The Simpsons Movie Brings the Groove Back - Sort of

TRASH IN MY EYE 64 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Running time: 87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for irreverent humor throughout
DIRECTOR: David Silverman
WRITERS: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike Reiss, Mike Scully, Matt Selman, John Swartzwelder, and Jon Vitti; and consulting writers: Joel Cohen, John Frink, Tim Long, and Michael Price
PRODUCERS: James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Richard Sakai, and Mike Scully
EDITOR: John Carnochan
BAFTA Award nominee

ANIMATION/COMEDY/ACTION/ADVENTURE

Starring: (voices) Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria, Marcia Wallace, Tress MacNeille, Pamela Hayden, Albert Brooks, and Tom Hanks

The Simpsons Movie is the long-awaited and long-promised big screen version of “The Simpsons,” the FOX television network’s long-running animated series (which has finished its 21st broadcast season as of this writing). The movie is not bad at all, and it is fun to see creator Matt Groening’s animated clan in a feature-length film. In fact, while it’s not great, it is certainly funnier and spicier than the TV series has been in recent years. Still, one would think that after a reported 158 rewrites of the screenplay, the film would have been funnier than it is.

The film begins with Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) leading a charge to get Springfield Lake cleaned. Her father, Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta), however, does something that makes the lake highly toxic, which allows a conniving government official, Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks), to have a dome lowered over the entire city. Homer Simpson is used to alienating people, but the level of animosity he inspires after polluting the lake and inadvertently causing the city to be isolated is off the charts.

The residents of Springfield become a mob, and the Simpsons are forced to flee and take refuge in Alaska. Marge Simpson (Julie Kavner), however, is determined to return to her home, and that leads to a series of events that may finally force the best out of Homer. Meanwhile, Bart (Nancy Cartwright) had found a new father figure in neighbor Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer).

The Simpsons Movie was never going to be as bad as some thought it could be. There is just too much talent behind the franchise. Still, this movie may not be as good as some would want it to be. The first 30 minutes are quite good, full of the sparkling wit, sass, and bite that made the series so popular in the 1990s. The middle of the film (the Alaska segment) is woefully soft, and at times the narrative feels as if it is stuck in muddy hole. The last act turns the film sassy and funny again, with “The Simpsons’” own mixture of the intelligent and the moronic coming back into play.

The Simpsons Movie finishes off with a bang and may actually leave the viewer with a brief feeling of wanting more; at times, some moments of the film will cause hard laugher. Its candy-colored animation (much of it augmented by CGI) it true to the distinctive visual style of creator Matt Groening. In the pantheon of the best Simpson stories, The Simpsons Movie has a well-deserved place, even if that place isn’t as special as others.

6 of 10
B

NOTES:
2008 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Film” (David Silverman)

2008 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Film”

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Death Note Films Coming to Blu-Ray

SHINIGAMI DEATH GODS AND THE HUNT FOR A SERIAL KILLER CONSPIRE IN NEW BLU-RAY DEATH NOTE COLLECTION

Highly Anticipated Double-Feature Release Is Based On Popular Manga And Anime Series And Includes Death Note, Death Note II: The Last Name Feature Films And Bonus Disc

VIZ Pictures, an affiliate of VIZ Media, LLC that focuses on Japanese live-action film distribution, will debut the Blu-ray Death Note Collection on August 24th, 2010. The 3-disc set includes 2 feature films – Death Note and Death Note II: the Last name – as well as a bonus disc containing more than two hours of all new behind-the-scenes footage. Both films feature Japanese audio with English subtitles as well as an English dubbed dialogue track. MSRP for the Death Note Collection is $39.98 U.S. / $57.99 CAN.

To celebrate the new release, VIZ Pictures will hold a special screening of both films at VIZ Cinema, located inside NEW PEOPLE in San Francisco’s Japantown (1746 Post St., San Francisco, CA 94115) on Saturday, September 4th. Death Note plays at 12:00 noon and Death Note II screens at 2:30pm. Special combo tickets are available for $35.00 and include passes for the screenings, the Blu-ray release and a poster. Regular combo tickets are $15.00 for tickets for both shows (no Blu-ray or poster), while general admission for one screening is $10.00. Tickets and information are available at www.vizcinema.com.

As a special offer to U.S. and Canadian Death Note fans, VIZ Pictures will award three lucky winners posters for Death Note and Death Note II along with an autograph from one of the three lead actors – Tatsuya Fujiwara (who played Light), Erika Toda (Misa) and actor Kenichi Matusyama (L/Ryuzaki), one of the most promising actors in Japan, who can also be seen in films such as NANA (2006), Linda Linda Linda (2005) and Detroit Metal City (2008). The campaign runs until September 24th. For more details about the campaign, visit www.viz-pictures.com.

“Death Note is an intense psychological crime thriller and we’re very proud to debut both films in a special new collection on Blu-ray,” says Seiji Horibuchi, President and CEO of VIZ Pictures. “Death Note established a new benchmark for Japanese anime, manga, and film and we invite domestic fans to savor all the tension and imaginative supernatural drama of this exciting new release from VIZ Pictures!”

Death Note is a battle of wits based on the acclaimed manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata (published in North America by VIZ Media, rated ‘T+’ for Older Teens). Law student Light is upset with the justice system and when he finds the Death Note dropped by a Shinigami death god, he vows to rid the world of evil. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies. As criminals all over the world begin to perish mysteriously, a world-renowned detective known only as ‘L’ is put on the case to stop this serial killer that the public calls ‘Kira.” The battle between Light and L continues in Death Note II: the Last name as Light joins the investigation team. L suspects Light of being Kira while Light attempts to learn L’s real name. Time becomes even more crucial with the appearance of a second Kira. Whose name will be the last written in the Death Note?

For more information on Death Note or other VIZ Pictures titles, please visit http://www.viz-pictures.com/.


About VIZ Pictures, Inc.:
Based in San Francisco, California, VIZ Pictures, Inc. licenses and distributes selective Japanese live-action films and DVDs, with focus on Japanese "kawaii (cute) and cool" pop culture. VIZ Pictures strives to offer the most entertaining motion pictures straight from the "Kingdom of Pop" for audiences of all ages, especially the manga and anime generation, in North America. Some titles include DEATH NOTE, 20TH CENTURY BOYS, and TRAIN MAN: DENSHA OTOKO. VIZ Pictures is also the producer of NEW PEOPLE, a part of the J-Pop Center Project, a unique entertainment destination bringing Japanese pop culture through film, art, fashion, and retail products. For more information please visit www.viz-pictures.com or www.newpeopleworld.com.

"Kingdom Come" is Tyler Perry-Like

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux


Kingdom Come (2001)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
MPAA – PG for thematic elements, language and sensuality
DIRECTOR: Doug McHenry
WRITERS: David Dean Bottrell and Jessie Jones (based upon their play Dearly Departed)
PRODUCERS: Edward Bates and John Morrissey
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Francis Kenny
EDITOR: Richard Halsey
(NAACP) Image Awards nominee

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: LL Cool J, Jada Pinkett Smith, Vivica A. Fox, Loretta Devine, Anthony Anderson, Toni Braxton, Cedric the Entertainer, Darius McCrary, and Whoopi Goldberg

When the despicable head of a black family dies, family and close friends band together for a few tumultuous days to bury the old turd.

His long-suffering wife, Raynelle Slocum (Whoppi Goldberg), must bear the presence of her fractious clan. Her oldest and most reliable son, Ray Bud (LL Cool J) deals with burying a father he wasn’t particularly fond of, while he and his wife Lucille (Vivica A. Fox) struggle over their difficulty to conceive a child. Ray Bud’s brother Junior (Anthony Anderson) arrives broke and unemployed with his shrewish wife Charisse (Jada Pinkett Smith) and their brood of noisy boys. And there are many more mini-dramas in this huge cast of characters.

Kingdom Come is wholly and unabashedly a black movie. The cast is all black, and the writers created a cast of characters who are black rural and black Southern archetypes and stereotypes. If movies can revolve around story, setting, and/or characters, this one complete hangs upon its large cast. The plot is sparse: bury the old bastard as fast as we can so we don’t have to stay around each other too long.

Based upon a stage play, the movie, adapted by the playwrights, is very talky. Many of the actors spend much of their screen time screaming at their screen partners or just plain talking and explaining. The movie obviously has a message about families sticking together that it repeatedly pounds into our heads. Like many stage plays aimed at African-Americans, this one aims to both entertain and to teach. Its message is both obvious and familiar and geared towards black folks. African-Americans can nod their heads in agreement at the play’s message and vicariously gobble down huge servings of soul food with the cast.

Director Doug McHenry, a prolific producer and director (House Party 2 and Jason’s Lyric) chooses bluntness over subtlety, but he wisely follows each cast member’s every move, as this film could not hang upon its story. To understand Kingdom Come, one must come to understand the characters’ motivations. The film is average goods that does have some very funny and touching moments.

Kingdom Come’s importance is that it exists at all, and it is much needed in a Hollywood landscape that mostly ignores the audience that wants films like Kingdom Come. The cast also includes R&B vocalist Toni Braxton, Loretta Devine (Waiting to Exhale and What Women Want), and Cedric the Entertainer. The quality of the acting ranges from surprising to really good, and the actors overcome the average script and directing in making their characters fun to watch.

In the end, anyone with an extended family, regardless of ethnic background, will recognize the family template upon which this family is based. It’s a universal story with universal themes set in one particular group. Its family dynamics are as similar as “Everybody Loves Raymond,” or Parenthood. While it is not great, or even very good, for that matter, it is a good choice on home video and for family viewing.

5 of 10
B-

Waiting for "Superman" Meets Pledge Mark

Press release:

30,000 PEOPLE PLEDGE TO SEE WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN”

DonorsChoose.org Set to Make Donation in Support of Education – First Benchmark Met on WaitingForSuperman.com “Pledge Progress Meter”

HOLLYWOOD, CA (August 9, 2010) – Paramount Pictures, Participant Media and Walden Media announced today 30,000 people have pledged to see the award-winning documentary film WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” when it opens this fall, making it the first goal reached on the campaign’s “Pledge Progress Meter.” As a result, DonorsChoose.org is fulfilling their commitment and donating $5 gift cards to every person who pledges to see the film by September 15th.

The gift cards can be used to fulfill requests made by public school teachers from every corner of America who post classroom project needs on DonorsChoose.org. The mission of DonorsChoose.org is to improve public education by empowering every teacher to be a change-maker and enabling any citizen to be a philanthropist.

“Thanks to our generous supporters, DonorsChoose.org is thrilled to provide $5 philanthropic gift codes to people that take the pledge to see Waiting for ‘Superman.’ Redeeming this code on DonorsChoose.org gives people an immediate and direct way to help students get the resources they need to learn. Making this personal connection to a classroom is an important first step towards greater involvement in education,” said Charles Best, DonorsChoose.org Founder and CEO.

WAITING FOR “SUPERMAN” directed by Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) will be released under the Paramount Vantage banner and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It examines the crisis of public education in the United States through multiple interlocking stories. Designed to start a national conversation, the movie and corresponding “Take the Pledge” campaign aim to inspire everyone to create innovative and long-term solutions to help change the course of our kids’ lives for the better. The “Pledge Progress Meter” launched in May as a way for non-profits, foundations and corporations to match individual pledge levels with powerful action items aimed at helping both students and public schools. First Book was the first organization to take the pledge, by agreeing to donate 250,000 new books to schools and programs in low-income communities across the country once the pledge meter reaches 50,000 pledges.

The film opens in New York and Los Angeles on September 24, nationwide in October.

The film is produced by Lesley Chilcott, with Participant Media’s Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann serving as executive producers. It is written by Davis Guggenheim & Billy Kimball.

For more information about the movie, or to take the pledge go to http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/ or text “PLEDGE” to 77177.

To join the conversation visit us on Facebook at http://www.Facebook.com/WaitingForSuperman

What does your school need? Tell us by Tweeting #MySchoolNeeds at http://www.Twitter.com/WaitingSuperman


ABOUT PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION
Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studio Group, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

About Participant Media
Participant Media is a Los Angeles-based entertainment company that focuses on socially relevant, commercially viable feature films, documentaries and television, as well as publishing and digital media. Participant Media is headed by CEO Jim Berk and was founded in 2004 by philanthropist Jeff Skoll, who serves as Chairman. Ricky Strauss is President.

Participant exists to tell compelling, entertaining stories that bring to the forefront real issues that shape our lives. For each of its projects, Participant creates extensive social action and advocacy programs, which provide ideas and tools to transform the impact of the media experience into individual and community action. Participant’s films include The Kite Runner, Charlie Wilson’s War, Darfur Now, An Inconvenient Truth, Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, Standard Operating Procedure, The Visitor, The Soloist, Food, Inc., The Informant!, The Cove, The Crazies, Oceans, Furry Vengeance, CASINO JACK and the United States of Money, Countdown to Zero and Waiting for “Superman.”

About Walden Media
Walden Media specializes in entertainment for the whole family. Past award-winning films include: “The Chronicles of Narnia” series, “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Nim’s Island” and “Charlotte’s Web.” Upcoming films include the third installment in the Narnia series “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

About DonorsChoose.org
DonorsChoose.org is an online nonprofit that enables anyone to connect to a public school classroom in a personal and direct way. Launched out of a Bronx high school in 2000, DonorsChoose.org has been profiled as “the future of philanthropy” by The New York Times and as “a revolutionary charity” by Oprah Winfrey. On DonorsChoose.org, public school teachers from every corner of America post classroom project requests on DonorsChoose.org. Requests range from pencils for a poetry writing unit, to violins for a school recital, to microscope slides for a biology class. In the past ten years of operation, residents of 50 states and 10 countries have funded 88,926 student projects, channeling more than $54.3 million in resources to 3,323,384 students.

Review: "My Bloody Valentine" Remake is the Bloody Bee's Knees

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 2 (of 2009) by Leroy Douresseaux

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for graphic brutal horror violence and grisly images throughout, some strong sexuality, graphic nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Patrick Lussier
WRITERS: Todd Farmer and Zane Smith (based upon the 1981 screenplay by John Beaird and 1981 story by Stephen Miller)
PRODUCER: Jack L. Murray
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Brian Pearson
EDITORS: Cynthia Ludwig and Patrick Lussier

HORRO/DRAMA/MYSTERY

Starring: Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsy Rue, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Kevin Tighe, Megan Boone, and Karen Baum

The 3D movie had a golden era in the 1950s, especially the mid-50s with such films as House of Wax (1953) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). Another peak from 1980 to 1984 saw the release of films like Friday the 13th Part III (1982) and Jaws 3-D (1983). With the technological improvement in cameras and projectors, the 3D movie now has the popular RealD system. While RealD has been used prominently in computer animated films (Chicken Little, Meet the Robinsons), Lionsgate has used the process for its new film My Bloody Valentine 3D.

The story begins with a tragedy. There’s a cave in at the north side of the mine belonging to the Hanniger Mining Co., and only one man, Harry Warden, survives. After a year in a coma, Harry awakens on Valentine’s Day and unleashes a killing spree, a bloody massacre that takes the lives of 22 people. Tom Hanniger (Jensen Ackles), the boss’ son whose actions were responsible for the cave-in, barely survives Warden’s killing rampage.

Ten years later, Tom returns to his hometown in order to sell the mine. He discovers that his former girlfriend is now Sarah Palmer (Jamie King) and is married to the new Sheriff Alex Palmer (Kerr Smith). The townsfolk are not happy to see Tom, neither is his late father’s business partner, Ben Foley (Kevin Tighe), who doesn’t want the mine sold. They will all learn that they have bigger problems than old lovers, cheating spouses, and losing the mine. The killings have begun again. Has Harry Warden returned to take the heart out of Valentine’s Day?

My Bloody Valentine 3D is a remake of the 1981 Canadian slasher film, My Bloody Valentine. I’ve never seen the original movie [Since writing this review, I have seen the original - LD]; nor did I see the new movie in a theatre with RealD capabilities. Watching the movie in 2D, I was still able to identify many of the sequences in the film that were meant to take advantage of 3D to scare the audience, so I can’t consider myself deprived of anything. Even in 2D, My Bloody Valentine 3D had me frozen in my seat.

Director Patrick Lussier is known for his two decades as a film editor of movies and episodes of TV series. His previous directorial efforts, flicks like Dracula III: Legacy and White Noise 2, were straight-to-DVD efforts. His first theatrical feature, Dracula 2000, was pretty bad, and like many stylish horror flicks, it was laughable and cheesy. Lussier delivers the lovely guts of good horror flick, this time around. This film is scary and aggressive. My Bloody Valentine 3D goes after your ass. Lussier lets it all hang out, not afraid to show the killer’s pickaxe doing some gnarly digging in human heads and torsos. There’s even a fine sequence early in the film of a curvy, large-breasted, young woman running around completely naked except for her high heel shoes.

This is a return to the kind of slasher films of the late 1970s and early 1980s that offered a little gratuitous sex and four times the bloody mayhem. What about the acting in this movie? Well, it’s horror movie acting. What about the script? It focuses on creating scenes that are simply opportunities for graphic violence. One of the co-writers of this movie, Todd Farmer, even gets to play a small part, complete with a sex scene. No, this movie is not an insightful character drama, but it’s a blood chilling, senses-shattering horror flick. There is blood splatter throughout, with enough sangre to cover up the holes in the narrative. My Bloody Valentine 3D is a bloody good time, and Mr. Director, it’s all on you. Cheers!

6 of 10
B

Monday, January 19, 2009

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Review: Original "My Bloody Valentine" is Odd and Gruesome

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 63 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

My Bloody Valentine (1981)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
DIRECTOR: George Mihalka
WRITERS: John Beaird; from a story concept by Stephen Miller
PRODUCERS: John Dunning, Andre Link, and Stephen Miller
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rodney Gibbons
EDITORS: Gerald Vansier and Rit Wallis

HORROR with elements of mystery

Starring: Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, Neil Affleck, Keith Knight, Alf Humphreys, Cynthia Dale, Helen Udy, Don Francks, Larry Reynolds, and Peter Cowper

My Bloody Valentine is a 1981 horror movie from Canada that followed in the wake of the slasher film craze that began with such movies as Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978) and surged through Friday the 13th (1980). My Bloody Valentine, like these other movies, was also the subject of a remake, My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009).

The film is set in the fictional mining town of Valentine Bluffs (actually shot in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia), and the story begins February 12th, two days before Valentine’s Day. For the first time in 20 years, the town is going to have a Valentine’s Day dance. Once an annual tradition, the event was stopped 20 years earlier after a horrific methane gas explosion at the local Hanniger Coal Mine caused the tragic deaths of four workers. A fifth worker trapped in the mine, Harry Warden (Peter Cowper), became a crazed killer who cut out the hearts of his victims. Warden promised to kill the townsfolk if they ever held a Valentine’s celebration again.

Now, a local businesswoman has led the charge to celebrate Valentine’s Day again, but when murder victims with their hearts cut out start popping up, Police Chief Jake Newby (Don Francks) cancels the dance. On February 14th, however, a group of young miners and their girlfriends decide to have a party anyway – at the Hanniger Coal Mine! They are blissfully unaware that a mysterious killer, the Miner, who may or may not be Harry Warden, is stalking their every move and killing them one by one.

My Bloody Valentine is a surprisingly entertaining low-budget horror film. Having the killer use a pick-axe gives the gory murders an extra gruesome twist. It also does not hurt the movie by having Valentine’s Day as the killer’s holiday of choice, because that just adds to this movie’s peculiarity. Like many slasher movies, My Bloody Valentine is anemic on character development, but the late screenwriter John Beaird tweaked enough clichés and character types to keep things interesting – like the hot dog murder scene and the elderly woman who spearheads the party plans.

Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, which stands in for Valentine Bluffs, gives the movie a really nice rustic atmosphere. The dusty, dreary, and rundown feel of the location is balanced by the young cast’s jaunty and carefree interpretations of their characters – an odd, but pleasing yin and yang. That may be why My Bloody Valentine deserves its cult status and why no slasher movie fan should miss it.

6 of 10
B

Monday, August 09, 2010

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James Cameron on Avatar Sequels and Novelization

James Cameron recently spoke to MTV News about Avatar, and Cinematical has the highlights.  Or you can go to the source.  Cameron apparently wants to write the novelization of Avatar himself.  He plans to make Avatar 2 and 3 back-to-back, but he won't start on the screenplay for Avatar 2 until he has signed a deal with Fox to make the film.