New "Madea" Film Due April 2011

Press release from Lionsgate:

LIONSGATE IS HOME, SWEET HOME TO TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY

11TH Title in Hit Franchise is Planned For Easter 2011 Release

SANTA MONICA, CA, April 28, 2010 – LIONSGATE® (NYSE: LGF), the leading next generation studio, today announced that it has acquired the rights to the next film by writer/director/actor/producer Tyler Perry, TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY. The film will be the eleventh title in the studio’s hit Perry franchise. Perry will reprise his signature role as the straight-shooting Madea in the film, adapted from his new stage play “Madea’s Happy Family,” which is currently on tour in the U.S. The announcement was jointly made by Joe Drake, Lionsgate Chief Operating Office and Motion Picture Group President, and Mike Paseornek, Lionsgate President of Motion Picture Production

Lionsgate plans to release TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY on April 22, 2011.

Said Paseornek, “No one makes a big-screen entrance like Madea, and we’re very excited to welcome her back with TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S BIG HAPPY FAMILY. To us, the title of the film couldn’t be more apt. Not only is Tyler a cherished member of the Lionsgate family; his unique brand of storytelling, humor, music and uplift has created a big happy family of moviegoers.”

Said Perry, “It’s very important to me to make movies that audiences can relate to, and I can’t think of a more relatable subject than family. I’m looking forward to bringing back Madea and the gang, and I’m glad to have Lionsgate with me for the journey.”

Perry’s tenth film for Lionsgate, FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF, is scheduled to begin principal photography on June 1 in Atlanta. Perry directs his screen adaptation of the Obie Award-winning play by Ntozake Shange, and produces alongside Paul Hall. The film’s all-star cast includes Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, Jurnee Smollett, Kimberly Elise, Kerry Washington, Loretta Devine, Anika Noni Rose and Macy Gray. FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF is scheduled for nationwide release on January 14, 2011.


ABOUT LIONSGATE
Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF - News) is the leading next generation studio with a strong and diversified presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. The Company has built a strong television presence in production of prime time cable and broadcast network series, distribution and syndication of programming through Debmar-Mercury and an array of channel assets. Lionsgate currently has nearly 20 shows on 10 different networks spanning its prime time production, distribution and syndication businesses, including such critically-acclaimed hits as "Mad Men," "Weeds" and "Nurse Jackie" along with new series such as "Blue Mountain State" and the syndication successes "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," its spinoff "Meet The Browns" and "The Wendy Williams Show."

Its feature film business has generated such recent hits as TYLER PERRY’S WHY DID I GET MARRIED TOO?, the action film KICK-ASS, which opened at #1 at the North American box office and the critically-acclaimed PRECIOUS, which has garnered nearly $50 million at the North American box office and won two Academy Awards®. The Company’s home entertainment business has grown to more than 7% market share and is an industry leader in box office-to-DVD revenue conversion rate. Lionsgate handles a prestigious and prolific library of approximately 12,000 motion picture and television titles that is an important source of recurring revenue and serves as the foundation for the growth of the Company’s core businesses. The Lionsgate brand remains synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment in markets around the world.

"The Rookie" is a Warm Family Sports Drama

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 37 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Rookie (2002)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
DIRECTOR: John Lee Hancock
WRITER: Mike Rich
PRODUCERS: Mark Ciardi, Gordon Gray, and Mark Johnson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Schwartzman (director of photography)
EDITOR: Eric L. Beason
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell

DRAMA/SPORTS

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Rachel Griffiths, Jay Hernandez, Beth Grant, Angus T. Jones, and Brian Cox

Jimmy Morris’s (Dennis Quaid) perennially losing baseball team made a bet with him. If they won district, he would give his dream of being a Major League Baseball player another shot. Of course they won, and he did try again.

Director John Lee Hancock, a television director and screenwriter (A Perfect World), and writer Mike Rich (Finding Forrester) take the ideas of dreams and wish fulfillment and force them into the harsh light of day in the film, The Rookie. They remind the viewer that getting what you want isn’t always easy, but they have a bigger surprise in store for the viewer. It’s how this film deals with what happens when you get what you want.

In the case of Morris, he does make it to the big leagues (no big spoiler), and the majors is what he expected it to be. It’s just that he had a life and responsibilities before he got his dream job, and now the two conflict. He also discovers that being a big leaguer is a little more complicated than just “playing ball.” Director and screenwriter weave a story and create characters that seem real, because, not only is the story based on real events, the Morris struggle is universal – the desire to do what you want to do and the need to do what you have to do. This is the most intense and heaviest G-rated film in history. The creators still manage to make it fun and uplifting because they encourage us to identify with Morris’s quest.

Quaid gives a very good performance as man navigating his life, between the responsibilities and the dreams. It’s the performance that endears us to him, and Quaid sells us on a story that could have been very down beat. His every gesture, each look into his eyes and his face sells us that the reward at the end is worth the struggle along the way. In Quaid’s Morris, we see that there are rarely ever any pat resolutions to the problems we face in life.

The movie does seem a bit long, and some of the other characters (Morris’s wife and father) should have had more screen time, as they are obviously important to the growth of the character. There’s also a religious element in the film that’s clumsily underplayed. However, The Rookie does deliver both a message and fine entertainment. One other nice thing that it is subtly played throughout the film – regardless of how tough it is to achieve a dream and no matter how lonely one might feel, there are a lot of people around the dreamer supporting him along the way.

6 of 10
B

The Real "Brazil" Still Dazzles the Imagination

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 209 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Brazil (1985) – Director’s Cut
Running time: 144 minutes (2 hours, 24 minutes)
MPAA – R
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
DIRECTOR: Terry Gilliam
WRITERS: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown
PRODUCERS: Arnon Milchan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Pratt
EDITOR: Julian Doyle
Academy Award nominee

SCI-FI/FANTASY/COMEDY with element of romance

Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Peter Vaughan, Kim Greist, Barbara Hicks, Charles McKeown, Kathryn Pogson, Shelia Reid, and Holly Gilliam

In a dystopian future, an inefficient bureaucracy controls society. Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is a daydreaming civil servant in the Department of Records (part of the Ministry of Information) who spots an error in a sea of paperwork – an innocent man was arrested and apparently killed because that error mistakenly identified him as a terrorist. In this future, the government expects citizens to pay fines and monetary penalties for their offences against society (the government) simply because even the most minor offenses generate so much paperwork. So the family of the innocent, now-deceased man is owed a refund for the money charged them for his “crimes.” While attempting to deliver the refund, Sam encounters Jill Layton (Kim Greist), and she looks exactly like the woman who is in all his daydreams. In the course of trying to catch up with Jill, Sam incorrectly becomes the object of government’s (via the Ministry) ire, as they assume him to be the mysterious, illegal serviceman and terrorist, Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro).

Part social commentary, part outrageous fantasy, and black comedy, Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is one of the most dead-on socio-political satires in film history. It so accurately portrays both bureaucratic excess and negligence that it is both uncanny and uncannily timely, especially in light of recent events involving individual citizens being mistaken for terrorists because of their names, nationalities, and/or ethnicities. In fact, the Ministry of Information’s slogan, “Suspicion Breeds Confidence” defines the mentality of post-9/11 America.

The things that make this film excellent are the script and the actors’ ability to interpret its subtleties, while performing amidst the director’s indulgences. Terry Gilliam’s (Time Bandits) direction is obtuse, and he often seems more enamored with the dressings of his scenario rather than the narrative and allegorical aspects of it. Meanwhile, the cast seems better at bringing Gilliam’s vision to the screen that the director himself. This includes a brilliant performance by Jonathan Pryce as an exasperated everyman who doesn’t realize that he truly is different from everyone one else (kind, considerate, intelligent) and how much that endangers his life. The text (writing) is what makes Brazil a superb social commentary and an exceptional black comic satire, and luckily the cast acted as midwife to bring the script’s best aspects to screen even when Gilliam meanders.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
1986 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown) and “Best Art Direction-Set Decoration” (Norman Garwood and Maggie Gray)


1986 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins” “Best Production Design (Norman Garwood) and “Best Special Visual Effects” (George Gibbs and Richard Conway)

Sunday, October 8, 2006

TokyoScope 3 is "War of the Giant Monsters"

GIANT MONSTERS INVADE SAN FRANCICSO

THE BIGGEST CELEBRITY FROM JAPAN – GODZILLA – CRASHES VIZ CINEMA FOR SPECIAL FILM AND DISCUSSION EVENTS IN MAY

VIZ Cinema Hosts Kaiju Shakedown! Godzillathon! And TokyoScope Talk Vol. 3 Features War Of The Giant Monsters Discussion And Prize Raffle Of New Gamera DVD

NEW PEOPLE and VIZ Cinema welcome the 3rd and latest installment of TokyoScope Talk – War of the Giant Monsters – on Friday, May 7th at 7:00pm. Join Otaku USA Editor-in-Chief Patrick Macias, Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters author August Ragone, and Japanese film critic Tomohiro Machiyama at the Bay Area’s hottest film venue for a fun and lively discussion on the “kaiju” (monster) movies featuring rare images and clips of Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera and other iconic creatures from classic Japanese sci-fi cinema. General admission tickets are $10.00.

VIZ Cinema invites Bay Area monster fans to a 5-day Kaiju Shakedown: Godzillathon!, running Saturday, May 8th thru Thursday, May 13th. Featured will be rare screenings of the Big G’s 4 most-loved films including Godzilla vs. Hedora (1971), Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972), Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). Details and screening times at: www.vizcinema.com.

Don’t miss a rare chance to see the beauty and enormity of Godzilla in stunning 35mm prints with English subtitles and a premium THX®-certified sound system! These events may sell-out. Ticket prices: General Admission: $10.00; Senior & Child: $8.00. Advance tickets on sale at: http://www.newpeopleworld.com/films/films-5-2010/#godzillathon

TokyoScope Talk – War of the Giant Monsters will feature a special raffle giveaway of premium monster collectables including the brand new DVD release from Shout! Factory of Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965). The revered classic features the original Japanese version of the film presented with fresh English subtitles and anamorphic widescreen produced from an all-new HD master created from original vault elements.

VIZ Cinema is the nation’s first movie theatre devoted exclusively to Japanese film and anime. The 143-seat subterranean theatre is located in the basement of the NEW PEOPLE building and features plush seating, digital as well as 35mm projection, and a THX®-certified sound system.


About NEW PEOPLE
NEW PEOPLE offers the latest films, art, fashion and retail brands from Japan and is the creative vision of the J-Pop Center Project and VIZ Pictures, a distributor and producer of Japanese live action film. Located at 1746 Post Street, the 20,000 square foot structure features a striking 3-floor transparent glass façade that frames a fun and exotic new environment to engage the imagination into the 21st Century. A dedicated web site is also now available at: www.NewPeopleWorld.com.

Review: Date Night

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


Date Night (2010)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual and crude content throughout, language, some violence and a drug reference
DIRECTOR: Shawn Levy
WRITER: Josh Klausner
PRODUCERS: Shawn Levy and Tom McNulty
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Semler (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Dean Zimmerman

COMEDY/ACTION/CRIME

Starring: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mark Wahlberg, Taraji P. Henson, Jimmi Simpson, Common, Bill Burr, William Fichtner, Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, James Franco, Mila Kunis, Ray Liotta, and J.B. Smoove

Steve Carell and Emmy-winner Tina Fey, two masters of some of the funniest and smartest television comedies in recent memory, come together for Date Night. Directed by Shawn Levy, Date Night follows a suburban New Jersey couple that comes to Manhattan for an out-of-the-ordinary night of fun and get the extraordinary night of their lives. This movie may not be Fey’s “30 Rock” or Carell’s “The Office” (their NBC television series), but it’s them and that’s enough.

They are sensible people Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire Foster (Tina Fey). This loving couple has two kids and a house in suburban New Jersey. Phil and Claire even have their weekly “date night,” a special night, in which they attempt to their dating years, as they dine on fish and potato wedges. Exhausted from their jobs and children, Phil and Claire rarely end their date nights with romance, or even sex. Then, they learn that a couple with whom they are friends is divorcing because the husband and wife started to feel like they were roommates and not really husband and wife.

On a whim, Phil decides a change of their regular date night plans in order to take Claire into Manhattan to the city’s hottest new restaurant, Claw. The Fosters, however, don't have reservations, and, once again on a whim, Phil decides to steal a no-show couple’s reservations. The Fosters are now the Tripplehorns, but the real Tripplehorns live dangerous lives, which the Fosters discover when two thugs, Armstrong (Jimmi Simpson) and Collins (Common), accost them over a flash drive the Tripplehorns apparently have. Soon, Phil and Claire are on the run, and their date night becomes a series of crazy adventures. Never mind saving their marriage; they have to save their lives.

Moviegoers who like Carell and Fey and want everything to turn out good for the Fosters will enjoy Date Night. Obviously, these acclaimed comic actors are the be-all, end-all of this movie. The material, however, is actually good, better than to be expected of Hollywood star vehicle. Screenwriter Josh Klausner has actually presented a rather snappy little scenario of a crime caper, although the way this caper ends is a bit clumsy and too pat. Director Shawn Levy, so adept at finding edge-of-the-seat thrills from practically any concept (see Night at the Museum), has made a film in Date Night that is funnier than most cop/buddy action comedies with action that is just as thrilling and fun to watch.

Steve Carell and Tina Fey don’t deliver their best work, but not for lack of effort. Carell’s wide-eyed mania, double-takes, and babbling are always just in time to strike the right note. Fey’s breezy performance is practically pitch-perfect for this film, an effortless turn from a comic actress flirting with genius. Date Night will likely make much of its audience want another date night with the team of Carell and Fey, but, in the meantime, we can enjoy this night again and again.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, April 26, 2010

Spike Lee's "Thriller" Movie Set to Go (A Negromancer Bits and Bites Blast)

According to Perez Hilton.com, Spike Lee will release a film entitled, "Brooklyn Loves You, Michael Jackson."  The movie is about Brooklyn residents who throw a concert as a tribute to Michael Jackson, he of Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, Invincible, etc. The movie is apparently loosely based on a party Lee threw in Brooklyn last summer as a tribute to the late King of Pop. Samuel L. Jackson, who has starred in several of Lee's early films, has signed on to star in the movie.  The most recent film about Michael Jackson, This is It, was hit mere months after the singer's passing last summer.

Review: "WATCHMEN" Movie is Too Big to Fail, But Fails Anyway

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 25 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Watchmen (2009)
Running time: 162 minutes (2 hours, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Zack Snyder
WRITERS: David Hayter and Alex Tse (based upon the comic book series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons)
PRODUCERS: Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, and Deborah Snyder
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Larry Fong (director of photography)
EDITOR: William Hoy

SUPERHERO/SCI-FI
/ACTION/DRAMA/FANTASY/MYSTERY

Starring: Malin Ackerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Matt Frewer, Stephen McHattie, Laura Mennell, and William Taylor

Watchmen was a 12-issue limited comic book series written by Alan Moore (V for Vendetta) and drawn by Dave Gibbons. Published over 1986 and 1987, DC Comics eventually collected the series into a single volume trade paperback. Afterwards, Watchmen came to be known as a “graphic novel,” eventually being included in TIME magazine’s 2005 list, “ALL TIME 100 Greatest Novels.”

Various Hollywood figures had been plotting since 1986, the year of the comic book’s release, to turn Watchmen into a film. People previously involved with this project include such names as Joel Silver, Terry Gilliam, Darren Aronofsky, and Paul Greengrass. After numerous starts and stops, Watchmen, the movie, finally debuted in March 2009 and amounted to a large, expensive fart. Warner Bros. Pictures called the film’s director, Zack Snyder (300), a visionary, which must be Hollywood parlance for hack.

Watchmen is set in 1985 in an alternate version of the United States. The “Doomsday Clock,” which charts American’s tension with the Soviet Union, is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. Tensions between the two superpowers has escalated to the point that they are on the brink nuclear war. Costumed superheroes are also part of this alternate world. In fact, because of a superhero named Doctor Manhattan (Billy Crudup), the U.S. won the Vietnam War. This allowed Richard Nixon (Robert Wisden) to repeal term limits laws and win a third term as President of the United States. By the 1980s, however, the outpouring of anti-vigilante sentiment caused Congress to outlaw superheroes.

The most famous superheroes are the Watchmen. When one of them, the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is murdered, a colleague, the masked vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), sets out to uncover what he believes is a plot by an unknown “mask killer” to kill former superheroes. What Rorschach uncovers is a wide-ranging conspiracy linked to the other Watchmen: Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), the smartest man in the world who is also self-made super rich; the godlike Dr. Manhattan; his girlfriend, the ass-kicking Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman); and Daniel Dreiberg, the Batman-like Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson). It is a conspiracy that could destroy or save the world.

Watchmen is mostly a failure as a drama because it lacks emotional resonance. Except for a few moments of the film – the relationship between Dan Dreiberg and Laurie Jupiter and Laurie’s relationship with her mother Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), among them – Watchmen is flat. The characters come across as if they were lead figures being slide across a board game. They are poorly developed and bloated rather than lively.

As an action film, Watchmen lacks the high energy of an action flick because the few action scenes that this movie has feel as if they were dropped in to punch up this contrived screen story. However, such scenes as Nite Owl and Silk Spectre’s rescue at the burning tenement and their mission to free Rorschach from prison are quite good.

Watchmen pretends to have something to say about the human condition, the state of the world, the manifestation of the superhuman in society, the threat of annihilation, etc., but the film lacks any sociological context. In spite of its references to real world events, the film feels empty, as if its references are more about image than substance. Characters meant to have significance – such as Watchmen’s version of Richard Nixon (played by an actor wearing a ridiculous prosthetic nose) and Henry Kissinger – are just stick figures and caricatures occupying the screen until the main Watchmen characters come back. The filmmakers use songs and famous recordings by Nat King Cole, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, to convey the appropriate socio-political themes and messages, because the script is too retarded to do that.

Watchmen feels empty. It is like a giant art or creative project that is impressive because of the materials and technical expertise used to make it, but is ultimately devoid of meaning or substance. It is confounding in its emptiness and shallowness and is actually the opposite of cerebral. When it tries to be compelling – especially during the big reveal in the final act – it is laughable. Where Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons original comic book was daring, Watchmen the film is often boring and sadly, disappointingly staged and stuffy. The great original is now an embalmed big budget Hollywood misfire. The few moments of genuine goodness that Watchmen has are not worth watching a movie that is almost three hours long.

3 of 10

C-

Friday, April 23, 2010

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