Posted on November 7, 2011 at 3:55 pm
I’m really looking forward to Arthur Christmas, the latest stop-motion animated film from the folks behind “Wallace and Gromit” and “Flushed Away.” This one features the voices of Hugh Laurie (“House”), Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, and James McAvoy in the story of Santa’s youngest son, who has to save the day when Santa’s high-tech operation to deliver all the presents in one night runs into trouble.
Posted on November 7, 2011 at 8:00 am
| MPAA Rating: | Not rated |
| Profanity: | None |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
| Violence/ Scariness: | None |
| Diversity Issues: | Diverse characters |
| Date Released to Theaters: | 2011 |
| Date Released to DVD: | November 7, 2011 |
| Amazon.com ASIN: | B000G1R3Z8 |
The Man Who Walked Between the Towers… and More Inspiring Tales
, the story of the boy who loved snowflakes and grew up to teach the world about their properties and beauty through his photographs,
, about a woman who believes that our purpose in life is to make the world more beautiful and who finds her own way to contribute to that goal, and
, about a man who transformed his local village’s economy with production of his useful and lovely ceramics.I have one to give away! Send me an email at moviemom@moviemom.com with “wire” in the subject line and tell me your favorite inspiring character. Don’t forget your address! I will select one winner at random a week from today.
Posted on November 6, 2011 at 8:10 pm
I was delighted to see that one of my favorite childhood films, Hand in Hand (1960)
Posted on November 6, 2011 at 8:00 am
In 1956 the biggest movie sex symbol of all time went to England to make a movie with Sir Laurence Olivier. It was called “The Prince and the Showgirl
While Monroe was filming, she had a brief relationship with assistant on the production 23-year-old Colin Clark, who wrote about it in his book, My Week with Marilyn
That relationship is the subject of a new movie starring Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence and Michelle Williams in a performance that is already generating Oscar buzz as Monroe. Branagh told The Guardian that “The Prince and the Showgirl” was made at a pivotal time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-b48Aj8zkg“It was the last of please and thank-yous, collars and ties, and bobbies on the beat,” says Kenneth Branagh, whose new film bears witness to this clash of generations and cultures. “After this, haircuts were longer, there was rock’n’roll and all the sex involved with it. Politeness, manners, formality, dress codes – all those things were being swept away.”
You can watch the real Monroe and Olivier tonight on Turner Classic Movies (4 pm Eastern)
Posted on November 5, 2011 at 6:56 pm
I was pretty sure that the line between being lame and making fun of being lame was fairly distinct but in this film Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) push it so hard it almost dissolves. We’ve all come a long way since the original film came out in 2004 and charmed everyone with the unpretentiousness of its protagonists’ aspirations (they just wanted some of those scrumptious square burgers from White Castle) and its own (silly stoner fun). The sequel in 2008 brought in a politics by taking our heroes to Guantanamo prison and a meeting with the President. And now they’re back.
Harold has moved on. He is married to the beautiful Maria (Paula Garces) and has a beautiful home and a fancy job on Wall Street. He even has an obsequious assistant.
What he doesn’t have is the respect of his father-in-law (the scary Danny Trejo) or his old friend. Harold hangs out with a dweeby new friend, now, and his name is Todd (Tom Lennon). He and Kumar have gone their separate ways and never see each other.
Kumar has been kicked out of med school for failing a drug test. His girlfriend has left him. All he has left is a weed habit and a dweeby new friend, Adrian (Amir Blumenfeld). He and Harold have nothing in common anymore. But when he brings Harold a package that was delivered to their old apartment and accidentally sets Harold’s father-in-law’s prize Christmas tree on fire, they team up again to find a replacement and go on a journey that will include drugs, nudity, a claymation interlude, a song and dance from Neil Patrick Harris (worth the price of admission as a demented version of himself, singing and dancing and explaining that the gay thing is just a ruse to help him get more girls), more drugs including marijuana smoke in 3D that floats out into the theater, 3D jokes, hot nude nuns, Russian gangsters, and a drug-taking baby.
It hasn’t quite jumped the doobie yet, but the shtick is getting tired. Things that were funny in a college kid are not so funny when they get older and Kumar’s pudgy slacker-hood just seems sad. It’s as though they made a check-list of ways to be outrageous instead of letting the humor come naturally from the situations. When they and their characters were new to us we enjoyed the sense of discovery. But when they make jokes about Penn’s service in the White House and Harris is no longer a has-been but, thanks in part to the first movie, an Entertainment Weekly cover/J.J. Abrams musical-starring success, it feels phoned in and phony.
