Film.com Movie Blog

Interview: Nicolas Cage Talks Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Olreans

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:17:00 PST

Nicolas Cage hasn't had a good month. Besides the financial troubles, his father passed away. The press day for The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, directed by legend Werner Herzog, came about a week after that tragedy, and Cage shuffled in looking rather zombie-like. My own father, a Vietnam vet, would've called it the "thousand-yard stare." In other words, Cage should not have been there; his heart was so clearly somewhere else, and it hurt watching him do his best to promote a movie…

The Verdict: Brad Pitt's Videogame Adaptation? And McG's Latest Goes Down the Drain

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:30:00 PST

Pitt-fall
The Bra in Brangelina just signed a deal to develop and star in a franchise based on a videogame that hasn't even come out yet. The game -- aptly titled Dark Void -- follows a pilot who crashes into the Bermuda Triangle and find himself on an alternate earth where sophisticated aliens are about to invade.
Verdict: Wow. This is as bad an idea as Dennis Hopper in the Super Mario Brothers movie, or . . . well, Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider movie.

Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the…

Review: The Blind Side -- Prepare to Be Pleasantly Surprised

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:34:00 PST

"It's the very likable performances that give the film the most resonance."

Speaking of being blindsided, The Blind Side is good enough to make me almost forgive Sandra Bullock for All About Steve, which is the worst movie I've seen this year. I wasn't sure I'd ever get over that debacle, and yet here we are, barely two months later, and already I'm smiling favorably upon Ms. Bullock again. Why, I barely even remember The Proposal anymore! Sandy, your healing powers are…

Review: Planet 51: A Science Fiction Ode For Families

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:21:00 PST

"Entertaining enough for a family trip to the theater."

Glipforg is just how you might imagine an idyllic American town in the 1950s: neighborly citizens greeting each other by name, driving Thunderbird-esque hovercrafts to their saucer-shaped homes, flipping floating burgers on their backyard barbecues...

The perfect portrait of 1950s-'60s U.S.A. -- on another planet, far from Earth.

But really, other than being green, antennae-d and pant-less, the folks on Planet 51 are just…

Review: New Moon A Definite Improvement

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:33:00 PST

"A legitimate artistic expression on love, loss, and the obsessive qualities of initial attraction."

From the start of the moody and brooding opening title cards you know you're in for a better experience than the last go-round. Director Chris Weitz has delivered a treat, a legitimate artistic expression on love, loss, and the obsessive qualities of initial attraction. Sure, it has a few flaws, but New Moon succeeds on a level that few films have this year. It gives the people…

Review: (Untitled) Knocks Pompous Artists Down a Few Pegs

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:16:00 PST

"(Untitled) isn't just a takedown of highfalutin creative types but a smart, thoughtful deflating of their egos."

Few subjects are more ripe for ridicule than pretentious artists, and Jonathan Parker's (Untitled) skewers the world of contemporary art in a way that's insightful and funny without becoming a broad parody. The characters, satirical though they are, seem like real human beings. Parker helps us understand them even as he delights in their foibles.

Adrian Jacobs (Adam…

Eric's Bad Movies: Dracula 2000 (2000)

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:54:00 PST

I know that in previous columns I have demonstrated a tendency to obsess over a film's title almost as much as its content, and while I strive to overcome that impulse I can't let it go in the case of Dracula 2000. It got that title because it was set in present-day New Orleans rather than Victorian England, and because it came out in 2000. The problem is, it came out Dec. 22, 2000. So it has this nifty, up-to-date title, and then it's obsolete 10 days later.

This is poor planning. Do not put…

Interview: Taylor Lautner Talks New Moon and Valentine's Day

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:40:00 PST

If New Moon, the latest chapter in The Twilight Saga, has a break-out star, it would have to be Taylor Lautner. While Lautner appeared in last year's Twilight, it was a small role, a tease of what was to come for the book series' fans. This time around, the teenaged actor has packed on more muscle than you've probably got on your body just to play Jacob Black, a young Native American who -- and I'm not ruining anything here, since trailers give it away -- discovers he didn't just get a bit…

Interview: Kristen Stewart Talks New Moon and The Runaways

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:12:00 PST

If you've spent time in any semi-civilized corner of the world in the past year or so, you've no doubt been besieged by the non-stop Kristen Stewart-Robert Pattinson hoopla surrounding their post-Twilight romance. Personally, I'm much more interested in what they do as actors, or even how that celebrity has affected their lives as actors, which is what I talked about when I sat down with Stewart to discuss her return as Bella in New Moon, the latest chapter in The Twilight Saga. This time…

Movies You Mustn't Miss This Holiday Season

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:25:00 PST

Forget family gatherings and joyful celebrations -- 'tis the season to go to the movies! But with so many films opening between now and New Year's, how do you know when to spend your money and when to just stay home drinking eggnog and watching Elf? Here's a guide to the more noteworthy releases on the docket, the ones we think are going to be good, or that people will be talking about, or whose titles will come up a lot at the Oscars. (Release dates in many cases are limited, with expansion to…