plus 4, Movie review: 'Lovely Bones’ goes in too many directions - La Crosse Tribune |
- Movie review: 'Lovely Bones’ goes in too many directions - La Crosse Tribune
- Bids due Friday that could free MGM from debt - Times Union
- Highlights of Hollywood's 2010 movie lineup - The Sun News
- Pope John Paul II gunman looks for movie, book deals - Zee News
- Movie review: 'The Lovely Bones' - LoHud.com
| Movie review: 'Lovely Bones’ goes in too many directions - La Crosse Tribune Posted: 14 Jan 2010 10:28 PM PST Narrated by a murdered 13-year-old girl looking down upon her family from heaven, Alice Sebold's 2002 novel "The Lovely Bones" managed an impressive feat: It held the divine and the earthly in delicate balance. But in his badly misjudged, terminally uninvolving film version, director Peter Jackson ("The Lord of the Rings") conjures up two completely distinct universes — a lush, computer-generated heaven, and a somber, gritty, 1970s-era Philadelphia — and never do the twain meet. The sense of heaven flowing into earth, so essential to the success of Sebold's book, has been lost. The idea of the dead carrying on alongside the living barely penetrates — in Jackson's translation, all we get is a more technologically advanced riff on Patrick Swayze in "Ghost," an opaque spirit that none of the living figures can actually see. After a while we feel as if we're watching two (or three, or maybe four) unrelated movies, none of them terribly interesting. Saoirse Ronan plays Susie Salmon, a happy, bright teenager who falls into the clutches of a creepy-looking predator (Stanley Tucci) living across the street. Her murder leaves her family reeling. Her father (Mark Wahlberg) becomes obsessed with finding the killer despite the lack of any concrete evidence. Her mother (Rachel Weisz) emotionally disconnects from the family and takes off to live on a commune. Her grandmother (Susan Sarandon) moves in to help with chores and makes boozy wisecracks, and, well, it's not entirely clear what she's supposed to be doing here. As a police procedural, though, there's no drama here: We already know whodunit. As a family drama, there's nothing to hang onto — all the characters seem to be spinning in their own orbits. This movie is a collection of scenes in search of a central narrative. The sole reason to see "The Lovely Bones" is perverse curiosity: There's never been a movie in which so many Oscar-nominated actors are so completely cast adrift. Only Ronan hints at something emotionally coherent — but the wall-to-wall digital effects in the heaven scenes all but obliterate the performance's momentum. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Bids due Friday that could free MGM from debt - Times Union Posted: 14 Jan 2010 09:38 PM PST
LOS ANGELES -- Time Warner Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. are among the likely bidders to rescue the famed yet perennially troubled Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., the studio whose lion roars before every movie. The eventual winner would gain the right to make new James Bond movies, win half of the rights to the next two "Lord of the Rings" movies based on "The Hobbit" and snatch the studio from a possible bankruptcy filing. Nonbinding bids are due Friday. A sale would be another win for Stephen Cooper, a restructuring expert who joined the company in August after stints reorganizing Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. and Enron Corp. It would also mark the latest change in ownership for a company that has been bought and sold countless times since it was founded in 1924. It could also refocus the studio known for such classics as "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" on making movies again. Last year, when MGM cut a deal to stop making interest payments as its financial troubles loomed, it made just one movie, a remake of the 1980 musical "Fame" that did middling business in theaters. The latest ownership change took place in 2005, when a consortium of private equity groups plus Sony Corp. and Comcast Corp. bought MGM for $5 billion from a group including billionaire Kirk Kerkorian -- his third sale of the studio. At the time, the private equity buyers, including Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group, were flush with cash and had easy access to credit, allowing investors to heavily borrow to complete the purchase. Comcast sought movies for its cable channels. Sony wanted to make new James Bond and Pink Panther movies and to create another supporter for its Blu-ray high-definition video format. Although MGM got plenty of licensing fees and revenue from a library that includes 4,000 movie and TV titles, including such classics as "West Side Story" and "Rocky," the studio failed to create a major new hit. Once credit markets froze and DVD sales slowed, producing new movies and making interest payments became more difficult. With less money coming in for increasingly stale titles, the value of its library took a dive. "The library is a little fished out," said James Dix, an equity analyst at Wedbush Morgan. "As they get older, they're not getting more valuable." Now, about 140 creditors, led by JP Morgan Chase, stand to forfeit much of the $4 billion they lent to buy the studio, even after they agreed to forgo interest payments since October while a deal is worked out. Representatives of JP Morgan Chase didn't return messages seeking comment. About a dozen companies -- studio owners and investment banks -- have signed nondisclosure agreements for a closer look at MGM's finances as they weighed a possible bid. They include Lions Gate, "Twilight" franchise owner Summit Entertainment and Warner Bros. parent Time Warner Inc. Twentieth Century Fox owner News Corp. has expressed interest and this week was working with MGM on a different nondisclosure agreement that it hoped would be less restrictive. Fox already distributes MGM movies on home video.
Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Highlights of Hollywood's 2010 movie lineup - The Sun News Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:55 PM PST The Back-Up Plan | A woman (Jennifer Lopez) meets the right guy - just after she gets pregnant through artificial insemination. The Bounty Hunter | Jennifer Aniston is a bail-jumping reporter pursued by her bounty-hunter ex-hubby (Gerard Butler). Clash of the Titans | Ancient Greek hero Perseus (Sam Worthington) takes on Hades, lord of the underworld. With Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes. Cop Out | A stolen baseball card sets two detectives (Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan) on the path of a memorabilia-obsessed mobster. Creation | Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) copes with grief over a lost daughter as he struggles with his theory of evolution. With Jennifer Connelly. Date Night | A weekly night out turns into a wild ride for a suburban couple (Steve Carell and Tina Fey) whose romance has become routine. Dear John | A soldier (Channing Tatum) and a woman (Amanda Seyfried) carry out a seven-year romance from a distance while he's on assignment. Death at a Funeral | Crazy things happen at a family patriarch's funeral. With Chris Rock, Martin Lawrence, Danny Glover. Edge of Darkness | Mel Gibson is a homicide cop whose daughter's murder takes him into a dark world of corporate and government conspiracy. Extraordinary Measures | A father (Brendan Fraser) teams with a maverick doctor (Harrison Ford) to find a cure for his kids' fatal illness. With Keri Russell. From Paris with Love | A trigger-happy spy (John Travolta) and his inexperienced partner (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) try to crack a crime gang. Greenberg | A man (Ben Stiller) searching for meaning finds potential romance while house-sitting for his brother. Green Zone | Matt Damon goes searching for weapons of mass destruction in a thriller set in Iraq as the war there heats up in 2003. How to Train Your Dragon | The world of the Vikings gets a makeover in this animated story of a misfit teen and his dragon. I Love You Phillip Morris | A con man (Jim Carrey) finds his soul mate (Ewan McGregor) while doing prison time. The Last Song | Miley Cyrus is a teen whose estranged father (Greg Kinnear) tries to reconnect with her through music. The Losers | A Special Forces team seeks revenge after its members are betrayed and presumed dead on a mission. With Zoe Saldana, Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Macgruber | The "Saturday Night Live" bit about a hapless special-ops man (Will Forte) gets big-screen treatment. With Val Kilmer, Ryan Phillippe, Kristen Wiig. A Nightmare on Elm Street | Freddy Krueger (Jackie Earle Haley) is back to terrorize people in their dreams in an update of the 1980s slasher franchise. Remember Me | "Twilight" star Robert Pattinson and "Lost" co-star Emilie de Ravin cope with romance amid adversity. With Pierce Brosnan. Repo Men | In a future where mechanical organs are repossessed for lack of payment, a former repo man (Jude Law) becomes the prey of his old partner (Forest Whitaker). Saint John of Las Vegas | A compulsive gambler (Steve Buscemi) fights temptation while trying to change his life. With Sarah Silverman. Season of the Witch | A medieval knight (Nicolas Cage) is assigned to escort a peasant girl the church suspects of bringing on the Black Plague by witchcraft. She's Out of My League | An average guy (Jay Baruchel) scores big when a super-babe inexplicably falls for him. Shutter Island | Leonardo DiCaprio reunites with director Martin Scorsese in a tale set at a hospital for the criminally insane. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married Too? | Filmmaker Perry co-stars with Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba and other cast mates for this relationship sequel. Valentine's Day | A superstar cast copes with the trials of love. With Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher. Wall Street 2 | Oliver Stone and Michael Douglas bring corporate raider Gordon Gekko out of mothballs in a tale of today's financial fiasco. With Shia LaBeouf. When in Rome | Passions are magically aroused when a tourist retrieves coins tossed in a fountain of love. With Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Danny DeVito. The Wolfman | Benicio Del Toro is a man who finds the curse of the werewolf haunting his family when he returns to his ancestral home. Summer season The A-Team | The TV action series goes big-screen as former Special Forces troops set out to clear their names. With Liam Neeson, Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper. Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore | Cats and dogs unite to take on a nutty feline bent on global domination. With Christina Applegate. Despicable Me | Steve Carell leads the voice cast in an animated tale of a villain whose plot to steal the moon is sidelined by three orphan girls. Dinner for Schmucks | A young exec (Paul Rudd) finds the perfect buffoon (Steve Carell) for his boss' monthly "dinner for idiots." Eat, Pray, Love | Julia Roberts plays a divorced woman on a worldwide journey to find meaning in her life. With James Franco, Javier Bardem. The Expendables | Sylvester Stallone directs and stars in a thriller about mercenaries betrayed on a mission. With Jet Li, Jason Statham. Get Him to the Greek | A record company intern (Jonah Hill) has to escort an unruly rock legend to the first concert of his comeback tour. Grown Ups | Childhood pals (Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, Rob Schneider and David Spade) reunite as adults. With Salma Hayek, Maria Bello. Iron Man 2 | Robert Downey Jr. slips back into his metal suit to face new foes. With Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke. Jonah Hex | A disfigured bounty hunter (Josh Brolin) battles a villain aiming to unleash hell on Earth. With Megan Fox, John Malkovich. The Karate Kid | Jackie Chan imparts kung fu wisdom to a Detroit youth (Jaden Smith) uprooted by his family's move to China in an update of the 1980s hit. Killers | An ex-assassin (Ashton Kutcher) and his wife (Katherine Heigl) go on the run after he's targeted for a hit in this action comedy. Knight and Day | Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are a fugitive couple on a jet-setting adventure around the globe. The Last Airbender | M. Night Shyamalan adapts the animated TV show about a young savior with the power to end warfare among four nations with mystical powers. Letters to Juliet | An old letter to the doomed heroine of "Romeo and Juliet" sparks romance for two women (Amanda Seyfried, Vanessa Redgrave). The Lottery Ticket | A ghetto dweller (Bow Wow) fends off greedy neighbors after he wins $370 million in the lottery. With Ice Cube. Marmaduke | Owen Wilson provides the voice of the Great Dane in a family comedy based on the canine comic strip. Meet the Parents 3 | Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro find new ways to test their in-law relationship in the "Meet the Fockers" follow up. Predators | Hardcore human killers become prey for alien hunters in a new take on the sci-fi franchise. With Adrien Brody, Topher Grace. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time | The video-game adaptation stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a fugitive prince who finds a dagger of enormous power. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Pope John Paul II gunman looks for movie, book deals - Zee News Posted: 14 Jan 2010 11:04 PM PST
Once free, Agca is apparently hoping to land lucrative book deals and earn big sums for interviews. He has reportedly even written to Dan Brown, author of the best-selling 'Da Vinci Code' about his idea for a book titled 'The Vatican Code'. The Pope later forgave Agca, who is now 52, in a 1983 visit to his Italian prison cell. But is the rest of the world ready for the Pontiff's attacker to cash in on his crime? "You can see it from two sides. From the point of view of the police, it is a criminal who wants to earn money with his book," says Agca's Istanbul lawyer, Haci Ali Ozhan.
The assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II took place May 13, 1981, as the Polish-born pontiff was riding through St Peter's Square in an open vehicle. Several shots rang out, four hitting the pontiff, who was rushed to the hospital. It took the pope nearly a month to recover. Arrested at the scene, Agca spent 19 years in Italian prison. In 2000, he was pardoned and extradited to Turkey, where he was arrested and jailed again, this time for the 1979 murder of Abdi Ipekci, a well-known Turkish journalist. Almost 30 years later, mystery and conspiracy theories still surround the shooting. Was Agca, a former member of an ultra-nationalist Turkish group called the Grey Wolves, acting alone or was he part of a conspiracy? Was Agca even part of a KGB or Bulgarian secret service plot to silence the fiercely anti-communist pope? Although three Bulgarians were arrested along with Agca, they were acquitted after he proclaimed himself Jesus Christ at their trial, making his evidence unreliable.
In a recent handwritten letter sent from jail to The Sunday Times, Agca declared himself "sane and strong both physically and psychologically". On the other hand, his letter also left some question marks about how sane Agca might actually be. "My plan is to proclaim the end of the world and to write the PERFECT GOSPEL (sic)," he wrote. "I will proclaim the Perfect Christianity that Vatican (sic) has never understood." IANS
''Lack of sincere approach in protection works by Bihar's Water Resources Department (WRD) led to the breach in the eastern afflux bund on Kosi at Kusaha in Nepal in 2008,'' the PAG said in its reports submitted to the WRD here in September, sources in PAG said on Friday. The WRD did not accept the proposals of head works division and the Eastern Kosi Embankment division of Birpur for protection works on vulnerable sites of the bund that includes the breached point before the 2008 flood, the report of the PAG, which is an office under the Comptroller and Auditor General, said.
The PAG report said the erosion of spurs at 12.10 km and 12.90 km started from August 5, 2008 and the breach took place on August 18, 2008, but it was evident from wireless reports of both divisions of that period that no steps were taken to protect the embankment then. The flood protection works were mainly centered on only spurs and the embankment remained untouched by divisions and experts, the PAG report said. ''Since an important project existed in Nepal, it was desirable for the local administration as well as WRD to hold meetings from time to time on security and smooth execution of protection measures in Kosi project areas,'' it said.
The WRD officials questioned the authority of PAG to go into the issue as the Justcie Balia Commission is examining the matter and the office of the AG has no authority to go into it. ''It is a well settled principle of law that while any matter is under the ambit of judicial process, parallel process cannot be undertaken,'' the WRD said. Ajay V Nayak, WRD principal secretary, refused to comment saying the matter was being probed by a commission and ''We are anxiously awaiting its report.'' PTI Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Movie review: 'The Lovely Bones' - LoHud.com Posted: 14 Jan 2010 11:04 PM PST When a movie is made from a best-selling novel, expectations often are high — as are fears that it won't measure up to what millions are anticipating. It's understandable, of course, and useless. A movie must stand on its own, as an individual work. In that regard, "The Lovely Bones" is a disappointment. (Full disclosure: I haven't read the book, so my impressions are untainted by comparisons.) Peter Jackson's adaptation of the well-loved novel by Alice Sebold boasts good performances, by Saoirse Ronan as Susie Salmon, the young murder victim who narrates the tale, and Stanley Tucci as George Harvey, her killer. This is not a spoiler; we know all of this information almost from the start. This isn't a murder mystery because no mystery is involved, at least from the audience's point of view. Jackson's scattershot direction ultimately falls short. As gifted a director as exists when it comes to using computer-generated effects — perhaps you've heard of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy — Jackson here can't quite square the technology with the emotion. The story takes place in the '70s, an era Jackson re-creates to perfection. Susie is a high-school student, a normal kid living with her parents, Jack and Abigail (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz), and younger sister, Lindsey (Rose McIver). One day, she doesn't come home from school. We know why. But her parents do not, despite the best efforts of the police (Michael Imperioli plays a detective), and their loss, coupled with the uncertainty, eats away at them. That leads to a visit from Abigail's booze-soaked mother, played by a wildly overacting Susan Sarandon, and to separation. Some of the Earth-bound scenes are effective, including an exchange between Imperioli's detective and George. Tucci is terrific, creepy as can be, but in subtle ways, as befits the vile nature of his character. Ronan is also very good. "The Lovely Bones" overall is a competently made movie — in Jackson's hands it could hardly be anything but — yet rarely a moving one. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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