Posted Nov 21st 2008 10:02AM by Jette Kernion
Filed under: Animation, New Releases, Disney, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films
I'm trying to muster up some enthusiasm for Disney's latest animated film,
Bolt. It's cute. It has funny pigeons. My eight-year-old niece is going to like it, especially since Miley Cyrus is involved. It's the first non-Pixar Disney feature produced by
John Lasseter, who directed the
Toy Story movies and
Cars. It's got Hollywood jokes in it, including a director voiced by James Lipton, and a comically pushy agent. And yet I never thrilled to the story or the characters; I wasn't half as amused as I'd been by
Kung Fu Panda, a film for kids I saw earlier this year.
The story should sound familiar to anyone who grew up with
Lassie movies or other animal-road-trip films, but with a Hollywood twist. The title character, a cute dog called Bolt (
John Travolta), is fiercely attached to "his person," teenage Penny (
Miley Cyrus). Bolt saves Penny's life on a regular basis as she and her dad are pursued by the evil Dr. Calico and his nasty cats ... or so he thinks. The truth is that Bolt is the star of a TV series, but the cast and crew are very careful not to let him know that he's not in real-life situations. So he believes he's a genetically engineered dog with laser eyes and amazing strength and a supersonic bark. When Bolt is separated from Penny and ends up halfway across the country on his own, for the first time he's in a world that isn't a soundstage or his trailer. Now, how will he get back to Penny?
Continue reading Review: Bolt
Posted Nov 20th 2008 8:32PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Deals, Disney, Scripts, Newsstand
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Before you start spewing out the names of Hollywood's most annoying men as if some sort of gag reflex has taken over your -- Rob Schneider! -- body, let me set this up for you:
Variety tells us Disney has picked up a comedy script called
The World's Most Annoying Man, written by Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert (those magicians behind Nick's
Kenan and Kel), and so far no one has approached me to star ... which is good, I suppose. There's no director or cast attached yet, but
Andy Fickman (director of upcoming
Race to Witch Mountain) is producing.
And what could a film called
The World's Most Annoying Man possibly be about? Animated squirrel chess champions? Um, no. Actually, the film will tell of a man who must travel across the country with his really annoying brother en route to his own wedding. Kinda sounds like
Tommy Boy (or any buddy road movie for that matter), except tack on a wedding to the end. Great. Got it. So here's where the discussion comes in: Who, may I ask, would you cast as the world's most annoying man? Do you cast a really annoying actor like Jack Black or Andy Dick or someone else who's really annoying. OR, do you cast a funny actor who's great at playing an annoying man? Once you decide all that, tell us: Who do you think is Hollywood's most annoying man?
Posted Nov 17th 2008 9:32AM by William Goss
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
From the star, director and studio behind
The Game Plan comes... another movie pairing up Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson with kids! Okay, this one --
Race to Witch Mountain, a remake of Disney's own
Escape to Witch Mountain from 1975 -- seems a fair bit more tolerable than that one was, as cab driver Johnson is forced to team up with UFO expert Carla Gugino on an unexpected mission to get two unique children (AnnaSophia Robb and Alexander Ludwig) to the above-mentioned location of their spaceship.
A couple of things should be said for the trailer, which we've included after the jump.
- There is an unavoidable watermark on it, but other than that, it seems to be a fully digital trailer and not bootlegged from sneaks of Bolt this past Saturday. (Okay, I get it: Star Trek is Star Trek... and you know who else pulls a very similar 'letting a vehicle crumple around you' trick? Bolt does.)
- Said watermark and the YouTube premiere suggests that this hasn't been officially released by the studio yet, so I'd be willing to bet that this trailer gets taken down by the end of the day. Good luck!
- More power to Johnson for throwing himself wholly into work like this, even if we can already see his character growing out of skepticism and towards accountability over the course of these two minutes. (Besides, Brendan Fraser can't hold a monopoly on all the family adventure hero roles.)
With that said, thanks to
Roger Moore of the
Orlando Sentinel for digging this up, and onto the trailer!
Race to Witch Mountain opens next March.
Continue reading The Rock Races to 'Witch Mountain' in New Trailer
Posted Nov 4th 2008 3:03PM by William Goss
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Romance, Disney, Box Office, Fandom, Exhibition, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels
The day before opening, I made
an educated guess that we'd see a sing-along incarnation of
High School Musical 3: Senior Year soon enough. However, while I thought that Disney might go for the relatively open weekends of November 14th or December 5th, last week's 65% drop in business suggests that repeat viewing has already somewhat exhausted itself and that the studio better milk their cash cow dry a bit sooner, so on November 7th, the lyric-laden version of
HSM3 will pop up in 125 digital theaters nationwide.
There's something to be said for the digital aspect of this release. Though I have friends and colleagues who still cheer 35mm all the way, to dismiss the merits of digital projection -- whether in this or better cases -- seems downright foolish. Who knows: with any luck, we'll be treated to a digital release of
Saw School Musical come next October...
Posted Oct 30th 2008 7:15PM by William Goss
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Comic/Superhero/Geek
If you're a regular reader of online film criticism, then chances are you're already aware of the super-sharp crew over at The Onion's
A.V. Club, and if indeed you are, then you know that these guys can put together a mean movie retrospective, with titles ranging from today all the way back to the mid-'90s. (I kid, I kid; Scott Tobias'
The New Cult Canon did get around to the likes of
I Am Cuba.)
An equally fascinating recurring feature is Nathan Rabin's
My Year of Flops, and the opening paragraphs to
this week's entry on 1991's
The Rocketeer are among the strongest testament to that column, that critic, and that team that I've read to date. Here's a taste:
"Anyone who tells you the appeal of moviegoing isn't at least partially voyeuristic is a goddamned liar and should be punched in the face repeatedly. We go to the movies in no small part to watch uncommonly beautiful people woo, romance, or reject other preternaturally fetching creatures in photogenic settings. As a young boy, I embraced movies as a socially acceptable way of looking at boobs. The fact that films were capable of art and truth was a neat bonus."
It only gets more graphic from there -- in all the best ways, natch -- before Rabin finally settles down to the film at hand (which just dashed up my Netflix Queue from the relative depths). Regardless, isn't that paragraph alone really just... something else?
[Thanks to Maxim for sending this my way.]Posted Oct 30th 2008 9:32AM by William Goss
Filed under: Comedy, Horror, Music & Musicals, Disney, Exhibition, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels, Fox Atomic
In Utah -- the state so pure that
some theaters owners refuse to show the relatively tame
Zack and Miri Make a Porno but haven't given
Saw V a second glance -- one theater moved their audience for the weekend's #1 movie,
High School Musical 3: Senior Year, into a larger auditorium that had been showing the raunchy
Sex Drive ... and promptly
continued to do so once the lights went down.
This isn't a terribly uncommon mistake to be made. Just
last year, a Long Island multiplex exposed children to the gruesome opening of
The Hills Have Eyes 2 instead of
The Last Mimzy, and back in 2005, I found myself attending a Saturday night sneak of
Zathura in a theater where
The Fog proceeded to begin instead. (Childless and intrepid as I
was am, it took my fetching a manager to correct the situation, not any of the number of vocally concerned parents in the surprisingly full house.)
(No, please, it was nothing.)
I just hope that some giddy
HSM3 fan let loose with "Go, Wildcats!" regardless. They wouldn't have been too far off...
Posted Oct 24th 2008 7:45PM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New Releases, Disney, Family Films, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and Clips
All children, except one, grow up -- but hopefully none of them become so cynical as to lose their belief in fairies. For those who still believe, or who might need a refresher course, Disney is releasing
Tinkerbell to DVD and Blu-Ray on October 28th. It's Tinkerbell's first solo film, and the first time she will actually
speak onscreen. Considering that she now boasts her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, it's about time she gets to headline her own movie. At last, Tinkerbell fans (and there are a lot of them!) will find out her origin, her specialty as a tinker fairy, and learn about her hometown of Pixie Hollow, the home of
Disney's Fairies.
Tinkerbell is the big debut of
Disney's Fairies, and they will undoubtedly become a sparkly obsession to rival the
Disney Princesses. By next Halloween, you might be seing fewer ballgowns, and more wings and leaf-based dresses. Very ecological!
The movie looks pretty charming, and the animation is quite lovely -- I'm hypnotized by the leaves and the sparkles of Queen Clarion's dress. And it boasts a very talented cast: Angelica Huston, America Ferrera, Jane Horrocks, Kristen Chenoweth, Lucy Liu, and Kathy Najimy are among the actresses who lent their voices to the fairy cast.
Angelica Huston, people. If she can admit she believes in fairies, then the rest of us can too.
You can visit
the official site to check out the trailer and the first six minutes of the film. There's plenty of girly goodies to be found -- you can make your own fairy, explore Pixie Hollow, meet its pixie inhabitants, and much more. If you have a young daughter, niece, little sister, or are stuck babysitting, just call this site up. You'll be extremely popular for the day, especially if you're a good sport and
find out which fairy you are. (I'm Fawn, and I'm not afraid to admit it.)
Knowing Tinkerbell's popularity with big and little girls alike (have you ever seen the amount of merchandise she has?), I'm sure this is only the first of many movies to come -- keeping us all children a little longer.
Posted Oct 24th 2008 1:02PM by Jette Kernion
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Disney, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films
I'm not only the wrong demographic for
High School Musical 3: Senior Year, but I'm old enough to be bringing a theoretical child of my own to the movie as the right demographic. In fact, I was the oldest person in the theater without an accompanying child. I would have felt skeevy commenting on whether Zac Efron is hot, and had to settle for pondering the cuteness of the guy playing Efron's dad (maybe). But since
Cinematical wasn't interested in finding a pre-teen with astounding film-critic abilities (we could use that critic-kid from
Hamlet 2 at times like this), you're stuck hearing what Ol' Lady Jette had to say about
High School Musical 3. I better make this fast before my arthritis kicks in.
High School Musical 3 is what it is -- a standard musical with no agenda other than good clean fun. It's just like the old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musicals, right down to the "Let's put on a show!" theme, and will probably seem just as corny as
Babes in Arms in 50 years. The previous two movies were made for TV, but the production values on this film are theatrical quality, and in fact some of the splashier dance numbers are going to lose some of their pizzazz on a smaller screen.
Continue reading Review: High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Posted Oct 23rd 2008 12:02PM by William Goss
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Romance, Disney, Fandom, Family Films, Remakes and Sequels
Last night, I found myself surrounded by a swarm of youngsters who were eating up High School Musical 3: Senior Year (I'd tell you what I thought, but studio snipers are watching my every word; we'll have our official review up soon enough). Particularly towards the end, each and every opportunity to stomp and clap was embraced, which led me to wonder: just how long before an inevitable sing-along version is released?
Now, nothing's certain, but given that Disney saw fit to release this one theatrically, I doubt they're above any last chance to wring this for all the money it can make. Acting under that presumption, I'd be willing to bet that, were we to see HSM3: Senior Year Sing-Along, it'd be on either:
-
November 14: the tweens couldn't care less about
James Bond, are just old enough to pass on
Madagascar 2 and just young enough to think that three weeks since their first time has been an eternity, or...
-
December 5: the week after Thanksgiving is often a dead zone (home last year to, um,
Awake), and between no direct family-friendly competition from
Punisher: Take Two and screens likely freed up by whatever holiday release underperforms (there's always at least one), these are exactly the kind of conditions that nature abhors and that Disney may yet take advantage of
Did any of you turn out for Hairspray or Mamma Mia! these past two summers? Would you go back for another go here if the kids begged you? Would you totally just act like that was your plan all along as you tap your feet and wail in your shower voice as your spawn and those seated near stare on in awe/terror?
Posted Oct 22nd 2008 5:02PM by Monika Bartyzel
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Disney, RumorMonger, Remakes and Sequels
The latest rumor hitting the high seas --
MTV UK reports that
Zac Efron has signed on to star in
Pirates of the Caribbean 4, for the prime sum of 6 million pounds -- a deal that would also glue him to another
HSM sequel. But rumor control is already in the works.
MTV, stateside, reports that this all came from
The National Enquirer, and that there's no truth to the story. They talked to Efron, who says the rumors aren't true, although he'd definitely be interested. Gee, ya think?
Whoever cooked up this rumor at least thought it out -- Zac might not be interested in more
HSM, but I bet he'd agree to more for the chance to star in a huge Disney feature that reaches beyond the teen girls and allows him to act alongside Depp. And from the studio's side, Sparrow's last male rival couldn't hold a torch to Johnny, so I wouldn't be surprised if Disney did it again.
Orlando Bloom might have been one heck of a Legolas, but I just hated him in
Pirates. His charisma, or lack thereof, was no match for Depp, and to give Johnny another star that can't give him a run for his money ... that would be a shame. This franchise's best bet: focus on Sparrow with a few co-stars who can rival Depp's charisma and chemistry. Any suggestions?
Continue reading Pirates Rumor Mill: Is Zac Efron Boarding the Black Pearl?
Posted Oct 18th 2008 9:02AM by Jeffrey M. Anderson
Filed under: Documentary, New Releases, Disney, Theatrical Reviews, New in Theaters
Roy Disney once took part in the TransPac race, which takes you 2275 nautical miles on a yacht, from California to Hawaii, over the course of some ten days (or more). It results in "one of the most coveted trophies in the world of competitive sailing," which sounded about as exciting to me as saying that broccoli was "one of the most beloved of all green vegetables." Apparently it changed Disney's life, to the point that he wanted to share his life-changing experience with everyone else, via this documentary. But rather than race again himself, he spends his considerable money and influence to put together a kind of reality show in which eleven amateur twenty-somethings race against seasoned veterans. "It's really about the journey," says
Disney at one point early in the film, which is his insurance against the movie's ending. If they win, he's got a great, exuberant, happy ending. If they lose he can just say, "It's really about the journey" again.
The first half of Morning Light consists of the reality-show setup. The racers get several months to train, and we get a tense countdown on the screen, along with a truly awful music score by a group called "Matter." They practice and fail. One girl goes snowboarding and breaks her arm, which provides at least ten minutes of drama. The racers contribute some of those from-the-heart testimonials, in which they talk about how meaningful all this is (they use phrases like "everything hinges on..." and "...decides our fate"). We also have to wait while the racers watch surprise videos sent by their family members, wishing them good luck and whatnot. But worst of all is the scene in which the fifteen chosen contestants must choose which eleven of them actually get to go on the boat. (The other four are alternates.) It's not unlike those annoying, "suspenseful" pauses before some "American Idol" or "Next Top Model" contestant gets kicked off the show. Out of the fifteen, there are only two girls and one black guy, and only one of these gets to go on the boat with 10 white guys.
Continue reading Review: Morning Light
Posted Oct 6th 2008 10:02AM by Elisabeth Rappe
Filed under: Action, Classics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Fandom, Tech Stuff, Newsstand, Remakes and Sequels
The geek cred of
Jeff Bridges has skyrocketed this year. I can't really think of a time when he
wasn't adored by film fans, but he's got a special place with the fanboys these days thanks to his turn as Obadiah Stane in
Iron Man. I was present for the
Tron 2/Tr2n (do I
really have to spell it that way?) footage at ComicCon this year -- and it was one of those moments that will forever hold a place in nerd legend; the first glimpse of Bridges' face caused the walls of Hall H to shake with howls of glee. And that was just a teaser filmed purely for the convention -- heaven knows what emotions the actual trailer will prompt.
The Guardian had the chance to sit down with Bridges, who happily chatted about revisiting his
Tron role -- and the uncertain possibility of having to don a "neon mankini" again. ("Ah, the G-string. You've got to love it. I'm wearing one now!") But despite the potential for skimpy underthings, Bridges felt the chance of doing a new
Tron movie was too good to pass up. "[It's] another unique, wild experience that was too good to turn down. Engaging in that world again feels just like it did all that time ago. Basically, I'm still a child, I love being childlike, and here was another chance to play with these crazy toys. And the cutting-edge technology makes it exciting. Doing the teaser trailer for Comic-Con, I had my first experience of motion capture. And that's turning the industry on its head. It's amazing being part of that."
Continue reading Jeff Bridges Talks About the Cutting Edge of 'Tron 2'
Posted Oct 3rd 2008 1:03PM by Scott Weinberg
Filed under: Animation, Classics, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Disney, Home Entertainment
Here's something trivial about me that you might not know: Yes, horror movies are my first passion. Gory, scary, shriek-filled horror movies. But (not very far behind) in second place is ... animation. My parents made sure I got to see the classic
Looney Tunes, the hilarious
Rocky & Bullwinkle stuff, and all the annual treats involving the
Peanuts gang and/or
The Grinch. But when a new Disney flick hit the theaters, hoo boy was that a big-time family treat in my household. I had no idea that
Snow White was so old or that
101 Dalmatians had been released long before I was born; these were NEW movies to my sister and me -- and we devoured 'em like starving little monkeys.
Despite the fact that it had kind of a "girly" title,
Sleeping Beauty was always a favorite with my family. My mother loved the songs, my sister adored the silly little fairy godmothers, my dad appreciated the art design (whatever
that meant), and I went loony for the big dragon battle at the end. Plus we all agreed that Maleficent was the coolest Disney villainess since at least Cruella De Vil.
Like I said, I love the Disney Classics, which is why I'm pretty geeked up for the new
Sleeping Beauty 50th Anniversary
Platinum Edition, which hits stores next week. "But Scott," you're probably thinking, "didn't Disney release a two-disc Special Edition of this film on September 9, 2003??" And if you're not thinking that, then don't worry -- because I was. But of course this new set has enough to make it worthy of a fresh investment -- especially if you'd like to see this brilliant piece of animated entertainment in full-bore
BLU-RAY AMAZINGNESS.
Anyway, enough blather. After the jump we have a breakdown on the new features AND a bunch of
video treats...
Continue reading New 'Sleeping Beauty' Special Edition is Simply Aurorable
Posted Oct 2nd 2008 9:02PM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Comedy, New Releases, Disney, Theatrical Reviews, Family Films
To: Scott Weinberg, managing editor,
CinematicalFrom: Eric D. Snider, blogger/reviewer
Subject: Beverly Hills ChihuahuaHey Scott --
When you assigned me to review
Beverly Hills Chihuahua, I assumed it was because we both expected it to be terrible, and you knew I would enjoy writing a review ripping it apart. The film's trailers certainly don't do it any favors, and the basic premise alone -- a spoiled lapdog gets lost in Mexico and has to find her way home -- almost makes me reconsider my career path.
So I'm afraid I have to disappoint you by reporting that, as it turns out,
Beverly Hills Chihuahua isn't awful. It's not even really annoying. It's actually kind of ... almost ... sort of ... OK.
I know! I was as surprised as you are skeptical. And I know what you're going to say. You're going to point out that I also kind of liked
Yours, Mine & Ours, which -- heaven help me -- was made by the same director,
Raja Gosnell. In my defense, let me remind you that I hated
Big Momma's House and the
Scooby-Doo movies, which he also directed. I am by no means a Raja Gosnell apologist. If such a thing as a Raja Gosnell apologist exists, I am not it.
But
Beverly Hills Chihuahua -- or
BHC, as the kids are calling it -- isn't the braying, garish nightmare that the trailers make it out to be, or that we've come to expect from Disney's live-action-excrement factory. In fact, once it gets the dumb "Talk to the paw!" jokes out of its system, it's actually a reasonably charming, mostly benign kids' movie that adults can watch without their heads exploding. I even laughed a few times. Honest-to-goodness laughter!
Continue reading Review: Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Posted Oct 2nd 2008 3:02PM by Jette Kernion
Filed under: Disney, Sony, Home Entertainment
You might recall that I
bought a Roku player a few months ago to make it easier for me to watch high-quality versions of Netflix's Watch Instantly offerings. My biggest complaint about Roku and Watch Instantly was that the selection was pretty slim -- mostly we've used it to watch old TV shows, and even then I suspect we watch more TV on Hulu.com. Watch Instantly has a great selection of low-budget independent features and documentaries, and even some short films, but if you want Hollywood blockbusters you're better off with the DVDs.
Fortunately, the Watch Instantly pickings are starting to improve. Netflix
has just partnered with Starz Entertainment to offer more than 1,000 movies that Starz has licensed for its own video-on-demand services. Starz already has deals with Disney and Sony, so these movies include a lot of (relatively) newer Hollywood big-budget films, like
Ratatouille,
Pirates of the Caribbean 3,
No Country for Old Men, and
Superbad. These still aren't as recent as the films you can get mailed to you on DVD from Netflix (or rent at your local video store), but it's a significant improvement over the previous Watch Instantly offerings for recent mainstream movies. In addition, Netflix also
signed deals last month with the Disney Channel and CBS to add some of their TV shows to the Watch Instantly lineup, like
Hannah Montana and
CSI. Those aren't movie-related deals, but I got excited because I can now watch the Disney TV show in which a cousin of mine plays an amusingly bad-tempered chef.
Continue reading Discuss: Is Roku's Netflix Player Tempting You Yet?
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