When so many movies are released each weekend and trailers often seem better than the movie itself, what should one do? In this precarious situation, we consult the The CineMagic 8-Ball (TM) to help us see through the nebulous marketing haze. Doing so just might save us all a disheartening trip to the cinema and spare us unnecessarily springing for $7 popcorn. See what the 8-Ball says about this week’s releases… ——————————————————————————————————————————————- LINCOLN In a nation divided by war and the strong winds of change, Lincoln pursues a course of action designed to end the war, unite the country and abolish slavery. With the moral courage and fierce determination to…
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First Look – Japanese Remake of 'Unforgiven'
This Summer we reported about Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Western Unforgiven being remade and set in Japan. Taking the lead for the film is celebrated Japanese actor Ken Watanabe playing the iconic Eastwood role. Lee Sang-il is set to direct the film which takes place in 1880 around the time that the country is (like The Last Samurai) becoming more Westernized. In this similarly themed film Watanabe plays a “samurai with a violent past, who lives on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido with his aboriginal wife, but is brought out of retirement for one last job.” The first set shots have been released and even though they only started shooting this month it’s still enough to…
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Ohhh, Look…Pixar Short 'La Luna' On-Line NOW!!
Most audiences on the planet automatically know that when going into a Pixar film they’ll be wow’d by great visuals and, more importantly, superb storytelling. But of equal and sometimes better quality are their fantastic short films like Partysaurus Rex. Case in point; this year, with Brave, we got the studio’s first Princess story but while it didn’t have quite the impact they regularly offer fans, the short La Luna couldn’t have been better. A wondrous story about a boy, his father and grandfather and their celestially custodial family business La Luna is magical and has the makings of a classic…if you could consider an animated short a classic that is. Today it showed up…
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Max Landis Set to Direct, Not Write, 'Me Him Her'
Well, here’s a cool bit of news from Variety: Max Landis, A.K.A “Son of Landis” and the man behind this year’s sleeper hit Chronicle, is going to step out from behind the keyboard and settle right down into the director’s chair. According to the press release, it looks like he’s going to be at the helm for Big Beach Films’ comedy project Me Him Her. After Chronicle, seeing Landis take on a comedy– particularly a comedy focusing on three twenty-something leads dealing with what sounds like an array of sexual identity crises– may strike a few out there as being somewhat odd at first blush. With a few moments of consideration, though,…
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Sweet Trailer…'Side Effects'
You may have seen this trailer already, given that it hit the web on Friday, but Steven Soderbergh’s films generally tend to be worth getting excited for and talking about. So, basically, forgive me for being late to the party. After the string of wins Soderbergh has had recently (2011’s Contagion, this year’s Haywire and, much more notably, Magic Mike), the chameleonic director doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of softening up or slowing down; the trailer for pharmaceutical drama/thriller Side Effects more or less confirms this while also continuing Soderbergh’s habit of keeping to a consistent roster of actors. See for yourself: That’s right: after appearing in both…
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“What’s New on Blu?” – Week of 11/05/12
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… ——————————————————————————————————————————— ‘So how does Santa deliver all those presents in one night?’ The answer: Santa’s exhilarating, ultra-high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. But this year, Santa’s son Arthur has an urgent mission that must be completed before Christmas morning dawns. Arthur Christmas is a heartwarming…
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G-S-T Review…Holy Motors
There’s no easy way to evaluate a film like Holy Motors after a single viewing. That’s why I watched my screener copy twice. Of course, I still feel somewhat behind the eight ball as I try in earnest to write my review, but in my own defense it’s worth noting that I’ve never seen anything like Holy Motors before in my life. (Continuing in that vein: I’d wager that there are more critics who share my position than not.) In fact, the film is so unique, original, and rampantly weird that calling it a new entry in surreal cinema feels like an observation of family resemblance and nothing more. How…
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G-S-T Review…Wreck-It Ralph
Should you manage to see Wreck-It Ralph blind and with no knowledge of its source of origination, you might be inclined to credit the film to Pixar. And while that wouldn’t be an unreasonable guess, you’d be wrong. Ralph has all the bearings of Pixar at its finest, yet Rich Moore’s first feature length effort comes to us from none other than the Mouse House itself. Arriving six months after the release of Brave, Ralph gives weight to the theory that both animation studios are just blurring together more and more in the wake of Pixar’s acquisition by Disney in 2006. If that strikes anyone as a bad sign for creativity, then the news that Wreck-It Ralph happens to…
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G-S-T Review…A Late Quartet
If A Late Quartet, the second feature by Yaron Zilberman and his first film since his 2004 documentary Watermarks, proves anything, it’s that good performances can elevate average movies. To say that Zilberman’s cast saves his picture would be somewhat generous, though. They only distract us from its inadequacies, which are numerous, though perhaps this is a harsher judgment than the film really deserves. A Late Quartet is harmless, airy fluff, small-scale prestige cinema that smartly gathers together a group of very gifted actors in the service of exploring life lessons filtered through the overarching motif of Beethoven’s Opus 131 String Quartet (in C-sharp minor); it’s also painfully undercooked to…
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G-S-T Review…The Sessions
Life deals many of us some pretty crappy hands. The trick to dealing with much of it, as they say, is to have a good attitude. In the case of journalist Mark O’Brien, life handed him a spectacularly bum hand in the form of childhood polio. But you wouldn’t know it to talk to him as his positive outlook far outweighs both the iron lung he sleeps in and the paralyzing affect the disease had on him physically. After an 18 year absence from feature films director Ben Lewin takes the helm for The Sessions; a tender story that retells the time in O’Brien’s life when he researched/wrote one of his most provocative stories. The film doesn’t dance around sensitive…