-Maximus
Monday, January 31, 2011
Box Office Recap-January 31st, 2011
According to ew.com, the Anthony Hopkins exorcism thriller The Rite took 1st place at the box office this weekend with just over 15 million. No Strings Attached provided additional counter programming to this weeks new releases and used that to stay in second place with over 13 million. The other new wide release, Jason Statham's The Mechanic, pulled in over 11 million. The 11 million opening for The Mechanic sounds dismal, but its on par with Statham's Transporter films first weekend grosses. The Green Hornet stayed strong in 4th place. And in 5th place was The King's Speech which used its Academy Award nominations to boost its box office. Other big award contenders The Fighter, Black Swan, and True Grit all used recent awards to boost ticket sales. Next week The Rite faces some steep competition with both Sanctum and The Roommate opening, both aiming for the same audience The Rite garnered this week.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Opening This Weekend- 1/28/11
This weekend will open a couple of movies with the potential to be pretty decent or really crappy. The first one and the one I am most excited to see is The Rite. Yet another exorcism movie which leaves me skeptical since we have had many exorcism movies in the last few years that kind of all blend together and no one movie sticks out as a well done production. The thing that intrigues me though is that the story is a little different than the typical young teenage girl gets possessed by demons and starts doing creepy things. This seems to be about a young man named Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) who goes off to Rome to attend an exorcism school. While there he meets Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins) who he explores the paranormal with. I can't tell if then Hopkins gets possessed or if this is just what they want the trailer to make you believe to go see it. Either way Hopkins is a good actor and the story line is intriguing so it has potential to be a very entertaining movie. On a scale of 1-10 on whether I would think it worth seeing, I would give it a 6. Here is the trailer if you want to preview The Rite:
The other big (if you can call it that) release for this week is The Mechanic. Don't let the name fool you, it has nothing to do with cars. It is about an assassin (Jason Statham) who wants revenge for the murder of his friend and mentor (Donald Sutherland) and when seeking his revenge partners up with his mentors son (Ben Foster), who has little training in these matters. They become a destructive duo on their path to vengeance as you can see from the trailer which consists of a lot of gunfire and explosions. It will probably be action packed and have Jason Statham playing Jason Statham like in every other movie he is in. The good part of this is Ben Foster and I am excited to see him in action because I think he has the potential of putting together a very solid acting career. My rating for view ability would be a 5. Here is the trailer if you want to preview The Mechanic:
http://www.themechanicmovie.com/
If you see one of these movies and want to comment please do so but kindly don't give anything away that would ruin the movie for other viewers. Thank you.
-Diomedes
The other big (if you can call it that) release for this week is The Mechanic. Don't let the name fool you, it has nothing to do with cars. It is about an assassin (Jason Statham) who wants revenge for the murder of his friend and mentor (Donald Sutherland) and when seeking his revenge partners up with his mentors son (Ben Foster), who has little training in these matters. They become a destructive duo on their path to vengeance as you can see from the trailer which consists of a lot of gunfire and explosions. It will probably be action packed and have Jason Statham playing Jason Statham like in every other movie he is in. The good part of this is Ben Foster and I am excited to see him in action because I think he has the potential of putting together a very solid acting career. My rating for view ability would be a 5. Here is the trailer if you want to preview The Mechanic:
http://www.themechanicmovie.com/
If you see one of these movies and want to comment please do so but kindly don't give anything away that would ruin the movie for other viewers. Thank you.
-Diomedes
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Academy Award Nominations Reaction
Today marked a big day for the film industry, as the 2011 Academy Award Nominations were announced. Lets break down the major categories.
Best Picture-No real shocks here, locks The Social Network, The King's Speech, Inception, True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Kids are Alright, and Toy Story 3 all received their predicted nominations. The drama came in the last two spots where three worthy films waited for the call. 127 Hours and Winter's Bone ended up beating out The Town. Most people felt Ben Affleck's sophomore directing effort would make the cut, but its not a huge shock to see the vastly underrated Winter's Bone make the grade. If the Academy was still at five nominees in this category, its likely we would see Social Network, Black Swan, The King's Speech, and The Fighter get nominated. The last spot would have been a dog fight between the masterful and brilliant Inception and the beautiful True Grit.
Best Actor-Everyone knew we would see Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Jesse Eisenberg, and James Franco here. The question came down to Robert Duvall or Ryan Gosling for the fifth spot.........and yet it went to Javier Bardem for Spanish language film Biutiful. One of the bigger shockers of the day as Bardem was virtually counted out of this race as buzz for the film never really gained steam in the States.
Best Actress-Probably the most chalk category of the day. This is the equivalent of all four number 1 seeds advancing in March Madness. Natalie Portman and Annette Bening will duke it out for the next month with Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Williams watching from the sidelines.
Best Supporting Actor-A few locks here were Geoffrey Rush, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and favorite Christian Bale. Most people thought spot five would go to Andrew Garfield for his breakout performance in The Social Network. But Deadwood alum John Hawkes got the call for his terrifying yet heroic performance in Winter's Bone. For me this was the shock I most wanted to see. Garfield was terrific, but Hawkes stole every scene he was in and played the opposite character he has made his career playing. Personally I would have loved 7 nominations in this category with Vincent Cassel getting a nod for Black Swan.
Best Supporting Actress- Hailee Steinfeld was the big question mark here, would she be nominated as campaigned for Best Supporting Actress? Or would the Academy nominate her in the lead category considering she was IN EVERY SCENE OF THE MOVIE. But better to see her at least nominated then left off completely. Other nods went to Helena Bonham Carter, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, and Jacki Weaver for the Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom. This category had its share of snubs with Julianne Moore being left off as well as Black Swan ladies Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey.
Best Director- We all knew we would see Tom Hooper for King's Speech, David Fincher for The Social Network, and Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan. And most assumed Christopher Nolan would get in for Inception. However both the Coen Brothers for True Grit and David O'Russell for The Fighter crept in and took Nolan's spot. This to me is the real travesty of the nominations. Inception was one of the most amazing directorial achievements I have ever seen, and to put the scenes and sequences together took nothing short of a genius. The Academy apparently felt that David O'Russell did a better job setting his camera down and watching his actors go to work. While I loved The Fighter, one director had to be left out and I feel it should have been O'Russell.
Overall I was very pleased with the nominations, my biggest gripes were the Nolan directing snub, Inception also being snubbed for editing, Shutter Island getting completely shut out, The Town only snagging one nomination, and Tron: Legacy getting overlooked for visual effects.
Maximus
Best Picture-No real shocks here, locks The Social Network, The King's Speech, Inception, True Grit, The Fighter, Black Swan, The Kids are Alright, and Toy Story 3 all received their predicted nominations. The drama came in the last two spots where three worthy films waited for the call. 127 Hours and Winter's Bone ended up beating out The Town. Most people felt Ben Affleck's sophomore directing effort would make the cut, but its not a huge shock to see the vastly underrated Winter's Bone make the grade. If the Academy was still at five nominees in this category, its likely we would see Social Network, Black Swan, The King's Speech, and The Fighter get nominated. The last spot would have been a dog fight between the masterful and brilliant Inception and the beautiful True Grit.
Best Actor-Everyone knew we would see Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, Jesse Eisenberg, and James Franco here. The question came down to Robert Duvall or Ryan Gosling for the fifth spot.........and yet it went to Javier Bardem for Spanish language film Biutiful. One of the bigger shockers of the day as Bardem was virtually counted out of this race as buzz for the film never really gained steam in the States.
Best Actress-Probably the most chalk category of the day. This is the equivalent of all four number 1 seeds advancing in March Madness. Natalie Portman and Annette Bening will duke it out for the next month with Jennifer Lawrence, Nicole Kidman, and Michelle Williams watching from the sidelines.
Best Supporting Actor-A few locks here were Geoffrey Rush, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and favorite Christian Bale. Most people thought spot five would go to Andrew Garfield for his breakout performance in The Social Network. But Deadwood alum John Hawkes got the call for his terrifying yet heroic performance in Winter's Bone. For me this was the shock I most wanted to see. Garfield was terrific, but Hawkes stole every scene he was in and played the opposite character he has made his career playing. Personally I would have loved 7 nominations in this category with Vincent Cassel getting a nod for Black Swan.
Best Supporting Actress- Hailee Steinfeld was the big question mark here, would she be nominated as campaigned for Best Supporting Actress? Or would the Academy nominate her in the lead category considering she was IN EVERY SCENE OF THE MOVIE. But better to see her at least nominated then left off completely. Other nods went to Helena Bonham Carter, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, and Jacki Weaver for the Australian crime drama Animal Kingdom. This category had its share of snubs with Julianne Moore being left off as well as Black Swan ladies Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey.
Best Director- We all knew we would see Tom Hooper for King's Speech, David Fincher for The Social Network, and Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan. And most assumed Christopher Nolan would get in for Inception. However both the Coen Brothers for True Grit and David O'Russell for The Fighter crept in and took Nolan's spot. This to me is the real travesty of the nominations. Inception was one of the most amazing directorial achievements I have ever seen, and to put the scenes and sequences together took nothing short of a genius. The Academy apparently felt that David O'Russell did a better job setting his camera down and watching his actors go to work. While I loved The Fighter, one director had to be left out and I feel it should have been O'Russell.
Overall I was very pleased with the nominations, my biggest gripes were the Nolan directing snub, Inception also being snubbed for editing, Shutter Island getting completely shut out, The Town only snagging one nomination, and Tron: Legacy getting overlooked for visual effects.
Maximus
Retro Movie Review- Casablanca
The movie I would like to review for the week (this will be a weekly event from both Maximus and myself) is Casablanca. This is a timeless classic originally released in the early 1940's which encompasses the War that was going on at the time. The thing that makes it different from many war movies of the era is that there is very little war involved. It is a drama and love story put together in the spirit of the era with war being the main factor of how the story was formed. This is Humphrey Bogarts master piece in my opinion and that is saying a lot since he starred in numerous solid roles, mainly as a detective, but here he plays a night club owner in unoccupied Africa. He comes into possesion of some very coveted tickets out of the country, since the Nazis were beginning to move their troops in, when an unexpected visitor stops in at his "gin joint". His old flame (Ingrid Bergman) from Paris re-appears after randomly leaving him and it is the quintessential "Damsel in Distress" situation. Bogart and Bergman put on a great performance in this magnificent time piece. The rest of the cast does a solid job, most appear in other Bogart films so there is a good synergy between the different characters. It was nominated for 8 academy awards in 1944, winning Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. If you haven't seen this movie I would highly recommend putting it on your things to do list.
-Diomedes
-Diomedes
Monday, January 24, 2011
Retro Movie Review-Gladiator
Before we reviewed any other new or classic movies, we decided that our first review needed to be for our consensus favorite movie, Gladiator. While myself and Diomedes disagree on some movies and agree on others, we both are madly in love with Ridley Scott's sweeping Roman epic. Gladiator is a film about a Roman General who is betrayed, sold into slavery, forced to fight for his life and freedom, and eventually given his shot at the ultimate vengeance. Russell Crowe gives an Academy Award winning performance as the title character, Maximus. From subtle humor to heart breaking sadness, Crowe portrays Maximus in a way we have never seen a character portrayed on screen. Joaquin Phoenix gives an almost equally great performance as the villain and new emperor of Rome, Commodus. Commodus is weak, defensive, self conscious, and paranoid. Phoenix shows how good of an actor he can be as he portrays Commodus as a perverse yet sympathetic villain. Late actors Oliver Reed and Richard Harris have small but impressive roles as the man Maximus is sold to and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius respectively. The film won multiple academy awards including Best Picture, Best Actor for Russell Crowe, and Best Visual Effects. If you have seen the sweeping shots of Rome in all its glory and the full and complete coliseum, you can understand the reason for the visual effects award. From the Hans Zimmer score to the cinematography to great supporting performances from Reed, Harris, Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, and Ralf Moeller, Gladiator is a start to finish brilliant ride.
Maximus
Maximus
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Box Office Recap-January 23rd, 2011
According to studio estimates, No Strings Attached starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher will be number one at the box office this weekend with a take of just over 20 million. The Green Hornet and The Dilemma fell one spot each to number two and three respectively. Academy Award hopefuls The King's Speech and True Grit took places four and five respectively. The Company Men starring Kevin Costner, Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, and Tommy Lee Jones and The Way Back starring Colin Farrell and Jim Sturgess both opened in limited release. Next week's big openings include Jason Statham and Ben Foster in The Mechanic and the Anthony Hopkins exorcism film The Rite. Come back Tuesday for our take on the Academy Award nominations.
Maximus
What should we expect from the Dark Knight Rises?
In a press release on Thursday from Dark Knight and Inception director Christopher Nolan, he revealed that Inception star Tom Hardy will play the villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, which is set to be the third and final film in Nolan's caped crusader trilogy. He also noted in the press release that upcoming Oscar host and star of "Love and Other Drugs" Anne Hathaway will play Selena Kyle, otherwise known to Batman fanatics as Catwoman. However, nowhere in the press release does Nolan mention the word Catwoman or villain when referring to Kyle. So my question became, will we see Catwoman at all in the Dark Knight Rises? Or will the character of Selena Kyle just be present? We won't truly know until either the first trailer surfaces or the movie opens in July of 2012. Could Nolan be setting up Catwoman as a future villain for another director to take the series when Nolan hangs up his camera? With Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne) saying this will also be his last outing as Batman, it seems unlikely (Paging Val Kilmer or George Clooney).
Nolan has taken a realistic non Joel Schumacher approach to the Batman films. With Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson/Ken Watanbe), Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and The Joker (Heath Ledger) all being grounded as real world characters. My guess is we will see Bane not as the lumbering, grunting, super human Bane from Schumacher's Batman & Robin, but instead the Bane from the Knightfall comics. This Bane was a brilliant military strategist who used the serum "Venom" to become stronger after a long prison stint. During this prison sentence Bane became obsessed with Batman and Gotham City. When he broke out of prison, he traveled to Gotham, and released all of Batman's enemies from Arkham Asylum. When Batman was exhausted from fighting them all, Bane found the Bat Cave, and broke Batman's back over his knee. This caused a hiatus for Bruce Wayne as Batman while some others including Robin stepped in as the Caped Crusader. While I don't see Nolan setting up a Robin promotion, I could see him using this storyline. It would give Cillian Murphy (Inception) his chance to complete the trilogy as Scarecrow and could be a fitting end to the trilogy.
-Maximus
Nolan has taken a realistic non Joel Schumacher approach to the Batman films. With Ra's Al Ghul (Liam Neeson/Ken Watanbe), Scarecrow (Cillian Murphy), and The Joker (Heath Ledger) all being grounded as real world characters. My guess is we will see Bane not as the lumbering, grunting, super human Bane from Schumacher's Batman & Robin, but instead the Bane from the Knightfall comics. This Bane was a brilliant military strategist who used the serum "Venom" to become stronger after a long prison stint. During this prison sentence Bane became obsessed with Batman and Gotham City. When he broke out of prison, he traveled to Gotham, and released all of Batman's enemies from Arkham Asylum. When Batman was exhausted from fighting them all, Bane found the Bat Cave, and broke Batman's back over his knee. This caused a hiatus for Bruce Wayne as Batman while some others including Robin stepped in as the Caped Crusader. While I don't see Nolan setting up a Robin promotion, I could see him using this storyline. It would give Cillian Murphy (Inception) his chance to complete the trilogy as Scarecrow and could be a fitting end to the trilogy.
-Maximus
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Welcome to Movie Ninjas
Welcome to Movie Ninjas! Our goal is to provide reviews, ratings, opinions, news, recommendations, and the brutal honest truth on movies. We are not sponsored by anyone so what we write here will be our honest opinions, not sugar coated in any way, shape, or form. We want to review movies for normal people, not critics, industry experts, or award voters. We encourage your comments and thoughts on what we write. We will do our best to read and respond to any questions or comments you leave us. In the coming weeks we will develop a schedule so you know what to expect from us on a weekly basis. Thank you for visiting and we hope you enjoy your time spent with the Movie Ninjas.
Maximus and Diomedes
Maximus and Diomedes
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