Happy Father's Day 2012 from Negromancer

I know so many fathers.  But unlike what I did for this recent Mother's Day (in which I tried to list all the mothers I knew personally or knew the people in their lives personally), I won't rattle off a list of papas.  Beside, uncles and grandfathers have been put into the Father's Day roll of honor.

So I'll just send out a wide signal to all the fathers I know and to the ones who visit this blog: Happy Father's Day!

"Rock of Ages" Soundtrack is #1 on Multiple Billboard Charts

ROCK OF AGES: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK Debuts at #1 on the Billboard Soundtrack Chart

Features Hits of Iconic Rockers Def Leppard, Foreigner, Journey, Poison and Others Performed By Rock of Ages Cast Members Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise, and More

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The ROCK OF AGES: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK, released June 5th by WaterTower Music, debuted today at #1 on multiple Billboard charts - locking in the #1 Soundtrack, #1 Indie and #1 Hard Music chart positions according to SoundScan. Additionally, the soundtrack took the #15 spot on Billboard’s Top 200 chart.

"We're thrilled with these #1 chart positions before Rock of Ages has even hit theatres," said WaterTower Music head Jason Linn. "And with the film’s opening this Friday, we expect interest in our record to remain high for some time."

This hit album features 20 rousing anthems that defined a generation—reinvigorated for the film by a stellar cast including Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige, Alec Baldwin and Tom Cruise. The soundtrack for the film, which the Los Angeles Times calls “a love letter to spandex-clad guitar gods,” has earned rave reviews in advance of the film’s theatrical debut, June 15th.

Directed by Adam Shankman (Hairspray), New Line Cinema’s Rock of Ages is the film adaptation of the smash hit, five-time Tony®-nominated Broadway musical which tells the story of small town girl Sherrie and city boy Drew, who meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Executive Music Producer Adam Anders (Glee) helps tell the rock ‘n’ roll romance through cast versions of the heart-pounding hits of Def Leppard, Poison, Journey, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, Foreigner, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Whitesnake, and more.

As the larger-than-life, arena-rocking champ “Stacee Jaxx,” the Rock of Ages Soundtrack features Tom Cruise belting out Bon Jovi’s classic “Wanted Dead or Alive,” Def Leppard’s hit “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” and Guns ‘N Roses anthem “Paradise City.” Cruise also duets with Malin Akerman on Foreigner’s power ballad, “I Want To Know What Love Is,” and shares the mic with Julianne Hough on The Scorpions’ “Rock You Like A Hurricane.”

The album also features an extraordinary medley of Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian,” David Lee Roth’s “Just Like Paradise,” and Poison’s “Nothin’ But A Good Time,” which features Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin.

Also echoing through the soundtrack are mash-ups of songs that ruled the airwaves in the `80s, including Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero” / Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock N Roll”; Extreme’s “More Than Words” / Warrant’s “Heaven”; Pat Benatar’s “Shadows Of The Night” / Quarterflash’s “Harden My Heart”; and Starship’s “We Built This City” woven into Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” all performed by the film’s cast.

The full track list for the album is as follows:

1. “Paradise City” - Tom Cruise

2. “Sister Christian” / “Just Like Paradise” / “Nothin’ But A Good Time” - Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin

3. “Juke Box Hero” / “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” - Diego Boneta, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough

4. “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” - Catherine Zeta-Jones

5. “Waiting For A Girl Like You” - Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough

6. “More Than Words” / “Heaven” - Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta

7. “Wanted Dead Or Alive” - Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough

8. “I Want To Know What Love Is” - Tom Cruise, Malin Akerman

9. “I Wanna Rock” - Diego Boneta

10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” - Tom Cruise

11. “Harden My Heart” - Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige

12. “Shadows of the Night” / “Harden My Heart” - Mary J. Blige, Julianne Hough

13. “Here I Go Again” - Diego Boneta, Paul Giamatti, Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige, Tom Cruise,

14. “Can’t Fight This Feeling” - Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin

15. “Any Way You Want It” - Mary J. Blige, Constantine Maroulis, Julianne Hough

16. “Undercover Love” - Diego Boneta

17. “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” - Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Mary J. Blige

18. “Rock You Like A Hurricane” - Julianne Hough, Tom Cruise

19. “We Built This City” / “We’re Not Gonna Take It” - Russell Brand / Catherine Zeta-Jones

20. “Don’t Stop Believin’”- Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige

To learn more about the film and soundtrack visit http://www.rockofagesmovie.com/

Review: "A Sound of Thunder" isn't Too Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 95 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi violence, partial nudity, and language
CINEMATOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: Peter Hyams
WRITERS: Thomas Dean Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer and Gregory Poirier; screen story by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (based upon the short story by Ray Bradbury)
PRODUCERS: Moshe Diamant and Karen Baldwin
EDITORS: Sylvia Landra
COMPOSER: Nick Glennie-Smith

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Edward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben Kingsley, Jemima Rooper, David Oyelowo, William Armstrong, and Corey Johnson

The subject of this movie review is A Sound of Thunder, a 2005 science fiction and time travel movie from director Peter Hyams. The film is based upon a Ray Bradbury short story of the same title that was first published in 1952 (in Collier’s magazine). The film follows the efforts of a scientist who tries to save his world after a group of “time tourists” accidentally change the present by interfering with the past.

In the year 2055, a company based in downtown, Chicago, Time Safari, Inc., is an elite time travel agency. The corporation’s owner, Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley), has cornered the lucrative time-travel market with something called a “prehistoric hunting package.” For a very high price, rich adventurers can travel back to the Prehistoric age and hunt a real life dinosaur. The trip has only three essential rules: (1) Don’t change anything in the past; (2) Don’t leave anything behind; and most of all (3) Don’t bring anything back – because the slightest alteration of anything that existed in the past could alter the existing course of evolution in unimaginable ways. But someone breaks the rules…

Before long, a series of time waves is rippling across the world. The change is slow at first – just the climate and weather. Within 24 hours, the major changes begin. Plant life grows to monstrous proportions, busting through concrete and pavement, overturning cars, engulfing entire building inside and out, and covering the city. Soon voracious insects are running amok in the city, and then come the hostile new creatures – primates in reptilian form that can move with blazing speed and that feed on humans.

The two people who have an idea of what is happening are Dr. Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), a scientist who leads the Time Safari expeditions so that he can further his genetic research, and Dr. Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), the brilliant physicist who developed much of the technology that Time Safari, Inc. uses to make its expeditions into the past possible. Now, Ryer needs Rand’s help if he is going to figure out exactly what went wrong on one of his expeditions that is causing the time waves. With the world collapsing into pandemonium around them, as deadly plants and monstrous new animal life forms attack humans, Ryer and Rand have to figure out a way to go back into the past and correct the error that will save themselves and the human race from extinction.

Once A Sound of Thunder missed its release date of March 2005, it was clear to fans that the distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, probably thought the film was a bust. Without much advertising and little fanfare, the film finally appeared in early September of 2005, and failed at the box office (grossing less than $2 million domestically). The film was beset by production delays (the great floods of Prague in 2002 damaged the set), causing the film to miss its original release date of 2003. The original director, Renny Harlin, left in 2004 to helm another film (Mindhunters), and the production company went bankrupt, and there was no money to finish the film.

Still, what finally emerges is a rather entertaining, above average, B-movie; in fact, this is a glorified B-movie, a big budget version of the sci-fi monster movies that show up on the Sci-Fi Channel on Saturday nights. Some of the special effects are poor, especially some of the street scenes, which look phony and cheap; the viewer can practically see the “seems” between where the actors and real environment end and the CGI begins. The dinosaur that is the object of Time Safari’s hunts is so poorly animated, especially when compared to the kind of CGI dinos we get in mega productions like Jurassic Park. Part of that is because when the production company went bankrupt, the filmmakers hadn’t begun such post-production work computer animation. When money was finally received to finish A Sound of Thunder, the effects had to be cheaply done.

The script also takes great liberties with its source material, a classic Ray Bradbury science fiction short story, in order to become a full-length film. In the original story, the death of an insect changed an election’s outcome. Here, so much padding had to be added to turn a short story into a feature length film.

Otherwise, I liked the execution of the film’s plot, and its visual choices in terms of set design and art direction. The film’s monsters are also enjoyable even though they look more fake and plastic than the old-time movie monsters that were handmade. And A Sound of Thunder really is a monster movie, except it is set in the milieu of science fiction rather than of horror. In many ways, A Sound of Thunder is the kind of action oriented, sci-fi/horror thriller that director Peter Hyams delivers every blue moon – The Relic being a good example of one of his enjoyable B-movie, sci-fi/horror, action flicks. In Hyams’ films, the genre, be it sci-fi or horror, is just a setting for an action movie starring a solid, macho, can-do male hero. As simple entertainment, they work if you don’t think too much about the flaws and holes.

This flick likes the audience rather than take them for stupid, and it wants to give you a good time. The ending is too abrupt, unsatisfying, and doesn’t really resolve the story. However, A Sound of Thunder is fun, meant to be enjoyable even when the mistakes are right in front of your eyes.

5 of 10
B-

Sunday, May 7, 2006

Shooting Begins on Next Jason Reitman Film "Labor Day"

PARAMOUNT PICTURES AND INDIAN PAINTBRUSH ANNOUNCE THE START OF PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY ON REITMAN’S “LABOR DAY”

Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, Inc., and Indian Paintbrush announced today that principal photography has begun on “LABOR DAY,” from Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Jason Reitman, with Academy Award®-winner Kate Winslet and Academy Award®-nominated Josh Brolin starring. The film is shooting in Massachusetts.

Based on Joyce Maynard’s novel of the same name, the film is written and directed by Reitman (“Young Adult,” “Up in the Air”) who will produce with his partner Helen Estabrook through their Right of Way Films banner, along with the Academy Award®-nominated team of Lianne Halfon and Russell Smith (“Young Adult,” “Juno”) of Mr. Mudd. Steven Rales (“Young Adult,” “Like Crazy”) and Mark Roybal (“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” “No Country for Old Men”) of Indian Paintbrush will serve as executive producers.

“LABOR DAY” centers on 13-year-old Henry Wheeler, who struggles to be the man of his house and care for his reclusive mother Adele while confronting all the pangs of adolescence. On a back-to-school shopping trip, Henry and his mother encounter Frank Chambers, a man both intimidating and clearly in need of help, who convinces them to take him into their home and later is revealed to be an escaped convict. The events of this long Labor Day weekend will shape them for the rest of their lives.

Winslet (“REVOLUTIONARY ROAD,” “THE READER”) stars as Adele Wheeler, the reclusive mother and Josh Brolin (“TRUE GRIT,” “NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN”) is Frank Chambers. Gattlin Griffith (“GREEN LANTERN,” “CHANGELING”) plays Adele’s son Henry. Rounding out the cast is Tom Lipinski (“SUITS”) as the young Frank; Clark Gregg (“MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS”) as Henry’s father Gerald; Alexie Gilmore (“DEFINITELY, MAYBE”) plays Marjorie, Gerald’s new wife and Henry’s stepmom; Lucas Hedges (“MOONRISE KINGDOM”) plays her son Richard; Brighid Fleming (“GAMER”) as Henry’s friend Eleanor; James Van Der Beek (“DON’T TRUST THE B---- IN APARTMENT 23”) as Officer Treadwell; Maika Monroe as young Frank’s sweetheart Mandy; Brooke Smith (“GREY’S ANATOMY,”) as Adele’s friend Evelyn and Micah Fowler as Evelyn’s son Barry.


About Paramount Pictures CorporationParamount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. Paramount controls a collection of some of the most powerful brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, Insurge Pictures, MTV Films, and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Famous Productions, Paramount Home Media Distribution, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., and Paramount Studio Group.

Gary Oldman the Master of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 48 (of 2012) by Leroy Douresseaux


Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: U.K. with France
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, some sexuality/nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Tomas Alfredson
WRITERS: Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan (based on the novel by John le Carré)
PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Robyn Slovo
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Hoyte Van Hoytema (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Dino Jonsäter
COMPOSER: Alberto Iglesias
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/SPY/THRILLER/HISTORICAL

Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, David Dencik, Ciarán Hinds, Simon McBurney, Roger Lloyd-Pack, Stephen Graham, Kathy Burke, Jamie Thomas King, Stuart Grahma, Svetlana Khodchenkova, William Haddock, and John Hurt

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 British drama and espionage film. It is a co-production between British film production company, Working Title Films, and the French StudioCanal and is based upon John le Carré’s 1974 novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The film is set in London in the early 1970s and focuses on an espionage veteran who returns from semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet agent working within British Intelligence. It is one of the best films of 2011.

In October 1973, Control (John Hurt), the head of the British Intelligence Service (known as “the Circus”), sends agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) on a mission to Hungary, which goes badly wrong. Control and his right-hand man, George Smiley (Gary Oldman), are forced into retirement.

Later, Oliver Lacon (Simon McBurney), a civil servant in charge of intelligence, brings Smiley out of retirement. Lacon tells Smiley that Control, who is now dead, believed that the Soviet Union had managed to place a mole (or spy) in a senior role in British Intelligence and that the mole had been there for a long time. Control had assigned codenames to the senior intelligence officers that he suspected of being the Soviet mole. They are Percy Alleline, “Tinker” (Toby Jones); Bill Haydon, “Tailor” (Colin Firth); Roy Bland, “Soldier” (Ciarán Hinds); and Toby Esterhase, “Poorman” (David Dencik). Smiley takes the assignment only to learn that he is “Beggarman,” Control’s fifth suspect.

I could easily consider Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy a slowing moving spy movie, but I choose to view it as a delicious gumbo on simmer that slowly cooks to perfection. In this case, the perfection is the last half-hour of the movie, which is outstanding and begins with a brilliant scene featuring Smiley, Lacon, and a cabinet minister. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the kind of dense and layered story an espionage film should be… at least when it’s not being a James Bond movie.

Of course, a film adaptation of John le Carré loses the depth, the morsels, and the back story of the novels. The film works because it is a character drama that takes the international intrigue that was the Cold War and transforms it into a conflict (a game, or even a war) between rivals, within and without British Intelligence. The story becomes one about personalities and indeed; the conflicts are more personal and more intimate than they are large-scale and extra-national or international. The movie is a story of lonely and desperate men who can never reveal their secrets to others, even to the point that they become a mystery to themselves.

Such a character drama relies on great performances, and there are many. Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch are excellent in strong supporting roles. David Dencik gives extra to Esterhase, enlarging a character that could have been not much more than a superficial little prick.

The most important performance is, of course, Gary Oldman’s. I’ve thought of him as a genius since I first started seeking out films in which he appeared some 20 years ago. He plays George Smiley as a tiger ready to pounce, as an intense man of action, and as the consummate spymaster who leads men and manipulates others to achieve his ends. What is amazing is that Oldman pulls this off by playing Smiley as a quiet, detached man, so that in the moments when he does strike, the viewer is both surprised at this sudden turn and also amazed at what Oldman is keeping under wraps as Smiley.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is superbly directed by Tomas Alfredson and expertly written by the husband and wife team of Peter Straughan and the late Bridget O'Connor (to whom this film is dedicated). It is simply a great film. However, the strength of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is Gary Oldman, the master of this spy game and the winner of this chess match of espionage.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2012 Academy Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Gary Oldman), “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Alberto Iglesias), and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan)

2012 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan) and “Outstanding British Film” (Peter Straughan, Robyn Slovo, Tomas Alfredson, Bridget O'Connor, Eric Fellner, and Tim Bevan); 9 nominations: “Best Film” (Tim Bevan, Robyn Slovo, Eric Fellner), “Best Leading Actor” (Gary Oldman), “Best Cinematography” (Hoyte Van Hoytema), “Best Costume Design” (Jacqueline Durran), “Best Director” (Tomas Alfredson), “Best Editing” (Dino Jonsäter), “Best Original Music” (Alberto Iglesias), “Best Production Design” (Tatiana Macdonald and Maria Djurkovic), “Best Sound” (Doug Cooper, Andy Shelley, Howard Bargroff, John Casali, and Stephen Griffiths)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Disney Changes "Planes" and "Quest for the Queen" Release Dates

Walt Disney Home Entertainment has announced two release date changes to the company's DVD/Blu-ray release schedule:

"Planes" will now release in Fall 2013 (instead of the originally announced release date of Spring 2013) on Blu-ray and DVD

Disney Fairies "Quest For The Queen" will now release in Spring 2014 (instead of the originally announced release date of Fall 2013) on Blu-ray and DVD

Review: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" Has Great Songs (Happy B'day, Gene Wilder)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 91 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
DIRECTOR: Mel Stuart
WRITER: Roald Dahl (based upon his book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
PRODUCERS: Stan Margulies and David L. Woper
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Arthur Ibbetson
EDITOR: David Saxon
Academy Award nominee

FANTASY/MUSICAL/FAMILY with elements of comedy

Starring: Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Leonard Stone, Denise Nickerson, “Dodo” Nora Denney, Paris Themmen, Ursula Reit, Michael Bollner, Diana Sowle, and Aubrey Woods

The subject of this movie review is Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, a 1971 musical fantasy film starring Gene Wilder. The film is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Some of the late-author Roald Dahl’s works have been adapted to screen. Perhaps, the best known of these films is Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, taken from Dahl’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s a nice movie for children, and two things that certainly make the film worth watching are Gene Wilder (who received a “Best Motion Picture Actor – Musical/Comedy Golden Globe nomination for his performance) and the songs, which received an Oscar nomination for “Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score.”

In the film, the best candies in the world are the chocolate confections of the Wonka Chocolate Factory, owned by the mysterious and reclusive Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder). One day Wonka announces that five lucky candy buyers who find a golden ticket in their Willy Wonka candy bars will be able, with one guest each, to tour his factory. One of the hopefuls is Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum, in his only film role), a boy from an impoverished family. When he finds the last golden ticket, he takes his Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) as his guest on the factory tour. Of the five children who find the golden tickets, Willy Wonka has his eyes on Charlie, most of all.

The songs in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory are great, especially “The Candyman” (which became of a staple of Sammy Davis, Jr.’s stage show, although the filmmakers declined to allow Davis to play Bill, the candy store owner who first sings the song in the film) and also the Oompa Loompas theme. The sets look cheap (even for the early 70’s) and are only mildly imaginative in their design. Ultimately, this is a curiosity piece for adults, but a fun and fanciful flick for pre-teen children.

5 of 10
B-

Wednesday, June 8, 2005

NOTES:
1972 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song Score” (Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley, and Walter Scharf)

1972 Golden Globes, USA: 1 nomination: “Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy” (Gene Wilder)

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