Category: Movies (Page 172 of 191)

The Light from the TV Shows: A Chat with Eric Ladin (“The Killing”)

April 4, 2012 / Will Harris

If you’ve been trying to figure out why Eric Ladin, who plays Jamie Wright on AMC’s “The Killing,” looks familiar to you but can’t quite pin down why, maybe this will help: in addition to being one of the cast members of HBO’s critically acclaimed miniseries “Generation Kill,” he’s also turned up in a few episodes of “Mad Men,” playing Betty Draper’s brother. Now, however, he’s back to playing Darren Richmond’s campaign manager on “The Killing,” which – as you may already be aware – returned to AMC for its second season on Sunday night. Unfortunately, the ratings weren’t necessarily what you’d call stellar, but Ladin’s enthusiasm about what viewers can expect during the course of the series’ sophomore year may prove infectious.

Bullz-Eye: So are you psyched that “The Killing” is finally back?

Eric Ladin: I am. It’s about time! I think everybody is.

BE: Of course, you realize that a lot of people are really just desperate at this point to find out definitively who killed Rosie Larson.

EL: I do realize that, yeah. [Laughs.] I’ve been reminded of that quite a lot over the last nine months.

BE: Were you shocked at the outcry about the lack of resolution in the season finale?

EL: I was, a little bit. I knew that there would definitely be some people that were upset, but I didn’t foresee the hatred and…just the pure venom that was spat towards our writers. [Laughs.] Yeah, I was a little shocked by that.

BE: At least there was a small but somewhat vocal group that was reminded people that we didn’t find out who killed Laura Palmer until the second season of “Twin Peaks.”

EL: That’s correct. And if you ask David Lynch, he’ll probably tell you that the biggest mistake he made was telling people who killed her at all. I think he said – this was in an interview I read – that if he was able to do it again, he’d never tell who the killer was. So, yeah, I don’t believe that there was anywhere that said that you were guaranteed to find the killer in Season 1, but by the same token, I think that AMC’s PR probably could’ve handled it a speck differently. With that said, as a TV viewer, I would not have expected to find the killer in Season 1. So I guess there’s that.

Entertainment, Interviews, Movies, News, Television

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Blu Tuesday: Broken Noses and Battle-Bound Horses

April 3, 2012 / Jason Zingale

It’s been two weeks since my last column, and although I welcomed the opportunity to catch up on some other work instead, believe me when I say that this isn’t going to become a habit. In fact, the main reason that I failed to write a column last week was because the studios didn’t send out any Blu-rays in time for review. This week’s line-up didn’t exactly make it very easy to get back on track, as it marks the start of what looks to be a slow and lackluster April, but there are still a few noteworthy releases to discuss.

“Chinatown”

It’s pretty hard to believe that Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” almost went home empty-handed at the 1975 Academy Awards (it ended up winning Best Original Screenplay), because it’s not only one of the best film noirs ever made, but it’s an American classic. Then again, when you take into account that it was going up against “The Godfather: Part II” in almost every category, it doesn’t sound so blasphemous, even if both movies lost major awards to other competition. Perhaps even stranger than its lack of Oscar love, however, is how long it took for “Chinatown” to finally be released on Blu-ray. The movie has hardly aged at all, and it’s only that much more evident while watching the new high-def transfer, which looks absolutely gorgeous. Though it’s hard to discuss the movie without sounding like a broken record, “Chinatown” remains one of Polanski’s finest films and features arguably the best performance of Jack Nicholson’s impressive career. There’s not much more to say. When you’re right, you’re right. And I’m right.

Blu-ray Highlight: Paramount hasn’t included any new bonus material on the Blu-ray release, but when the extras from the previous DVDs are already this good, there’s no need. Though it’s hard to choose just one, the retrospective featurette “Chinatown: An Appreciation” is an engrossing discussion about the movie by industry vets like Steven Soderbergh, Kimberly Pierce, Roger Deakins and James Newton Howard on everything from the script, to Polanski’s shooting method, to its memorable score and much more.

“War Horse”

Based on the children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo and the Tony Award-winning play of the same name, “War Horse” is like a movie from another era – an old-fashioned, Golden Age-style epic in the vein of “Gone with the Wind.” That could be the reason why it didn’t resonate with audiences as much as expected, but it likely has more to do with the fact that, despite having the makings of a real tearjerker, the movie lacks emotional punch. Though the various segments depicting Joey’s journey through war-torn Europe are enjoyable (particularly one involving enemy soldiers who must work together to free the horse from an entanglement of barbed wire), the core relationship between Joey and farmhand Albert is handled so poorly that you never really care about their fates. The movie will probably age a lot better than many of last year’s other Best Picture nominees, but I still fear that “War Horse” was made about 50 years too late.

Blu-ray Highlight: I didn’t receive a review copy in time, but after doing some digging around online, it sounds like the Blu-ray release has a number of good extras, including an hour-long making-of featurette that spans from pre-production to the wrap party.

Entertainment, Movies

Blu Tuesday Chinatown new Blu-rays War Horse

A chat with Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel and director Michael Dowse of “Goon”

March 26, 2012 / Bob Westal

Aptly enough for a sports comedy, our interviewees today are a ragtag collection of lovable underdogs. Unavoidably geeky, Jay Baruchel’s starring roles in “She’s Out of My League,” “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” and “How to Train Your Dragon” have left him short of the A-list; he’s still perhaps best known as the lead alum of Judd Apatow’s beloved, quickly cancelled 2001 sitcom, “Undeclared.” Leading man Seann William Scott has worked in numerous films in a pretty wide variety of genres, yet to almost everyone he’s still obnoxious Steve Stifler of the “American Pie” series; he’ll be reprising the character for a fourth go-round in the upcoming “American Reunion.” Director Michael Dowse has some indie successes on his CV, but his last attempt to break into the mainstream, “Take Me Home Tonight,” was an unmitigated commercial disaster and, for the most part, a critical flop. (We, however, liked it a lot; so much for the Bullz-Eye bump.)

Already available on VOD, “Goon” is one underdog movie we’re definitely rooting for. Loosely inspired by minor league hockey star Doug Smith’s memoir and co-written by Canadian hockey fan Baruchel and veteran Apatow-scribe Evan Goldberg, the film focuses on Doug Glatt (Scott), a goodhearted bouncer of no great intellect who finds himself promoted to full-time hockey thug.

Featuring an outstanding supporting cast comprised of Baruchel, Liev Schreiber, Eugene Levy, Kim Coates (“Sons of Anarchy“) and Alison Pill as the dysfunctional love of Doug Glatt’s life, “Goon” doesn’t gloss over the ugliness of sports violence even as it humorously celebrates it. For that, it took some punches from the traditionally violence-averse British press on its earlier UK release. The Yankee press, however, has been kinder, and there may be some hope of a wide release if enough of you hit the initial U.S. screenings starting this Friday.

Low-key Minnesota native Seann William Scott, intense Montrealite Jay Baruchel, and matter-of-fact Canadian filmmaker Michael Dowse were still high on the afterglow of a successful industry screening the night before when a bunch of us journos met with the trio at the Beverly Hilton. Some amusing and informative highlights are below.

Jay Baruchel on creating Doug Glatt, the not-so-bright but incredibly decent hero of “Goon.”

My dad used to have this expression, which was “Don’t complicate a ham sandwich.” In my experience, a lot of the hardest guys I know are also the kindest and most mild-mannered and gentlest. This in no way means that [their kindness] should be mistaken for weakness. He’s a man who knows what he wants, or finds out what he wants and where he’s supposed to be. He’s fulfilled.

Seann William Scott on playing Doug Glatt.

He’s written to be such a lovable guy and so good to his core. It was written with that specificity and I consider myself to be a good guy, so it’s not hard for me to play that… I was always aware of wanting to make sure there were different colors. Anything that I could bring, but it was already written with that kind of code of honor that he has. He’s self aware of the kind of guy he is and where he is in the world, but it is kind of black and white.

Entertainment, Interviews, Movies

Alison Pill American Pie American Reunion Bronson Chopper Doug Glatt Doug Smith Eric Bana Eugene Levy Evan Goldberg Goon Goon interviews How to Train Your Dragon Jay Baruchel Jay Baruchel interview Judd Apatow Kim Coates Les Chiefs Liev Schreiber Michael Dowse Michael Dowse interview SCTV Seann William Scott Seann William Scott interview She's Out of My League Slap Shot Steve Stifler Take Me Home Tonight The Sorcerer's Apprentice Tom Hardy Undeclared

Coming Soon: A Moviegoer’s Guide to April

March 25, 2012 / Jason Zingale

With the summer movie season just around the corner, Hollywood is gearing up for what promises to be its most exciting slate of films in a long time by heading into the blockbuster-filled madness of May on a high note. This month has something for just about everyone, including several promising comedies, an innovative horror film with “Scream”-sized potential, and a new movie from action guru Luc Besson. It may not compare to what this summer has to offer, but it’s better than the doldrums of winter.

“AMERICAN REUNION”

Who: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Seann William Scott and Eugene Levy
What: The gang is reunited in East Great Falls, Michigan for their high school reunion.
When: April 6th
Why: I’ve been a fan of the “American Pie” series (not including those terrible direct-to-DVD spinoffs, of course) since the original film was released back in 1999. It’s a purely generational thing; when the characters are having the same major life experiences as most people your age, it makes them easy to relate to. The movies also happen to be pretty entertaining in a guilty pleasure kind of way, and it’ll be great to see the whole cast reunited for the first time since they all went their separate ways to become big movie stars. Though that didn’t exactly work out for any of them (Alyson Hannigan and Seann William Scott are arguably the most successful of the bunch), as long as their chemistry is still intact, “American Reunion” should be a fun trip down memory lane.

“COMIC-CON: EPISODE IV – A FAN’S HOPE”

Who: Chuck Rozanski, Holly Conrad, Eric Henson, Anthony Calderon and Skip Harvey
What: A behind-the-scenes look at the fans who gather by the thousands each year in San Diego, California to attend Comic-Con.
When: April 6th
Why: It’s actually quite surprising that no one has thought to make a documentary about Comic-Con until now, because although it’s not really a hard-hitting subject matter, it already has a built-in audience that continues to grow every year. Morgan Spurlock isn’t the first person you’d think of to direct a documentary about the popular geek Mecca, but he’s wisely chosen to stay out of the spotlight this time around, instead opting to focus on the lives of five attendees (including a toy collector, an aspiring artist and a costume designer) who have traveled to the annual convention for various reasons. And with guys like Stan Lee, Joss Whedon and Kevin Smith all involved in some form, Spurlock’s latest doc has the makings to be the perfect love letter to comic book geeks everywhere.

“THE CABIN IN THE WOODS”

Who: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford
What: Five friends head to a remote cabin in the woods for the weekend where they get more than they bargained for.
When: April 13th
Why: I’ve had the good fortune to see Drew Goddard’s “The Cabin in the Woods” twice now, and it’s every bit as original and entertaining as you’d expect for a movie co-written by Joss Whedon. This is one of those films that you need to go into knowing as little as possible, so while the trailer has been provided below, I’d recommend that you don’t watch it in order to avoid spoiling anything. It may look like just your average slasher flick on paper, but the movie has a few tricks up its sleeves. Fueled by a great script that not only defies most horror conventions, but does so with tongue firmly planted in cheek, “The Cabin in the Woods” is either going to be the movie that everyone can’t stop talking about, or that no one goes to see. Do your part and make sure it’s the former.

Entertainment, Movies

American Reunion April movies Comic-Con: Episode IV Coming Soon Lockout Safe The Cabin in the Woods The Five-Year Engagement The Pirates! Band of Misfits The Raven The Three Stooges

2012 SXSW Film Festival Recap

March 22, 2012 / Jason Zingale

If you’ve never been down to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest (whether it’s for the music and film festivals or the interactive conference), it’s something that you need to experience at least once, because the city exudes a vibrant and welcoming energy that makes it very hard not to have a good time. This year marked my third consecutive trip to the SXSW film festival, and though my virgin voyage was a bit of a baptism by fire, I was practically oozing the confidence of a grizzled veteran this time around. I knew exactly what to pack, how to plan and what to expect when I got there.

Entertainment, Movies, On Location

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