“Movie Reviews This Week: "The Boys Are Back" and others - Washington Missourian” plus 4 more

Movie Reviews This Week: "The Boys Are Back" and others - Washington Missourian
Capitalism: A Love Story' - Fresno Bee
New Michael Jackson song to be released - Washington Missourian
Live-action 'Barbie' movie in the works - Digital Spy
Julia Roberts' movie shoot infuriates indian villagers - New Kerala

Movie Reviews This Week: "The Boys Are Back" and others - Washington Missourian

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 11:12 PM PDT

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Capitalism: A Love Story' - Fresno Bee

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 12:09 AM PDT

ALL BUSINESS: Fact-checking Moore's 'Capitalism'

Despite the title of his new movie, Michael Moore really hates capitalism. He says it's a scheme for businesses to profit at the expense of the little guy.

The provocateur filmmaker is campaigning for an end to what he says is the "evil" in our economic system and a return to the days when our lives weren't so defined by money. It's an ambitious theme, but some of his arguments in "Capitalism: A Love Story" fall apart on closer inspection.

Moore's trademark attack style will be familiar to viewers of his previous movies like "Roger & Me" and "Fahrenheit 9/11." The opening scene includes shots of different bank robberies, which Moore sees as a metaphor for how taxpayers were looted. The film closes with him putting crime-scene tape around the New York Stock Exchange and some Wall Street banks.

Showmanship Moore's top commodity in `Capitalism'

How do you make a movie about the country's current economic crisis and actually get people to see it?

Two obstacles most obviously arise: illustrating such a potentially dry subject in a compelling way, and persuading audiences to pay money for information they can get at home - and feel depressed about - for free.

Having Michael Moore as our guide certainly helps. Twenty years after he took on General Motors with his powerful debut "Roger & Me," the proud provocateur is aiming at the same sorts of targets with his latest documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story."

Michael Moore's looking for a new -ism'

TORONTO - At the end of the Depression-era Clifford Odets play "Waiting for Lefty" a character exhorts the audience to join in a rallying cry of "Strike! Strike! Strike!"

In a more doleful key, the new Michael Moore documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" ends with a similar provocation. It's basically: We need another -ism! We need another -ism!

This -ism hasn't worked out, asserts Moore in every frame of his latest project, which opens commercially (that is to say, capitalistically) Oct. 2.

Capsule reviews: `Capitalism' and others

Capsule reviews of films opening this week:

"The Boys Are Back" - This true-life drama delicately and deftly finds a balance that's hard to strike: It depicts death, and the way a family rebuilds and redefines itself afterward, without any mawkishness. Director Scott Hicks' film, with its dreamlike, sun-splashed landscapes of Southern Australia, is visually arresting (the work of cinematographer Greig Fraser, who recently shot Jane Campion's luminous "Bright Star"). But the content of Allan Cubitt's script, based on the memoir by Simon Carr, is meaty and straightforward, which gives it an unexpected power. This is easily Hicks' best film since the Oscar-winning "Shine" way back in 1996 (since then his work has included the admirable but uneven "Hearts in Atlantis" and "No Reservations"), and much of the allure comes from Clive Owen's complex performance. As a man learning how to function as a single father after the death of his wife, Owen shows great liveliness but also a natural vulnerability. His character

No more docs? Moore mulls post-`Capitalism' career

Michael Moore says he made his latest documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story," as though it were his last. And it might be.

The George W. Bush antagonist of "Fahrenheit 9/11" and gun-control champion of "Bowling for Columbine" closing up shop? The General Motors jouster of "Roger & Me" and health-care trouper of "Sicko" no longer in the documentary business?

"I'm saying it's a possibility, yeah," Moore said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where "Capitalism" played in advance of its limited release in theaters Sept. 23 and nationwide rollout Oct. 2.

Proving that demagoguery can come as easily from the left as from the right, Michael Moore has produced a jerry-rigged jeremiad about free enterprise that hands up some very legitimate indictments, without really making a case.

Or, certainly, not the case he thinks he's making. Stylistically, Moore is spinning his wheels: We get the same soft-spoken, faux-folksy, righteously indignant spokesman of "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," the same profiles of simple people shafted by the system, the same implicit ridicule of other simple people who are just trying to keep their job by doing things Moore doesn't approve of. And enough convenient logic to bury the Federal Reserve.

Happily for Moore, "Capitalism" is likely to exploit the widespread anger over bank bailouts and profligate corporations, but in attempting to make a grand gesture, Moore's reach exceeds his grasp.

Most of what he rails against isn't about economic philosophy, it's about immorality; greed is certainly the lifeblood of capitalism, but greed is eternal and it's human failing that has Moore at the ramparts, where he shrinks from making the big connections. The fact that various corporations took out life insurance policies on employees and benefited from their deaths is low, but it isn't criminal, and it doesn't even victimize the survivors.

But if Moore could have accused Wal-Mart of denying health care to its employees in an effort to collect death benefits, that would have been something. While Moore is happy to imply the worst, innuendo is all we get.

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New Michael Jackson song to be released - Washington Missourian

Posted: 23 Sep 2009 11:12 PM PDT

Features, People
Feature Stories
Weddings, Births, Engagements
Missourian In Education

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Live-action 'Barbie' movie in the works - Digital Spy

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 01:14 AM PDT

Rex Features

Universal has secured the rights to make a movie based on Mattel's iconic toy Barbie, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Julie & Julia producer Laurence Mark will oversee the project, which will be a live-action story inspired by the doll, whose full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.

Barbie general manager and Mattel senior vice president Richard Dickson will executive produce alongside Barbie vice president of entertainment Rob Hudnut.

Barbie was launched in 1959 by Mattel and Ruth Handler. She quickly became one of the world's most recognisable toy brands and has appeared in various guises including a high-schooler, a pilot, a teacher and an astronaut.

The studio has declined to reveal details on the film's story, or if Barbie's long-time love interest Ken will make an appearance.

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Julia Roberts' movie shoot infuriates indian villagers - New Kerala

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 01:35 AM PDT

September 23, 2009: JULIA ROBERTS has come under fire from locals in India who have reportedly been barred from worshipping at a temple while the star shoots her new movie EAT, PRAY, LOVE.

The actress has sparked anger from Hindu villagers after they were turned away from their place of worship by guards as filming takes place in the surrounding area.

Around 350 security staff, including 100 bouncers and 40 gunmen, are said to have been hired to keep possible intruders away, according to reports in the British press.

Worshipper Shakuntala Devi says, 'It's the holiest time of the year and we must not be stopped from visiting our own temple.'

But an official tells British tabloid The Sun, 'Nobody can breach the cover. We have strict instructions.'

Roberts has also been given a bulletproof car to travel in to the set, according to the publication.

--IANS-WENN