plus 4, Billy Ray Cyrus writes song for Hallmark Channel movie 'Christmas in ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Billy Ray Cyrus writes song for Hallmark Channel movie 'Christmas in ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune
Movie Review: 'Nine' - Delaware County Daily Times
Director: China should let more movies in - Durango Herald
Movie review: Labored 'Squeakquel' offers twice the chipmunks, half ... - Brandon Sun
Movie review: Love is simple-minded in 'It's Complicated,' though ... - Brandon Sun

Billy Ray Cyrus writes song for Hallmark Channel movie 'Christmas in ... - Minneapolis Star Tribune

Posted: 24 Dec 2009 05:10 PM PST

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Billy Ray Cyrus has been preparing his whole life for the role of Daniel Burton in the Hallmark Channel movie "Christmas in Canaan."

"I started digging through like old boxes of stuff and finding old Polaroids of my dad from 1964," the 48-year-old country singer said. "I thought, if I can become my dad — if I can be Ronald Ray Cyrus in 1964 — then that's this guy. Just go be your dad."

Cyrus even cut his hair to look like his dad.

"I realized I just grew into my dad to be honest," he said.

Cyrus plays a widowed father of three, living in Canaan, Texas, at the start of the civil rights movement.

The script inspired Cyrus to write and record a song for the film. The song title, "We'll Get by Somehow (We Always Do)," is something that his character, Daniel, says four times in the movie. Cyrus acknowledges that the lyrics also reflect his own life, as he deals with criticism of his parenting from the media.

"I write about what is real. I write about what I'm living. 'We'll get by somehow, we always do.' That's not only Daniel's mantra, that is my mantra," he said.

"The second you realize that life ain't fair, you're one step closer to moving on," he adds. "But most importantly, have a vision of where you want to go and who you want to be, and no matter what the naysayers say, or no matter the negativity, you stay focused."

Cyrus got the idea for the song on his tour bus when he heard a guitarist strumming a Texas-sounding tune.

"As I got my guitar out of the case, he was playing that lick, I just started singing, 'We'll get by somehow, we always do. That's what makes a hope turn into truth. When the chips are down, we'll see it through. We'll get by somehow, oh yeah, we always do.'"

By the time he had his guitar in hand, the chorus was born.

"Christmas in Canaan" is playing on the Hallmark Channel through the end of the month.

___

On the Net:

http://www.hallmarkchannel.com

http://www.billyraycyrus.com/

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Movie Review: 'Nine' - Delaware County Daily Times

Posted: 25 Dec 2009 02:21 AM PST

By David Germain, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) --- Title-wise, the musical "Nine" registers half a digit higher than "8 1/2," the Federico Fellini masterpiece that inspired the stage show that was the source for this new movie version.

On a scale of 1 to 10, though, "Nine" comes in somewhere around a 5, maybe 5 1/2.

Yeah, comparing the two is unfair, but "Nine" is the same story at its core. And despite stars with enough Academy Awards hardware to start their own metal works, Rob Marshall's musical ends up as an amiable but muddled music-video rehash of Fellini's study of a filmmaker adrift in personal and creative turmoil.

Maybe the lofty cast — Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Judi Dench among them — raises expectations too high. Certainly Marshall's revival of the movie musical on the sly and spirited "Chicago," a best-picture Oscar winner, also jacks up anticipation for "Nine."

Though the musical numbers are grandly staged and delivered with earnest, the songs are not all that memorable — including three new ones written expressly for the film version.

The crises of a filmmaker — pampered and fawned over by everyone he encounters, with a beautiful wife, a knockout mistress and other gorgeous women lining up to sleep with him — comes off as trifling. It's hard to care about this guy's little bout of writer's block when he's got it all and then some in his personal and professional lives.

Day-Lewis stars as Guido Contini, a 1960s Italian filmmaker besieged by paparazzi and hangers-on as he prepares to start his latest movie — even though he hasn't a clue what it's going to be about.

Guido's mired in a creative funk, and we follow him through vibrant musical fantasies as he tries to work through his problems with help from the women in his life, past and present.

They include his departed mom (Sophia Loren), his mistress (Cruz), a lusty fashion reporter (Kate Hudson), his costume designer (Dench), his screen muse (Kidman) and his wife (Marion Cotillard).

The women are stunning — Kidman a golden-goddess cousin to Anita Ekberg in Fellini's "La Dolce Vita," Loren a grand dame of class and dignity, Cruz sizzling as she gyrates through her bump-and-grind number in smoking hot lingerie.

From "Moulin Rouge," we all knew Kidman could belt out a tune, and there was no doubt about the pipes of Fergie, the Black Eyed Peas singer who co-stars as a sexual symbol from Guido's boyhood and captures old-school Italian sensuality that would have been at home in an early Fellini flick.

Calculated to be show-stoppers, the songs often end up as quaint throwbacks (Hudson looks great in her go-go get-up but looks as though she's stuck in a musical interlude on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," where her mother, Goldie Hawn, got her start).

Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, "The English Patient" filmmaker who died in 2008, share credit for the screenplay, which has clever exchanges (some borrowed from Fellini) but mostly offers patter between songs.

The musical interludes are overly stagy and not well integrated into the story. It feels as though the actresses lined up single-file waiting for their big number, each woman getting a chance to croon a little something about the meaning of Guido's life before wandering off into the background of the film.

As the weary wife of unfaithful Guido, Cotillard gets two songs, appropriate since her character is the heart of the story and the actress herself is the best thing about the film.

Cotillard lip-synced through the songs in her Oscar-winning performance as Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose," and she may have the weakest singing voice among the "Nine" stars. Still, her performance, whether speaking or singing, is a marvelous mix of patience, virtue, melancholy and simmering fury.

The simple, sad stares of a disillusioned woman, conveyed by a gifted actress, prove more powerful than all the ostentation and extravagance that Marshall and his production team can throw up on the screen.

"Nine," a Weinstein Co. release, is rated PG-13 for sexual content and smoking. Running time: 118 minutes. Two stars out of four.

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Director: China should let more movies in - Durango Herald

Posted: 24 Dec 2009 10:17 PM PST

James Cameron says openness will boost filming industry

by Gillian Wong
Associated Press Writer BEIJING - Hollywood director James Cameron urged China to open its doors to more foreign films, arguing it would boost the local cinema industry after the WTO ruled Beijing was illegally restricting movie and other media imports.

In Beijing to promote his latest sci-fi extravaganza, "Avatar," Cameron said Wednesday that China's breakneck economic growth meant it no longer needed measures to protect its film industry.

"China's economy is expanding very, very rapidly. And I think the feeling right now is that perhaps it doesn't need to be protecting itself quite as much," Cameron, the director of blockbusters that include "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and "Titanic," told reporters. "Chinese filmmakers are very strong ... they're highly respected."

The Chinese government protects local films by limiting the number of film imports on a revenue-sharing basis to 20 a year, a quota that effectively limits Hollywood blockbusters to 20 slots annually.

These and other restrictions have been a key complaint by Western countries, who say that China's rapid rise as a trade power has been in part aided by unfair policies that boost sales of Chinese goods abroad while limiting imports into its market.

"I think that by opening the doors in China to other filmmakers, it will raise the entire film industry in China," Cameron said. "It will get people more excited, there will be more seats, more cinemas, more excitement about the cinema-going experience, which will also raise the Chinese filmmakers' ability to play their films."

On Monday, a World Trade Organization panel upheld a ruling in a case brought by the U.S. government that China was obstructing trade by forcing foreign suppliers to distribute movies, music and books through state-owned companies.

China expressed disappointment at the decision but gave no immediate sign whether it could keep trying to defend the controls.

The WTO case focused on complaints by groups representing music labels such as EMI and Sony Music Entertainment, publishers including McGraw Hill and Simon & Schuster and Hollywood studios Warner Bros., Disney, Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox. The groups say the Chinese rules cost them tens of millions of dollars each year in lost business opportunities.

China's box office is booming, but still comparatively small compared to the U.S. market. Government statistics show that revenues surged from 920 million yuan in 2003 to $630 million in 2008 - compared to $9.8 billion in the U.S. last year.

"Avatar" is a special-effects heavy space fantasy starring Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana that combines an inter-species love story with human-alien conflict over natural resources on a distant planet in the 22nd century. The film opens in Chinese cinemas in 2-D and 3-D in January.

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Movie review: Labored 'Squeakquel' offers twice the chipmunks, half ... - Brandon Sun

Posted: 25 Dec 2009 01:02 AM PST

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" offers exactly two big laughs for its kiddo target audience - one involves passing gas, the other a shot to the crotch.

Since there's a fair amount of time between these two bits of comic invention, young and old alike have ample opportunity to mull over the movie's head-scratching decisions, which, on further review, still leave us with more questions than answers.

Namely:

1. Why do the Chipmunks need to go to high school?

Early in "Squeakquel," a rodent-related accident lands Dave (Jason Lee) in a full body cast. (Apparently, Lee had a scheduling conflict or a really good note from home, making him unavailable for duty here.)

Dave puts the rodents in the care of his slacker cousin Toby (Zachary Levi) and instructs that Alvin, Simon and Theodore go to school.

Now we already know that the Chipmunks are smarter than Dave. And at the beginning of "Squeakquel," we see again that they are veritable cash machines capable of rocking the house with ear-bleeding covers of songs old and new.

So do chipmunks really need a diploma? And given their size, wouldn't they be safer with the kindergarten crowd?

Say what you will about the 2007 "Chipmunk" movie, but at least it had a story. Here, they've basically dropped the Chipmunks into "High School Musical" and, God help us, we'd take the warbling of Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens' any day over the sound of processed rodents.

2. If you double the chipmunks, do you double the ... um ... fun?

"Squeakquel" introduces us to the Chipettes, three girl chipmunks, whose personalities and singing aspirations mirror the boys. Christina Applegate, Amy Poehler and Anna Faris voice the Chipettes, but you'd never know it because their factory-rendered, high-pitched voices sound fairly identical, completely wasting the talent behind them.

3. Why didn't David Cross have Jason Lee's escape clause (or sense of dignity)?

Cross' desperate villain, Ian, returns in "Squeakquel," pretty much doing the exact same thing again, down to the wire-cage imprisonment finale.

Ian latches onto the Chipettes as his return to the top, boldly proclaiming that they'll make the world forget about the Chipmunks. OK. Maybe if they were singing porcupines, he'd have a point. But take out the earplugs, Ian, and you won't hear any difference in the novelty acts.

4. Has anyone ever talked to Alvin and the boys about the birds and the bees?

Just asking because Alvin, in particular, seems a tad confused. The Chipettes' arrival understandably gets the blood flowing (cue Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is"), but Alvin also seems just a little too interested in hooking up with high school girls. (Even the lunk-headed jocks know something's up and plot revenge.)

And the ending? Without revealing too much, expect to hear the pitter patter of little rodent feet in (gulp) the "Threequel."

5. Speaking of which, is it too late to start collecting our loose change now so we can send it along to Fox and stave off the inevitable?

Name your price, Mr. Murdoch. We'll form the Facebook group.

"Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG for some mild rude humour. Running time: 89 minutes. One star out of four.

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G - General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 - Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted.

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Movie review: Love is simple-minded in 'It's Complicated,' though ... - Brandon Sun

Posted: 25 Dec 2009 01:38 AM PST

"It's Complicated" is lying from the moment the title appears.

Writer-director Nancy Meyers' latest relationship comedy isn't what the name promises at all. It's simple, almost as simple about grown-up romance and heartache as the average Hollywood teen comedy is about youthful love and sex.

That said, a simple-minded story can benefit enormously with Meryl Streep on screen for almost an entire movie.

Streep follows her delightful turn as Julia Child in "Julie&Julia" and sparkling voice work in "Fantastic Mr. Fox" with a charming performance as a divorced woman in an affair with her remarried ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) and a flirtation with a new man (Steve Martin).

It's got to be hard, hard work to bring authenticity to a character as potentially artificial and shallow as Streep's Jane Adler. Streep makes everything look effortless and real these days, singing, dancing single mom in "Mamma Mia!" over the summer, stern, inflexible nun in "Doubt" come winter.

She probably could have played one of the 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall), blue-skinned aliens in James Cameron's "Avatar" in curlers and a housedress and made it seem as genuine without any of the elaborate digital enhancements used to top off that film's stars.

Too bad Streep has to put on this nice show to such superficial effect in "It's Complicated," and for that matter, too bad for Baldwin, Martin and the rest of an earnest supporting cast led by John Krasinski.

Meyers serves up fluff as light as the pastries Jane bakes for a living, a story to make divorced people wish their broken marriages and the ugly aftermath could be as fun and frolicsome as this.

Ten years after Jake (Baldwin) left her, Jane has reached an uneasy peace with her ex, who's now married to a younger woman (Lake Bell).

With three grown children (Caitlin Fitzgerald, Zoe Kazan and Hunter Parrish) and a rock-steady future son-in-law (Krasinski), Jane has put her life back together comfortably, serenely. She runs a successful bakery and restaurant in California and has a gorgeous house that she's about to turn into a palace with additions and modifications.

Then bam! Jane and Jake find themselves alone over dinner and many drinks at a hotel in New York City, where they and the rest of family have gathered for their son's college graduation.

Sparks are rekindled, a rash one-nighter leads to an affair, and Jane finds herself wooed by Jake, who's dissatisfied with the new wife and wants the old one back.

And wouldn't you know it? This happens just as Jane and her divorced and lonely architect Adam (Martin) start taking an interest in each other.

Even with Streep and Baldwin's drunken-debauchery scene, the first half of the movie is deadly dull, lingering scenes of uninteresting chatter, lame coincidental meetings between Jane and Jake, and annoying girl-talk sessions among Jane and her pals (Mary Kay Place, Rita Wilson and Alexandra Wentworth).

"It's Complicated" stutter-steps to life now and then, particularly during Jane and Adam's date on a good marijuana buzz.

Mostly, though, Meyers lets her stars mince about to varying effect. In Streep's case, that may be enough on its own to justify the price of a ticket. In Martin's case, it's not so bad seeing him play the nice, normal, low-key guy for a change.

In Baldwin's case, it's a tossup. Sometimes he's funny as he jealously stalks Jane, other times he mugs along in a toothless imitation of the overbearing self-absorption he does so well on "30 Rock."

The big laughs Meyers swings for never pay off the way she wants, and the three-way romance totters to an uninteresting conclusion that lacks anything approaching the heart of how her love triangle wrapped up in "Something's Gotta Give."

The story's not entirely predictable. Yet it's anything but complicated.

"It's Complicated," a Universal Pictures release, is rated R for some drug content and sexuality. Running time: 118 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G - General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG - Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 - Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R - Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 - No one under 17 admitted.

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