Year of a Million Moments from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment

Posted on July 1, 2011 at 9:27 am

Today, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) pledged to donate one million moments from its catalog of DVDs to community investment partners across the country. The initiative is part of its “Year of a Millions Moments” campaign celebrating movies made memorable, quotable, and unforgettable by the people who watch and embrace them. Working in conjunction with Fox Gives, the company’s philanthropic arm, the GREAT MOMENTS, GREAT CAUSES 18-city, 14-week mobile van tour will donate DVDs to selected community investment partners in each market with the ultimate goal of donating 1 million discs.

The tour will also give film fanatics and consumers nationwide the opportunity to recreate their favorite scenes from beloved Fox movies, filmed against a green screen. The tour van will double as a dressing room trailer, complete with hair, makeup and wardrobe, giving participants the feel of really being on a movie set. Once filmed, the clips will be uploaded to the Million Moments website for downloading and will be one-click sharable across all social networks. The site also has details about a contest with prizes. One lucky winner will become an instant millionaire.

Designed to celebrate the unique connection between a moment in film, its audience and the conversations it inspires, the Million Moments campaign allows movie lovers to experience and share the thrills, laughs and drama of real movie moments – whether it’s jumping off a building in “Die Hard,”chasing after a bus in “Little Miss Sunshine,”or showcasing “sweet” moves from “Napoleon Dynamite.”

The tour kicks off today in Los Angeles from the famous Twentieth Century Fox lot and will wind its way across the United States over the course of 14 weeks ending in New York City. In addition to events in Los Angeles and New York, consumer events will take place in markets nationwide including San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago Detroit, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia and Boston. There will be media-only stops in Portland, Las Vegas and Baltimore.

Each month Fox will spotlight films that reflect a specific theme with moments… to shine (January), you love (February), to laugh about (March), kids love (April), for mom (May), for heroes (June), to sing about (July), to remember (August), that are unforgettable (September), that terrify (October) and classic holiday moments (November/December). Each month 16 films face off for the title of “Best Movie Moment.” Consumers can vote each month for their favorite moment and enter for a chance to win a package of some of the most iconic and memorable movies from Fox.

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Posted on June 28, 2011 at 10:19 pm

I feel like Goldilocks. It’s not as good as the first one, but it’s not as awful as the second one. So, if that doesn’t make it just right, at least it makes it better than the second one and with some summer movie chases, fights, and explosions that make it popcorn-worthy.

It begins with a prologue that cheekily re-imagines the space race of the 1960’s as a secret mission to learn more about a mysterious rocket that crashed on the dark side of the moon in the late 1950’s. Archival footage of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and newsman Walter Cronkite is used to make it appear that in the brief moments our first moon landing was not visible from earth, the astronauts were exploring a cavernous machine. Even the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident is tied into cold war-ear secrets about what was found on the moon.

Then, we are in present day where Sam (Shia LeBeouf) returns as Sam Witwicky. Still in high school in the first movie, he is now out of college and looking for a job in Washington D.C. It’s tough these days, especially when you’re not allowed to put “saved the world — twice” on your resume for reasons of national security. Sam also has a new girlfriend named Carly (model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley). The departure of Megan Fox is explained in a few short lines. No one seems to miss her.

Sam meets Carly’s boss Dylan (Patrick Dempsey), a fabulously wealthy but very arrogant businessman (think Dr. McSleazy) and tries not to be jealous, even after Dylan gives Carly a $200,000 Mercedes. But, you know, blah blah and the bad robot decepticons are back, blah blah the head of National Security (Frances McDormand) tries to keep Sam away from his friends the autobots, and blah blah all something will do something if Sam doesn’t get that tractor beam out of commission, I mean knock out that pillar that has “the ability to reshape the universe” and build a bridge to another world (didn’t we just see that in “Thor?).

And then the humans fight each other and the robots and the robots fight each other and the humans. In 3D. Various characters turn out to be not what we thought. There are surprise guest cameos. And at two and a half hours it goes on much too long (believe me, they could have lost an hour and had a nice, brisk evening at the movies). McDormand, Ken Jeong (stuck with an embarrassing attempt at homophobic humor, literally with his pants down), and John Malcovich are completely wasted. Huntington-Whiteley is better at posing than acting — but she’s got legs and knows how to use them. And we once again do not get enough of John Duhamel. John Turturro wore out his welcome well before the first one ended but Alan Tudyk makes the role of his aide into something enjoyably off-kilter. It’s too loud, it’s too long, some of the battles are hard to follow, the action is entertaining and so is the but relief that it isn’t as awful as the last one.

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Contest Winner: The Adjustment Bureau

Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:14 pm

Congratulations to the winner of “The Adjustment Bureau” on DVD, Pam H. of Kennewick, WA. Thanks to all who entered!

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1776

Posted on June 27, 2011 at 3:56 pm

Lowest Recommended Age:	4th - 6th Grades
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG for language
Profanity:	Some mild language
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drinking, smoking
Violence/ Scariness:	References to war
Diversity Issues:	A theme of the film, decisions to maintain slavery and lack of rights for women
Date Released to Theaters:	1972
Date Released to DVD:	July 2, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	B000067D1R

Happy Independence Day! There’s only one possible pick of the week for the 4th of July.

This rousing musical about the Declaration of Independence makes the Founding Fathers vivid, human, and interesting characters, and is so involving that you almost forget that you already know how it all turned out. William Daniels is the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams, Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, who would rather be with his wife than work on the Declaration, and Howard da Silva is a wry and witty Benjamin Franklin. As they debate independence, we see the courage that went into the birth of the United States, and as they compromise with the South to permit slavery in the brand-new country we see the tragedy. It is outstanding family entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iiiy8GnBNI

New on DVD: ‘Beastly,’ ‘Sucker Punch,’ and More

Posted on June 27, 2011 at 8:00 am

Beastly This modern-day version of Beauty and the Beast is surprisingly appealing. In an era of bullies and mean girls, “Gossip Girls” and “Pretty Little Liars,” it’s nice to have such a tenderhearted fairy tale.

Sucker Punch Girls in thigh-hi stockings and tiny spangled miniskirts take on steam-powered corpses, WWI bi-planes, samurai robots, and an angry dragon, along with a series of odiously predatory men in the latest film from Zack Snyder. His versions of “300? and “Watchmen” overwhelmed the storylines with striking, provocative visuals. Here, he solves that problem by pretty much not having any storyline at all. He literally and metaphorically cuts to the chase. It’s not so much punch, a bit more sucker.

Season of the Witch. This is sword-and-sorcery film named after a Donovan song that features a joke swiped from “Jaws” — a priest looks balefully up at a looming demon and actually says, “We’re going to need more holy water.” It is a hopeless mish-mash that feels like they were making it up as they went along. It’s also dull.

The Eagle The classic book for kid by Rosemary Sutcliff is an epic story, lavishly filmed, but empty at the core. Without a reason to care about the quest, it does not matter how skillfully the battle scenes are filmed.

Unknown There are some good chases through Berlin and even twistier plot developments even if the end is kind of silly in this story of a man on the way to an academic conference who wakes up after an accident with amnesia and finds that someone else has taken over his life. Worth seeing for one scene between veterans Bruno Ganz and Frank Langella.

Barney’s Version Paul Giamatti makes us understand and even forgive a man who leaves his own wedding reception (second marriage) to run after a woman he has just met (Rosamund Pike), who will be the great love of his life. Based on the last novel by the great Canadian author Mordecai Richler, this is a sprawling, episodic story of a man who is not always likable but the performances by Giamatti, Pike, and Dustin Hoffman has his policeman father over the decades are magnificent.

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