“Halloween II' - Fresno Bee” plus 4 more

Halloween II' - Fresno Bee
Taking his comedy from cubicle to factory floor - Philadelphia Inquirer
Movie review: Those glorious ‘Basterds’ - Santa Maria Times
Kristen Stewart bares all for new movie - Express India
Self-serve movie rental kiosks rival video stores - Edmonton Sun

Posted: 01 Sep 2009 12:08 AM PDT

In one violent set-piece after another (heightened by Brandon Trost's grim, grainy cinematography) Myers annihilates his victims with a chilling lack of gimmickry: stabbing, pummeling, strangling, crushing. It probably wasn't necessary to show Myers beating a naked stripper's head against a mirror, but this isn't a film for the softhearted.

Aside from its title, the movie has mostly forgotten the connection between Myers, his victims and Oct. 31. Instead, Zombie pads the story with goth-rock dream imagery and a subplot involving Myers' one-time shrink (Malcolm McDowell).

The conclusion is, of course, entirely unsatisfying. Then again, that's another long-standing horror-film tradition.

HALLOWEEN II

2 stars

Bottom line: Brutal stuff, even by horror-flick standards. You've been warned.

Cast: Scout Taylor-Compton, Brad Dourif, Malcolm McDowell

Length: 1:45

Rated R for strong brutal bloody violence throughout, terror, disturbing graphic images, language, and some crude sexual content and nudity.

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Taking his comedy from cubicle to factory floor - Philadelphia Inquirer

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 11:54 PM PDT

Mike Judge planned to step out of the office only briefly. Instead, he disappeared from his desk for a decade.

Back in 1999, Judge - the creator of such immortal animated characters as Beavis, Butt-head and Hank Hill - attempted his first live-action feature film, based on his own workplace experience.

Judge's hot streak suddenly came to a halt: His cubicle-life comedy Office Space - given little hype or studio "flair" - flopped at the box office, prompting Fox execs to tell him, in effect: You're talented, but maybe this live-action comedy stuff isn't quite your thing.

Bummed, Judge shelved his prospective follow-up film - Extract, another workplace comedy, but one that traded in the white collars for blue. "I was already writing Extract when Office Space came out," he recalls.

But a funny thing happened on the way back to the animation studio: Slowly, fans turned Office Space into a hit, as Milton, Lumbergh and the Bobs became increasingly noted and quoted. Judge was redeemed. And the long-mothballed Extract finally hits theaters on Friday.

During the Office Space shoot, Judge says, "I thought: 'I was born to do this.' But when it came out and didn't do so well, I thought: 'I was born to do something that no one wants to see.' "

Now, as Extract star Mila Kunis says of the celebrated office satire, "it gets better every time you watch it."

That success finally brought the filmmaker back to the workplace, with his factory-set comedy that also stars Jason Bateman and Ben Affleck.

"I think of Extract almost as a companion piece to Office Space," says the filmmaker, speaking a couple of days after the new movie's red-carpet premiere in Austin, Texas.

Thanks largely to Office Space, Kunis needed no prodding to work with Judge. "I've been a fan of his for a long time," says Kunis, the former That '70s Show actress. "We have a similar sense of humor - very dry."

Extract returns Judge, who in 2006 came out with the broader social satire Idiocracy, to a genre in which he became comfortable and confident.

"I feel like in the blue-collar factory setting, there's the same kind of recognizable but unique characters in that world as in cubicles," the filmmaker says. "A friend of mine was working in a parts warehouse. . . . He said there was a woman, 65 years old, sitting on a stool wearing a Tweety Bird T-shirt and a fanny pack. And I said, 'I've seen that exact same type of worker.' "

In the new film, Bateman plays the owner of a flavor-extract company who is led astray by both his "spiritualist" pusher-bartender Dean (played by Affleck), and the new hire who puts the "temp" in temptress, Cindy (Kunis).

Judge, who graduated with a physics degree from the University of California at San Diego, logged time in a factory himself, working on guitar amps in Northern California. He long thought it was fertile terrain for spoofing.

Having sat on it for a decade, however, Judge, 46, seemed to alter his perspective. Now, instead of skewering management and corporate owners, Judge is more sympathetic to the trials and confabulations of the boss.

"This is a workplace comedy from the boss' point of view," Judge says. "After Beavis and Butt-head took off and I suddenly was running a show, I could relate more to what a boss goes through."

With Office Space, the "Take This Job and Shove It" attitude is overtly humorous. Extract is often subtler, drier, which is why Judge sought Bateman: "I didn't want somebody to be overreacting and making it too silly and stupid." Bateman's satiric delivery can be as dry as vermouth.

In returning to workplace humor, Judge found that the joy of filmmaking - the feeling he had during Office Space - was recaptured. "Things become funner as they go along," says Judge, whose King of the Hill ends its 12-year run in September. "I'm getting back to what I was doing with Office Space. I just could keep going with this - when everything is working."

With Office Space and Extract, "I think casting is 80 percent of the battle, and we got people who understand the purpose of each scene," says Judge, who values his actors' improvisations. The cast appreciates being allowed to have input.

"What makes him great is that he's not married to his dialogue," Kunis says. "He makes you feel you can do your version. He hires people that he trusts and lets you take the rein. He's one of a kind."

Judge has warm feelings toward the entire blue-collar world. "I think when it's something like a [factory] company of that size - I think 75 people or so, and the boss is right there - you can go complain to that boss. . . . It's a more healthy workplace than a bunch of shareholders and corporate owners in a different town. That's a more soul-sucking environment."

Bateman said during the Extract panel at San Diego Comic-Con last month that he'd love to see Judge form a Christopher Guest-like troupe to crank out one of these every 18 months."

"I don't know about every 18 months," Judge says now, laughing at that prospect. "I'd love to do it, but maybe every 21/2 years."

Sold. Judge's fans would prefer that to having to wait another entire decade for him to get back to his desk.

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Movie review: Those glorious ‘Basterds’ - Santa Maria Times

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 11:39 PM PDT

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Kristen Stewart bares all for new movie - Express India

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 09:52 PM PDT

Agencies

Posted: Sep 01, 2009 at 0941 hrs IST

New York 'Twilight' beauty Kristen Stewart seems keen to ditch her teen-star image as she has stripped off for the upcoming film 'Welcome to the Rileys', where she plays a young prostitute.

This will be the first time that the actress who is reportedly dating her co-star, heartthrob Robert Pattinson, is going naked in front of the cameras, reported New York Daily News.

The 19-year-old, who shot to fame with her role as Bella Swan in the vampire romance saga, has created a buzz with her decision to bare all for the cameras.

Stewart will be seen in the buff in many scenes of the film where she plays a 16-year-old sex worker, Mallory, who brings together an estranged couple played by James Gandolfini and Oscar nominee Melissa Leo.

After the release of 'Twilight', Kristen Stewart was awarded the MTV Movie Award for 'Best Female Performance' and will be reprising her role as Bella in the sequel, 'New Moon' which is currently being filmed in Canada.

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Self-serve movie rental kiosks rival video stores - Edmonton Sun

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 09:30 PM PDT

Self-serve movie rental kiosks -- popping up in Edmonton and across the country -- could soon rival video stores in popularity, says an official with a local movie rental machine company.

"It doesn't make sense to have a (video store) anymore, when you can just rent movies from a machine," said Tim Goltz, vice-president of corporate marketing research for Integrated Management Corp., which owns and operates Quickflick movie kiosks.

For $1.79 per night, new release DVDs can be rented at 12 kiosks in Edmonton 7-Eleven stores.

Quickflick has a total of 43 kiosks at grocery and convenience stores across western Canada, with more on the way.

It's still a far cry from the number of movie rental machines in the U.S., where DVD rental kiosk giant Redbox has become a household name.

Redbox, which rents movies for $1 US a day, is expected to have 22,000 kiosks across the U.S. by the end of the year.

The rock-bottom price of Redbox rentals has raised eyebrows among some movie studios, who say $1 is too little to charge for a movie rental.

No plans are in the works to expand into Canada, said a Redbox spokesman.

Goltz said it's only a matter of time before more Canadians are renting movies at machines.

"The Canadian marketplace hasn't picked this up in its psyche yet."

In the U.S., major video chain Blockbuster is fighting back by rolling out its own self-serve DVD kiosks, called Blockbuster Express, which will match Redbox's price of $1 per night.

At the refrigerator-sized Quickflick machines, users swipe a credit card and choose between 110 movies.

KRISTY.BROWNLEE@SUNMEDIA.CA