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9 posts from February 2009
February 28, 2009
Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert
If Disney pitched their latest film to a Rochester focus group with only the tagline, “America’s favorite brothers can now be seen in 3D,” they would have gotten two very similarly excited responses from two very different demographics. Fifteen year-old girls would have squealed “Cool!” Fifty-plus year-olds would have said the same but qualified it with, “Did they just discover a cache of stereoscopes picturing Will and Charlie?”
Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience marks the big-screen debut of one of the most popular musical acts in the country, documenting their "Burning Up" concert tour. And while it is certainly the polar opposite of genre-defining films like Gimme Shelter and Elvis: That's the Way It Is let he who is without one-time affection for the likes of The Backstreet Boys, Hanson, The Bay City Rollers or The Monkees cast the first stone..
That said, JB in 3D is not for everyone. Those unfamiliar with the group’s music will find little to appreciate here and may even find the film agonizing (the Central Park video is especially painful to watch). But none of that matters. The film is for fans. And fans love it – two of whom, no doubt creeped-out by the Med City Music Guy’s questions, were very pleased summing it up as simply “awesome.”
The film opens with the brothers’ bodyguard/handler/guest rapper “Big Rob” waking them up in the wee hours of the morning for the start of a day of promotions. It then cuts between live concert performances and anecdotal footage (sprints into and out of their Escalade, lame breakfast banter, comments from fans waiting in line, etc...). The concert itself is sanitized and with the exception of a few somersaults and cartwheels, there is none of the energizing choreography that tends to be a major part of contemporary pop acts. The show also features guest performances by Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift, the latter of whom is the highlight of the concert and comes very close to upstaging the brothers.
Though only in limited release, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience was the weekend’s #2 grossing film. The $15 ticket price likely had something to do with that as did the novelty of 3D which, except for a violin bow nearly poking moviegoers in the eye and two guitar pick flicks, was barely noticeable.
Ultimately, whether you’ll love or hate the movie hinges on whether you love or hate the Jonas Brothers, but if you go, be sure to stay for the credits. “Big Rob” and his washtub of popcorn are a treat.
2 Honks
MPAA Rating: G
View the trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810043455/trailer
Look here for some concert films that defined the genre: Let's Talk Genre -- Rockumentaries
... and see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2008/08/shameless-self.html..
Oscars contest winner didn't see any of the movies
Oscars contest winner didn't see any of the movies
By Marissa Block
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
The results are in for this year's Red Carpet Contest.
On Feb. 14, the Post-Bulletin's Med City Movie Guy, columnist Chris Miksanek, made his predictions for winners in the 81st annual Academy Awards. We then challenged readers to make their own predictions -- requiring that they select the best from each of 10 categories, plus a bonus question. The deadline for entry was 7 p.m. on Feb. 22 -- 124 people voted online, 31 submitted ballots via mail or hand delivery.
Congratulations to Judy Thimsen of Blooming Prairie. Of the 155 total voters, Judy voted correctly in every category. She will receive a $50 gift card.
"It's kind of embarrassing," Judy said. "I didn't see any of the movies.
"I'm not a moviegoer," she added. "I can't even remember the last movie I went to. I'm more like a news junkie ... I just kind of guessed according to what is going on in our society right now."
Judy said she thought "Slumdog Millionaire" would win everything it was nominated for because of the current economic state and that the movie is like a fantasy escape for people. Also, she said, it just seemed like a popular movie.
And she was right. "Slumdog Millionaire" took the Oscar for best picture, best original song and best director.
Although Miksanek didn't pick "Slumdog" to win any category, he later wrote on his blog that he thought "it would be a sweep of either "Milk" or "Slumdog." I was right about the sweep, but wrong about the film."
Congratulations, Judy!
-- MCMG
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February 23, 2009
Tyler Perry breaks out in “Jail”
In Tyler Perry’s newest film, Madea Goes to Jail, two seemingly unrelated story lines converge in a way that will leave you questioning whether it was coincidence or divine intervention -- kind of like when President Obama warned mayors that he would “call them out” on wasteful spending just 48 hours after Mayor Brede unveiled a 5-foot-tall $4,500 polyurethane goose.
America's favorite irreverent, pistol-packin' “grandmomma” is back. This time Perry’s sassy Madea faces real jail time when a parking incident compounds her already lengthy litany of rage problems. After having little success in anger management with TV’s eminent Dr. Phil, who at one point proclaims in frustration, “You have to get better to be crazy!” Madea is sentenced to prison. There, she befriends Candace (Keshia Knight Pulliam) who’s been wrongly convicted by a vindictive Assistant District Attorney. Together -- and with some A-list celebrity support the likes of Al Sharpton, Steve Harvey and TV’s “The View” -- the pair get their cases tossed.
Madea Goes to Jail is Tyler Perry’s ninth film and like his others, it’s earned the respect of moviegoers, if not the critics. Widely panned, it handily topped the box office chart this week. But Madea is not the nonsensical farce it purports to be. In fact, it is a very heavy drama only punctuated with comic relief. It is, at its core, much less an urban version Vicki Lawrence’s “Mama’s Family” than a spiritual tale of forgiveness and redemption. Still, if the irony of the film’s opening song (Tom Jones’ “She’s a Lady”) and Madea’s slap down of tough gal prisoner “Big Sal” whom she addresses as “young man,” is too subtle, there is plenty of slapstick and wit to carry you through.
Tyler Perry is wonderful as the big-boned Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a character Tyler introduced in his 1999 “I Can Do Bad All By Myself.” Emmy Award-winning Keshia Knight Pulliam, best known as Rudy Huxtable from “The Cosby Show,” does an adequate job as Candy though at times her story line reads like an old episode of Baretta. Prosecutors Joshua, Linda, and Chuck (Derek Luke, Ion Overman, and RonReaco Lee, respectively) are one-dimensional and Candy’s street friend Donna (Vanessa Ferlito) is right out of an “ABC Afterschool Special.” The only solid role is also one of the smallest: prison preacher and woman’s advocate Ellen (Academy Award nominee Viola Davis). But Madea Goes to Jail is an ensemble film and all of these minor or ostensibly bland performances somehow come together under the tutelage of Tyler Perry to give us this delightful movie.
2 1/2 Honks
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material, drug content, some violence and sexual situations.
View the trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810027469/trailer
And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2008/08/shameless-self.html..
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February 19, 2009
... And I would like to thank my intelligent software agent
For my computer friends who didn't find last night's Academy Awards very entertaining, here is an excerpt from my book, "Esc: 400 Years of Computer Humor."
... And I would like to thank my intelligent software agent
This year’s Oscars left few surprises. Billy Crystal did his typical played-out shtick, Elke Sommer got snubbed yet another year for the Thalberg award, and Red Buttons was in the bathroom when he was supposed to be presenting. (In what might have been the highlight of the night, Buttons later walked on the Shrine Auditorium stage—interrupting and upstaging Warren Beatty—blamed his condition on the pre-award party hors d’oeuvres, clutched his stomach with one hand and the seat of his pants with the other, and ran back offstage to a roar of laughter.)
What was a surprise, at least for the pocket protector crowd, were the great numbers of technical kudos relegated to the less glamorous ceremony the night before. This year, several IT-related awards were added, as well, and as was typical, they didn’t garner nearly the attention they deserved. So, in the interest of paying the appropriate respect to those in our industry, we present those award winners.
Best RPG Code in a Supporting Role
The Best RPG Code in a Supporting Role award went to the subroutine, “CALC_IT,” which was used in the production accounting program for the Dustin Hoffman sequel Outbreak II: The Good Times Virus. Bill Radimacky, a Warner Brothers’ senior programmer analyst, accepted the award thanking the academy, his parents, and the guy who keeps the Mountain Dew machine stocked.
Best Algorithm in a Major Motion Picture
This one was anyone’s guess. The critics liked the dark element of Ma and Pa Kettle Log Off while an Internet poll had the fans giving the nod to Honey I Shrunk Your Mother’s Butt With My New Scanner and Photo Editing Software. But in the end, this award was all about computer-generated special effects, and that was clear when the ballots were tallied. James Cameron’s Witness II took home the gold. Susan Hellmold accepted the award for developing the CAD program used to design the structure for the $150-million barn-raising scene.
Best Non-Commercial Exploitation of a Classic Film
It was tight running for all of these corporate instructional videos, each vying to keep employee attention by using a hackneyed twist on a classic film. But it was presenter Wink Martindale, venerable host of the 1980s TV classic “Tic Tac Dough” who had their attention when he opened the envelope and hollered, “A brand new car.” After apologizing, “I just couldn’t resist,” he read off the winner in the category, The Incredible Shrinking Benefits Package, a video explaining how all employees and employers must both share the burden of rising health care costs. Julie Linderman accepted the award for the benefits department of Montgomery Ward acknowledging their tough competition this year: from Microsoft, National Lampoon’s You Can’t Take Your Vacation Because Our Project’s Behind Schedule, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a sexual harassment instructional indie film commissioned by the EEOC’s HR department.
Best Commercial Exploitation of a Classic Film
Though they took out full-page ads in the trades for their Herbie Gets OnStar, General Motors knew it was the underdog, and there was little surprise when IBM won for their film-short AS/401 Dalmatians, which spokesperson Mary Tiernehey claimed “would do for the AS/400 what Charlie Chaplin did for the PC Jr,” a speech that got the evening’s only standing ovation ... from a row of Windows marketeers.
Best Help Desk Support
There were no nominees in this category.
Best Adaptation of a Made-for-TV or Direct-to-Video movie into a Webcast
Going in with two paws up from PC Week’s Spence the Katt and a showing at Sundance (albeit covert), Martial Law’s Sammo Hung-produced Mr. Moto and the Denial of Service Attack was expected to be the shoe-in of the night. But when the envelope was opened, the statuette went to the writers of Barbarians at the Gates’, a humorous tale of Bill and Melinda Gates being mistaken for squatters by their own security staff while living in a double-wide trailer on the construction site of their $50 million Lake Washington estate. Ahh, Oscar can be unpredictable when he wants to be, and no one knows that better than fellow nominees Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, whose Mary-Kate & Ashley’s Silicon Valley Adventure was panned by the academy this year. “We’re just happy being nominated,” one of them said. “Yeah, it’s a privilege being in such great company,” the other said before both ran off crying to their mother.
Award hoopla aside, the highlight of the evening was the presentation of the prestigious “Bob Fazzarri Lifetime Achievement Award.” This year’s recipient was Hollywood IT consultant Paul Flerik who managed to leverage the literal meaning of his “Year-2K” on-call support for the Scream, Friday the 13th, and Halloween franchises. Flerik gets a monthly check through the year 2048 regardless of actual production.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was named for the legendary Hollywood goldbrick Bob Fazzarri who worked the same three story lines into a writing career spanning more than thirty years and some forty-five Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello feature films. Asked one day back in the 50s as to the secret of his prolificacy, he replied, “Cut and Paste, baby ... cut and paste!”
February 13, 2009
The International: this bank thriller defaults on interest
In the new thriller from Sony Pictures, Academy Award nominated Armin Mueller-Stahl is the mastermind behind an international bank’s profitable involvement in illegal arms trading that leaves moviegoers with one question: why can’t they just make money the old-fashioned way -- with astronomical ATM fees?
Following a money trail that goes from Istanbul to New York, Manhattan D.A. Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) and Interpol’s Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) set-out to bring to justice the corrupt International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC) that helps fund 3rd-world insurrections in exchange for their debt -- incredible debt that leaves the burgeoning governments enslaved to the IBBC. The duo’s fight against the bank’s influence, then, is a fight against terrorism itself.
Unfortunately, The International requires quite an effort on the part of the filmgoer. Even after thirty minutes, it’s hardly engaging, and though it gains some traction with the assassination of an Italian presidential candidate a third of the way through, it never ceases to confuse. By the third act, the story takes-on a new antagonist: the attention span of an audience whose minds are guaranteed to wander from thoughts of refilling their popcorn buckets to stopping-off on the way home to Redbox Leonardo DiCaprio’s Body of Lies (the far superior international thriller available on DVD this week).
Clive Owen, whose name’s been bandied about as a possible James Bond, has a familiar look to him and fits right in as an Interpol agent. Naomi Watts is a little harder to buy as a district attorney and, with the exception of German favorite Armin Mueller-Stahl as the “flippable” bad guy Wilhelm Wexler, the rest of the players are unremarkable. Uninspired casting, though, is the least of this film’s problems. With so many international thrillers in the genre (Matt Damon’s The Bourne Identity trilogy, for example), this one simply doesn’t stack up.
Conspiracy theorists whose world-view is that big business cabals are the real power behind the throne may find the film engrossing but with only an incredible shootout at the Guggenheim Museum there is little else here to hold the interest of the average moviegoer. The International, which warns that “they control our money, they control our government, and they control our life” will find that they do NOT control our movie-going dollars.
1 Honk
MPAA Rating: R for some sequences of violence and language.
View the trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810042259/trailer.
And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2008/08/shameless-self.html..
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Oscars had humble beginnings 81 years ago
Oscars had humble beginnings 81 years ago
by Chris Miksanek
The Rochester Post-Bulletin's Med City Movie Guy
When you tune into the 81st Academy Awards broadcast next Sunday, you’ll be one of millions enjoying the presentation. But Oscar’s beginnings drew a much smaller audience. The first awards gathering of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) was in May of 1929 at the storied Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Silent film star Douglas Fairbanks and director William C. DeMille played host to about 250 guests at a private dinner. That first ceremony was the only one to have escaped the media (it ran for only 15 minutes). Beginning the next year, the awards were broadcast live on radio, then, in 1953, on television.
Today, “live” really means “live,” but in past years, the winners were revealed to the newspapers just prior to the event in respect for their morning deadlines. One Los Angeles paper, however, took advantage of this and leaked the results in an evening edition available to Academy members entering the ceremony. Since then, the Academy has adopted the famous sealed-envelope system.
More than 6500 professionals make-up AMPAS which includes not only actors, directors, writers, composers and technicians, but also, curiously, public relations specialists and hairstylists (the latter explains Marisa Tomei’s 1992 Academy Award for “My Cousin Vinny”). Members vote, first, to nominate films and professionals in their respective fields, then again on the final ballot. Everyone, however, votes for the “Best Picture.”
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And what’s it all for? An 8 ½ pound gold-plated guy with the sword (technically, it’s called the “Academy Award of Merit”)? A little more than that, actually. Industry experts estimate that a “Best Actor” nod can add millions to a film’s gross and a “Best Picture” award is worth tens of millions to a studio, not to mention all of the additional opportunities open for the professionals who win them. |
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The envelope, Please!
Try your luck in the Post-Bulletin's
2009 Red Carpet Movie Awards!
Can you beat the Med City Movie Guy's Oscar predictions? If you have a random-number generator, the answer is probably "yes!"
Here're my choices [and here are the results]:
Best Picture: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire."
Of late, the Academy favors films that advance a social case over those that are entertaining.
As I said on KROC
last week, it would be a sweep of either Milk or Slumdog. I was right about the
sweep, but wrong about the film. Though, as I have said before, this year, the
true best film wasn't even nominated: Gran Torino (and I was a little surprised
that none of the winners last night gave Clint a shout-out).
Actor: Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"; Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."
Rourke, who rode high in Hollywood favorites like Diner and 9½ Weeks, has since fallen into irrelevance. Hollywood will do their best to see that The Wrestler does for him what Pulp Fiction did for John Travolta because they love a good over-the-hill comeback that represents the immortality that they all assume they have.
Like most, I went with the underdog on this one. But last week, on KROC, I changed my prediction to Sean Penn after it was reported that Mickey Rourke made a politically incorrect statement (he said he didn't hate Bush).
Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt";
Kate Winslet, "The Reader."
Winslet deserves it but all of liberal Hollywood love two things: Meryl Streep (she holds the record for most Academy Award nominations) and a religious scandal. This film has both.
I was right about
Winslet deserving it, but wrong about the Academy not recognizing her.
Supporting Actor: Josh Brolin, "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt";
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."
Robert Downey Jr., is the Lionel Barrymore of our time, but the Academy rarely lauds comedies, which are for the unrefined masses in the flyover states. Instead, they’ll hand it to Heath Ledger as both a posthumous honorarium to his “Joker” and as a kudo to the reckless lifestyle that gets so much free publicity.
This was not a
surprise.
Supporting Actress: Amy Adams, "Doubt";
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"; Viola Davis, "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."
Just a gut feel.
I was waaaayyyy-off
on this one.
Director: David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant, "Milk"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader";
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire."
Duh! How can the Academy call “Milk” the best picture and then hand the Best Director nod to the captain of another film?
Again, no duh! here.
This went hand-in-hand with the Best Film.
Animated Feature Film: "Bolt"; "Kung Fu Panda"; "WALL-E."
Everyone loves PIXAR ... well, maybe not DreamWorks.
No surprise.
Costume: "Australia," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Duchess," "Milk," "Revolutionary Road."
The Academy will throw a bone to Brad Pitt, a very small bone but still larger than what they threw Clint Eastwood.
I was waaaayyyy-off
on this one, too.
Original Score: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat; "Defiance," James Newton Howard;
"Milk," Danny Elfman; "Slumdog Millionaire,"
A.R. Rahman; "WALL-E," Thomas Newman.
Elfman’s composed original scores for “scores” of films (nearly 3 scores, actually) in a career spanning from Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Batman to Good Will Hunting and Spider-Man – yet the four-time nominee has never taken home the gold (plated). This year they will right that injustice.
Again, no surprise here. This was just another in the the Slumdog sweep.
So I am taking one miss on which film would sweep, a half-miss on the Best Actress, and a miss on Supporting Actress and Costume. Readers who went with Slumdog over Milk will have fared much better.
How did you do?
Watch for the contest winner soon.
Some fun facts in the
meantime. Many of you did very, very well -- 82% of online readers were right
picking Slumdog Millionaire for Best Picture and 76% picked Kate Winslet for
Best Actress.
February 08, 2009
Your funny bone will be tickled “Pink”
In Steve Martin’s latest film, the comedian plays a bumbling detective who solves one of the greatest mysteries in modern times. Well, the 2nd greatest mystery, anyway; the first being how to find $9.3 million to cut from the school district budget without affecting administrators.
When national treasures like the Shroud of Turin and the Magna Carta disappear, an international “Dream Team” of investigators is assembled to recover them. French police Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin) and partner Ponton (Jean Reno) join forces with Great Britain’s Randall Pepperidge (Alfred Molina) and Italy’s Vicenzo Brancaleone (Andy Garcia) to locate the infamous “Tornado” who is responsible for the thefts. Matters escalate when the legendary “Pink Panther” gem is stolen at the precise moment Clouseau steps out of the country. As a result of that and many gaffes, Clouseau must convince the team, and his superiors, that he is up to the formidable task. Along the way, he manages to fall backwards into clues (and a few chimneys) ultimately reclaiming the valuables as well as his own reputation.
The Pink Panther 2 is an entertaining sequel to the 2006 remake of the original Peter Sellers films. Martin is wonderful as the master of deduction demonstrating his prowess in one investigation telling the Pope, “I am picking up on something ... you are a very spiritual man, aren’t you?” As for physical comedy, Martin may be second only to Chaplin – one of the funniest scenes is the interrogation of Avellaneda (Jeremy Irons) where the action is not in the foreground, but on the security monitors in the background following Clouseau as he traipses around the estate.
Lily Tomlin is amusing as the political correctness compliance director trying to get Clouseau to warm-up to life in the new millennium (Clouseau’s interpretation of the Rorschach cards is one of the film’s highlights). Alfred Molina (Doc Ock of Spider-Man 2) and Andy Garcia (Terry Benedict of the Ocean’s 11 trilogy) adeptly round-out the dream team.
Notwithstanding a modicum of silliness, The Pink Panther 2 is filled with great slapstick and clever wit. Its best gag, and perhaps the one that best illustrates its “flavour” of humor, has the latex-gloved Vicenzo Brancaleone carefully examining a shard of glass announcing that he’s found a fingerprint. The ungloved Clouseau picks up one shard after another from the floor, holds them up to the light and announces, “these all have fingerprints.”
3 Honks
MPAA Rating: PG for some suggestive humor, brief mild language and action.
View the trailer here: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809926341/trailer
And see what else the Med City Movie Guy is up to here:
http://postbulletin.typepad.com/med_city_movie_guy/2008/08/shameless-self.html..
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