plus 3, Movie Review: 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' - Delaware County Daily Times

Movie Review: 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' - Delaware County Daily Times
Hank Azaria to Voice Gargamel in "The Smurfs" Movie - WorstPreviews.com
Fans maul Rob P at movie premiere - Tonight South Africa
Eat, Pray, Love Movie Trailer - Slashfilm.com

Movie Review: 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' - Delaware County Daily Times

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 09:52 PM PDT

By Glenn Whipp, Associated Press

In this film publicity image released by 20th Century Fox, Robert Capron, right, explores the wonders of his belly button, as classmates Zachary Gordon, center, and Karan Brar, left, look on during a scene from "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Rob McEwan)

NEW YORK (AP) --- The movie version of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" manages to put flesh and bone on the stick figures in Jeff Kinney's wildly successful cartoon novel without altering the book's mildly subversive comic tone.

That fidelity plays mostly for the good, though the book's moron-plagued, middle-school protagonist — a sixth-grade boy, who, let's be honest, comes off as kind of self-absorbed, lazy and petty — loses some of his appeal when viewed under the harsh light of the camera.

What's funny on the page is less sympathetic on the screen, meaning the wimpy kid who's going to win the hearts and minds of most moviegoers is not the title character, but his best buddy, the I-gotta-be-me super-nerd Rowley.

Unlike Rowley, Greg (Zachary Gordon) is obsessed with being one of the cool kids as he enters the "glorified holding pen" known as middle school. Greg covets immediate status among his peers, but doesn't want to put in any actual work to win that recognition.

So he tries out various activities, which he sees as "rackets," in an effort to move up the popularity scale at his school. Best friend Rowley (Robert Capron), meanwhile, shows up on the first day of class wearing a serape and sporting a bowl haircut.

Then, after school, Rowley shouts across the courtyard, "Hey, Greg! Wanna play?", breaching middle school etiquette by failing to use the proper, codified language (it's "hang out," not "play") and for displaying undue enthusiasm.

Greg begins to believe that he's either going to have to remake Rowley or lose him as a friend altogether. What Greg doesn't understand is that Rowley, with his passion for self-expression, has an authenticity that will eventually win the kind of acceptance Greg so desperately desires.

Which brings us to the movie's main problem: The Wimpy Kid is a wet blanket. True, that's always been the conceit behind Kinney's series, currently at four books and counting. Being 12 is an awkward, imperfect, in-between time. Few people remember middle school fondly.

But in transferring the clean, precise humor of Kinney's illustrations and prose to the big-screen, the material loses just a bit of its charm. All the highlights from the first book have been kept — the moldy mysterious cheese lying on the basketball court (you don't want The Cheese Touch!), the Zoo-Wee Mama comic creation, the Halloween night trick-or-treating misadventures — and they're presented in the same episodic structure.

Director Thor Freudenthal and two teams of screenwriters have also shoehorned in a girl, a too-cool-for-school seventh-grader named Angie (Chloe Grace Moretz), attempting, one supposes, to broaden the material's appeal. The effect is negligible.

"Wimpy Kid" remains very much a story about boys taking their first tentative steps toward becoming men. It's a journey fraught with embarrassment and small-mindedness. If you're lucky, the movie suggests, you might have a friend like Rowley to help you get by.

"Diary of a Wimpy Kid," a 20th Century Fox release, is rated PG for some rude humor and language. Running time: 91 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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Hank Azaria to Voice Gargamel in "The Smurfs" Movie - WorstPreviews.com

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 04:54 PM PDT

Entertainment Weekly has learned that Hank Azaria ("The Simpsons," Night at the Museum) has joined the cast of the upcoming live-action/CG "The Smurfs" movie. He will voice Gargamel, the evil sorcerer and arch-nemesis of the Smurfs.

In addition, EW has also learned that "Glee" star Emma Pillsbury has also been cast as the pregnant wife of Neil Patrick Harris' live-action character.

The rest of the voice cast includes Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf, Katy Perry as Smurfette and Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf. It also rumored that Quentin Tarantino will voice Brainy Smurf.

Raja Gosnell (Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Scooby-Doo) is directing the new 3D movie which is set to go in front of the cameras in April and scheduled to hit theaters on July 29th, 2011.

Click here to read more about "The Smurfs."

Source: EW

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Fans maul Rob P at movie premiere - Tonight South Africa

Posted: 18 Mar 2010 10:49 PM PDT

March 18, 2010

Robert Pattinson sent teenage girls into pandemonium at the UK premiere of his latest movie in London on Wednesday night.

The British actor was greeted by thousands of screaming fans in Leicester Square as he stepped out on the red carpet to promote Remember Me, in which he plays a tormented man who falls in love after suffering a family tragedy.

The heartthrob spent over an hour chatting to fans and signing autographs with his co-star and love interest in the movie, Emilie de Ravin, and admitted he still can't believe how popular he has become since being catapulted to fame by his role as vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies.

He told BANG Showbiz: "I'm feeling really, really good, I'm so happy to be here tonight and to meet everyone... I never go to places where crowds congregate, so it's always a novelty. It's a completely separate aspect of my life. It's nice."

Robert, 23, also revealed his female admirers followed him everywhere while he was shooting Remember Me and he had to rely on the support of the cast to stop him from being mobbed everyday.

He said: "Everyone was so supportive on set. I got everyone helping me out everyday. Fans were gathering on the street and the crew would have to get really close together and form a circle around me, so we were really close. I don't know, I guess I haven't worked with that kind of unity before."

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Eat, Pray, Love Movie Trailer - Slashfilm.com

Posted: 16 Mar 2010 04:54 PM PDT

Eat Pray Love
Sony has released the first movie trailer for Ryan Murphy's adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Julia Roberts plays "a happily married woman realizes her life needs to go in a different direction, and after a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey." Watch the trailer now, embedded after the jump.