After the success of their last film, the sweet and hilariously witty horror-movie homage ParaNorman, LAIKA and Focus Features have started work on their third project together. It was just announced by LAIKA President & CEO Travis Knight that the two companies behind the current Academy Award-nominated animated feature have begun production on The Boxtrolls. Based on Alan Snow’s bestseller Here Be Monsters, the project has already assembled a stunningly high-caliber voice cast that includes Ben Kingsley, Elle Fanning, Toni Collette, Jared Harris, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade and Tracy Morgan. The Portland-based animation studio’s 2014 release of The Boxtrolls is a 3D stop-motion and CG hybrid animated feature which will be directed…
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G-S-T Review…Side Effects
Medication and depression these days go hand-in-hand. However, it wasn’t always this way. If you were unhappy, you often put on a brave face and dealt with it. If you were over a certain age, you couldn’t sit and pout. Nowadays, medication has taken away the fear, anxiety, and depression from everyday life for a lot of people. Are we better off with being in a medically-induced euphoria? At one point a character in Stephen Soderbergh’s latest—and possible last—film, Side Effects, tells their patient that these drugs simply allow us to be our real selves. That’s a tricky idea to grapple with. What is our true selves? The one aided by a pill to be more…
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G-S-T Review…Identity Thief
Despite a decent trailer that manages to deliver a few laughs, Identity Thief in its entirety fails to live up to it’s potential. Finding comic relief in stories about stolen identities is far from an original concept, one that’s managed to work fabulously well in films like the Coen Brothers’ 90’s classic, The Big Lebowski, but left in the hands of Director Seth Gordon, whose other comedic ventures include comedies Horrible Bosses and Four Christmases, the familiar comedy of errors scenario is nothing but a chaotic mess. The film opens with accountant Sandy Patterson, played by Jason Bateman, who is duped by Melissa McCarthy’s Diana – con woman and said…
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G-S-T Review…A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III
There’s no good way to approach A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III (henceforth referred to as Charles Swan for brevity’s sake). In large part, that’s a byproduct of the film being a complete disaster, but an alluring, charming sort of disaster, and this is where Charles Swan becomes a complicated beast. I’m not sure what else could reasonably be expected about a Roman Coppola film starring Charlie Sheen that’s so firmly about Charlie Sheen; at best that’s a recipe for rampant weirdness, and at worst for catastrophic cinematic failure. Somehow Coppola’s aim lands Charles Swan squarely in between, and what we’re left with is a bizarre Sheen…
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Ohhh, Look…First '42' Poster Slides Into Home
I’ve felt for a very, very long time that poster-making has become something of a lost art, particularly when it concerns big studio movies or star-driven movies. Seeing even the slightest amount of effort put into the creation of a movie poster tends to pique my interest, so it stands to reason that when somebody really knocks it out of the park with a one-sheet, I get a little bit giddy inside. Which brings us to this poster for 42, the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic hailing from Legendary Pictures. It’s kind of spectacular. It’s also slightly reminiscent of the Skyfall poster from last year, but there’s so much more that’s special about…
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Henry Selick's 'The Shadow King' Finally Getting Made (Again)
Any news about upcoming Henry Selick projects is good news. Except when it’s bad news. Like the news yesterday that his latest film– The Shadow King— came to a halt after it lost funding not once, but twice, and from two entirely separate sources. That’s pretty much the definition of a “king bummer” right there, at least if you ask me. The one-two punch started first when Disney yanked its funding from The Shadow King after deeming it “too dark” for their liking, even though production had already commenced, and continued when Laika– the studio Selick parted ways with in 2009 to work with Disney in the first place– offered…
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Chris Pratt Leaving Seal Team Six, Joining the Guardians of the Galaxy
We’ve been running around casting rumors about Guardians of the Galaxy for over a month now, and while we have an idea of who may (or, of course, may not) be filling out secondary roles, no progress has been made in casting the film’s lead— until now. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a warm welcome and a round of applause to Chris Pratt, our new Star Lord. Reading that sentence fills me with a sense of bemusement even more than the idea that Jim Carrey and/or Adam Sandler might be involved with a James Gunn-directed superhero picture. Andy Dwyer? Star Lord? If you asked Dwyer himself whether or not he’d want…
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Off the Shelf…’Peter Pan’
When it comes to classic Disney movies, usually, the older the title the more fascinating the film. Now that doesn’t have to do with the plot of story itself but rather the story behind the picture and how it all came to be. Back before computers, hand drawn animation was immensely challenging and time consuming to say the very least. But once completed, and exhibited on the silver screen, it soon became a feast for the eyes as well as the imagination. The result was something that would serve as inspiration to an entire generation of people both young and old. But like any great story there’s an even better back story. So…
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Sweet (Dubbed) Trailer…Studio Ghibli's 'From Up On Poppy Hill'
For those of you who have been patiently waiting to see the latest Studio Ghibli film From Up on Poppy Hill, your patience has nearly paid off. The film, the second from Goro Miyazaki (son of legendary animator and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki) will debut stateside next month and for this English dub these charming new Ghibli characters will be voiced by the likes of Aubrey Plaza, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christina Hendricks and Ron Howard to name a few. As we’ve waited long enough (nearly 2 years), I’ll cut right to the trailer… As a purist it pains me to sit through or even champion a dub of any…
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“What’s New on Blu?” – Week of 02/04/13
Whether you rent or buy movies, Blu-ray offers the ultimate in sight and sound. Streaming is convenient, but if you plan on watching the movie more than once, you need Blu. So, What’s New On Blu? you ask. Well, good, bad or indifferent, Go,See,Talk offers up a trio of titles that are being released each week. Check out what’s hitting the shelves this week… ——————————————————————————————————————————— An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling. Blu-ray Release Date (U.S.): Tuesday, February 5, 2013. ——————————————————————————————————————————— A high school biology teacher looks to become a successful mixed-martial arts fighter in an effort to raise money…