

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From THR:  "The Martian" wins the 10/9 to 10/11/2015 weekend box office with an estimated take of $37 million.  Warner Bros.' "Pan" bombs with an estimated haul of $15.5 (against a production that cost $150 million).

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From Vulture:  A "Firefly" reunion at New York Comic Con 2015.

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From IMDb:  Ahead of the Season 6 debut of "The Walking Dead," a Norman Reedus exclusive.


HARD NEWS:

From TheRoot:  Two white men argue over who owes whom for gentrification.

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From the AP via YahooNews:  Two reports say incompetent rookie Cleveland cop, Timothy Loehmann, was justified in killing 12-year-old, Tamir Rice.

From TheRoot:  "Reasonable..."
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COMICS:

From ComicBookMovie:  Mark Ruffalo to appear as Hulk in "Thor Ragnarok."

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From HitFix:  Drew McWeeny says FF to Marvel rumors are nonsense and explains why.

From DenofGeek:  Updates on the news that Marvel may have gotten the rights to the Fantastic Four back from FOX, in relation to the X-Men TV deal.

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From BleedingCool:  FOX announces to television series based on the X-Men comic book franchise - one about the Hellfire Club (seen in "X-Men: First Class") and one about "Legion" (Charles Xavier's son).

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From Vulture:  Paul Reubens (aka "Pee-Wee" Herman) will play the father of Oswald's "Penguin" Cobblepot on FOX's "Gotham."  Reubens also played the elder Cobblepot in Tim Burton's film, Batman Returns (1992).

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From Variety:  Bryan Cranston of "Breaking Bad" wants to be a Marvel baddie.


MISC:

From YahooNews:  Photos seems to be only the second photographic image of Billy the Kid.



Saturday, March 1, 2014

2014 Razzie Award Nominations - Complete List

by Leroy Douresseaux

The 34th Annual Razzie Awards are tonight.

The Golden Raspberry Award or, as it is best known, the Razzie Award, is basically the opposite of the Academy Awards (the Oscars).  This award honors the worst achievements in film in a calendar year, as determined by the paid membership of the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation.

Unlike the Oscars, BAFTAs, Golden Globes, and other awards, black and African-American performers and filmmakers are well represented in the Razzies.  Razzie voters seem to have a particular hatred for Tyler Perry.  That is why I often think of the Razzies as nothing more than a hater fest for jealous bitches and envious ho’s.  I hear charges of nepotism concerning Will Smith and his son, Jaden, around the movie After Earth.  Nepotism in Hollywood:  is that a new thing?  Really?

The nominations for 34th Annual Razzie Awards were announced weeks ago.  The winners of the 2014 Razzie Awards will be announced, Saturday, March 1, 2014, one day before the Academy Awards ceremony (or “Oscar eve”).  This is the traditional date for the Razzies, although the 32nd awards ceremony was held on April Fool’s Day.

2014 / 34th Annual Razzie Awards nominations (for the year in film, 2013):

WORST PICTURE
After Earth
Grown Ups 2
The Lone Ranger
A Madea Christmas
Movie 43

WORST ACTOR
Johnny Depp: The Lone Ranger
Ashton Kutcher: Jobs
Adam Sandler: Grown Ups 2
Jaden Smith: After Earth
Sylvester Stallone: Bullet To The Head, Escape Plan, Grudge Match

WORST ACTRESS
Halle Berry: Movie 43, The Call
Selena Gomez: Getaway
Lindsay Lohan: The Canyons
Tyler Perry: A Madea Christmas
Naomi Watts: Diana, Movie 43

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lady Gaga: Machete Kills
Salma Hayek: Grown Ups 2
Katherine Heigl: The Big Wedding
Kim Kardashian: Tyler Perry’s Temptation
Lindsay Lohan: In-App-Propriate Comedy, Scary Movie 5

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Chris Brown: Battle Of The Year
Larry the Cable Guy: A Madea Christmas
Taylor Lautner: Grown Ups 2
Will Smith: After Earth
Nick Swardson: A Haunted House, Grown Ups 2

WORST DIRECTOR
The 13 People Who Directed Movie 43
Dennis Dugan: Grown Ups 2
Tyler Perry: A Madea Christmas, Temptation
M. Night Shyamalan: After Earth
Gore Verbinski: The Lone Ranger

WORST SCREEN COMBO
The Entire Cast of Groan-Ups, Too
The Entire Cast of Movie 43
Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen: Scary Movie 5
Tyler Perry & EITHER Larry the Cable Guy OR That Worn-Out Wig & Dress: A Madea Christmas
Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism: After Earth

WORST SCREENPLAY
After Earth: Screenplay by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, Story by Will Smith
Grown Ups 2: Written by Fred Wolfe & Adam Sandler & Tim Herlihy
The Lone Ranger: Screen Story & Screenplay by Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe & Terry Rosso
A Madea Christmas: Written by Tyler Perry
Movie 43: Written by 19 “Screenwriters”

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
Grown Ups 2
Hangover III
The Lone Ranger
Scary Movie 5
Smurfs 2

http://www.razzies.com/

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Monday, October 14, 2013

Review: "After Earth" Offers a World of Thrilling Adventure

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 70 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

After Earth (2013)
Running time:  100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and some disturbing images
DIRECTOR:  M. Night Shyamalan
WRITERS:  Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan; from a story by Will Smith
PRODUCERS:  James Lassiter, Jada Pinkett Smith, Caleeb Pinkett, and Will Smith
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Peter Suschitzky
EDITOR:  Steven Rosenblum
COMPOSER:  James Newton Howard

SCI-FI/ADVENTURE/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring:  Jaden Smith, Will Smith, Sophie Okonedo, Zoe Isabella Kravitz, Glenn Morshower, and Jaden Martin

It was panned by critics, and it was a box office disappointment – some would even say a box office bomb.  However, I liked it.  I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.  It is about as good as I had hoped it would be when I first heard about it.

I am talking about After Earth, the 2013 futuristic science fiction adventure-survival film from director M. Night Shyamalan.  The film follows a teen boy who must embark on a perilous journey across a hostile future Earth in order to save himself and his father.

After Earth takes place 1,000 years after the human race had to abandon Earth because of an environmental cataclysm.  Humanity eventually settles on a new world called Nova Prime.  That settlement brings humanity into conflict with the S’krell, an alien race that wants to conquer Nova Prime.  The S’krell’s secret weapon are the Ursa, large, blind, predatory creatures that hunts humanity by “smelling” human fear.  Humanity is saved by The Ranger Corps, in particular, the legendary General Cypher Raige (Will Smith), who developed the technique that allows humans to successfully fight the Ursa.

The heroic Cypher, however, does not have a successful relationship with his son, Kitai Raige (Jaden Smith).  They plan a trip together, but an unexpected event strands them on Earth, a now-quarantined planet.  With Cypher gravely wounded, Kitai must locate a distress signal beacon, but to do that, he must travel cross terrain in which many plants, animals, and the climate are lethal to humans.

There are moments in After Earth, when Will and Jaden’s acting is suspect, but for the most part, they make their respective characters’ bonds and conflicts seem genuine.  As Kitai, Jaden’s fear is palatable, and his anger, grief, and disappointed are authentic within the context of his story.  I think some critics’ complaints of nepotism regarding this father-son acting team, specifically as it relates to After Earth, are dishonest.  Fathers and sons have been appearing together in film for decades.  What makes the Smiths so different that they are the target of such derision and resentment?

I also think that the way some critics are always out to attack director M. Night Shyamalan has gotten out of hand.  He does an excellent job with After Earth, especially with a young actor like Jaden.  Shyamalan creates a taut, riveting journey that begins generating a sense of impending doom from the time the Raiges leave Nova Prime to the final frames of the film.  Whatever people might say about him, Shyamalan is the master of the gripping narrative, and he does some gripping with After Earth.

Worthy of note are two excellent supporting performances by Sophie Okonedo and Zoe Isabella Kravitz, especially the latter.  Zoe is award-nomination worthy in her After Earth part, and it is a shame she does not appear in more films.

Visually, After Earth is a beautiful film, and its science fiction and futuristic concepts (such as the dialect spoken in the film) are inventive and interesting.  James Newton Howard’s score is soaring and emotional; the perfect music for a film that is both an epic adventure and a tale of a ragged relationship between an estranged father and his son.

Bravo!  I understand that After Earth is the first of a planned trilogy.  If the second and third movies could be as good as the first, I hope that they are produced, despite this film’s box office results.  Regardless of hyped box office expectations and of the politics of film critics and their resentments and prejudices, After Earth is a movie spectacular.  This is a classic tale of man vs. nature, of man vs. himself, and of man vs. his dad who has way-high expectations.  After Earth will stand the test of time.

8 of 10
A

Monday, October 14, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.



Monday, August 6, 2012

Review: "The Village" is Great ... Until it Isn't (Happy B'day, M. Night Shyamalan)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 135 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Village (2004)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for scene of violence and frightening situations
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Sam Mercer, Scott Rudin, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Christopher Tellefsen
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Celia Weston, John Christopher Jones, Frank Collison, Jayne Atkinson, Judy Greer, Michael Pitt, and Jesse Eisenberg

The subject of this movie review is The Village, a 2004 fantasy thriller and mystery film from writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan. The film is set in a late 19th century village built in a forest supposedly filled with dangerous creatures.

Circa 1897, Covington, Pennsylvania is a nice, quiet town surrounded by a beautiful, but haunting forest where strange, apparently dangerous, and unseen creatures live. For ages, there has been a truce between the citizens of Covington and the mysterious denizens of the woods. The people of Covington do not go into the woods, and the creatures (or monsters) do not come into the village.

But when quiet, almost sullen, young townsmen Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) crosses the border from the town into the woods, the truce is broken, and the monsters start visiting the town. Soon, the villagers find an increasing number of their livestock slaughtered and skinned. In the midst of the fear, happiness blooms, but before long the scourge of the faraway towns comes to the village. Village elder Edward Walker’s (William Hurt) blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) must pass through the woods to find aid. But will the monsters dine on her beautiful flesh?

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village is probably the least accomplished of his films since his worldwide blockbuster, The Sixth Sense. However, like his best-known films, the journey of watching the film is usually more important than the destination, which is the flick’s finale. Like Signs, the supernatural element is a red herring, and the most important element of The Village is its theme of dealing with heart-rending loss. The film also tackles the ideas of locking oneself off from the world to avoid devastating pain and of living in paranoid fear of the other, which is quite relevant in an America where “gated communities” seem to spring up everywhere on a daily basis.

As a work of movie art, The Village is an ambitious stumble. The ideas are good, but muddled, lost, and poorly considered, or at least poorly presented in the structure of this story. As big studio entertainment, The Village has a small numbers of genuinely frightening bumps in the dark, but the suspense is tepid and the thrills are exhausted half way through the film. The movie also takes such an idealized view of utopias, that it sometimes seems to take wild flights of fancy. However, Shyamalan just might be making a sly comment about the upper middle class and upper class’ fear of violence at the hand of the lower classes.

The delight in this film is the debut of Academy Award winning director Ron Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard. Her performance is luminous, so much so that it lights the way for this occasionally befuddled mess. Ms. Howard is spunky and rebellious when she needs to be, and the sheer terror she displays is practically the only thing that sells this film’s horror thriller aspects. She also portrays moments of bravery with openness in her performance that invites us into her life; she is the one through whom we live vicariously. She is The Village’s champion.

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (James Newton Howard)

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Friday, March 2, 2012

Shyamalan Begins Shooting "After Earth" with New Camera System

"After Earth" Is First Motion Picture to Be Shot with Sony's F65 Camera

Sony Pictures Entertainment's Upcoming Science Fiction Epic Gets True 4K Production Treatment Using Groundbreaking New Camera System

PARK RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The latest film from the production company Overbrook Entertainment and acclaimed director M. Night Shyamalan, "After Earth," scheduled for release next year by Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia Pictures, is the first major motion picture to be shot using Sony's groundbreaking F65 CineAlta(TM) digital production camera.

Shyamalan commented, "I couldn't be any happier with the F65, which is amazing since I'm a 'film guy' and I thought I'd die a 'film guy.' It's a digital media that's warm and has humanity in it which is obviously the most important thing to me."

"The F65 is like a great leap forward," said director of photography, Peter Suschitzky. "As soon as I did testing of the F65, I was immensely impressed by the amount of detail it captures, by its incredible flexibility, from low lights to high lights, and its great contrast range. It really is a camera for the future and I'm going to use it again on a number of films."

In January 2012, Sony began worldwide deliveries of the F65 camera to meet the incredibly high demand from production professionals. Approximately 400 units were pre-ordered, and several other high-profile productions are also planned to be shot with the F65.

"This movie is the perfect first project for the F65," said Alec Shapiro, senior vice president at Sony Electronics. "The combination of an innovative moviemaker and a script with incredibly high production values will test the limits of this camera and its powerful feature set. The result is sure to be a unique and visually immersive entertainment experience for the movie-going consumer."

The F65 camera's unprecedented 8K image sensor, with approximately 20 total megapixels, offers higher image fidelity than any other digital cinema production camera. With 16-bit Linear RAW file output capability, the F65 creates the gateway to an end-to-end 4K file-based mastering workflow.

In response to the strong interest in Sony's new F65 CineAlta(TM) camera from the filmmaking community, Sony Pictures Studios plans to host workshops on digital workflows supporting the F65. The workshops, beginning in March, are designed to educate qualified directors, cinematographers and other film industry professionals.

Review: "Lady in the Water" is a Beautiful Storybook Fantasy (Happy B'day, Bryce Dallas Howard)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 163 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Lady in the Water (2006)
Running time: 110 minutes; MPAA – PG-13 for some frightening sequences
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Sam Mercer and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATORGRAPHER: Christopher Doyle, H.K.S.C
EDITOR: Barbara Tulliver, A.C.E.

FANTASY/DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban, Sarita Choudhury, Cindy Cheung, Freddy Rodriguez, Bill Irwin, Jared Harris, M. Night Shyamalan, June Kyoto Lu, Mary Beth Hurt, and Noah Gray-Cabey

M. Night Shyamalan’s films have been thoughtful and profound. His characters fight pitched battles with their inner demons as they wage war with the outside forces that would destroy or enslave them. We’ve seen that in everything from the heart-rending ghost story, The Sixth Sense, to the story of a lapsed minister who finds his way back to his faith while battling an alien invasion in the 2002 hit film, Signs. Shyamalan’s films are also known for their twist endings – surprising finales that not only change the tone of the film, but also frustrate audiences who bought into one kind of story and find a shock ending ruins their expectations – Unbreakable (2000) and The Village (2004) being the best (or worst) examples.

In his new film, Lady in the Water, Shyamalan eschews the twist ending for a yarn that can be taken figuratively as a fairytale or literally as a tale of people who find their destiny in a fairytale made real. Or maybe the viewer can see it as both figurative and literal. Regardless of how one views it, Lady in the Water is one of the most lovely and heartfelt tales told in recent years – a thing as beautiful as its sparkling blue movie poster.

Modest and humble, Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti, in a performance that solidifies his place as a great American actor), manages an apartment building named “The Cove.” One night Cleveland is investigating the noises from the apartment’s swimming pool when he falls in by accident. He awakens to find that a pale, young woman with deep blue eyes, who says her name is Story (Bryce Dallas Howard), has rescued him from drowning. Cleveland discovers that Story is a “narf,” a creature from an old bedtime story, and she is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to her own, the “Blue World.” Cleveland and the rest of The Cove’s collection of oddball tenants realize that they have suddenly been drawn into Story’s fable. Young Soon (Cindy Cheung), a go-getter college student, Mr. Dury (Jeffrey Wright), a serene crossword puzzle fanatic and his son, Joey (Noah Gray-Cabey), Mr. Leeds (Bill Irwin), a housebound TV watcher, and Vick (M. Night Shyamalan), a writer and Anna Ran (Sarita Choudhury), his talkative sister, among many others, accept this strange story of which they are a part. With their help, Cleveland must protect this fragile young woman from a deadly creature hell-bent on keeping Story from returning home.

By now, many reviewers and audiences have turned on Shyamalan for this picture. However, where others see Lady in the Water as boring or mystifying, I see it has a simple fairytale. Yes, Shyamalan’s script is a bit artsy and pretentious at times, and the story (based upon a bedtime tale he wrote for his children) is stretched to the breaking point and challenges credibility. Still, for all that we might take it literally, much of the story is symbolic The characters, setting, and incidents are meant to remind us of a bedtime story, or to put it bluntly – “Once upon a time... Lady in the Water is a metaphor about people taking up their place in destiny, of the difficulty in taking up the journey to get to one’s place, and that each person does indeed have a purpose.

While the subject matter and characters might not make sense on the surface, they and the tale in which they exist have a deeper meaning. We’re supposed to see past the trappings and see the core – lives driven by purpose for the good of humanity. In Lady in the Water, the title character, but especially Cleveland Heep, have to break out of the protective shells they’ve made for themselves using their own fears, grief, and insecurities as building material. Thus, it’s no wonder that the other characters were so quick to embrace their part in this bedtime story – they’ve also hungered for a life of meaning. An enchanting fairytale filled with magical characters and dark fantasy, Lady in the Water is the most meaningful fable mainstream Hollywood has given us in a very long time.

8 of 10
A

Monday, July 31, 2006

NOTES:
2007 Razzie Awards: 2 wins: “Worst Director” (M. Night Shyamalan) and “Worst Supporting Actor” (M. Night Shyamalan); 2 nominations: “Worst Picture” ((Warner Bros.) and “Worst Screenplay” (M. Night Shyamalan)

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