Tuesday, February 5

• DVD Tuesday

  Diversity reigns this DVD Tuesday, with a wide variety of selections debuting on home video, including chick-lit themed chick-flick The Jane Austen Book Club, Jodie Foster's revenge fantasy The Brave One, Brad Pitt's critically-acclaimed western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, the trippy Beatles-inspired musical Across the Universe, the Pamela Anderson/Denise Richards buddy comedy Blonde and Blonder and Julie Delpy's romantic dramedy 2 Days in Paris.

  Our pick for this week is Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which Heather positively adored.

  
  

  Posted 02/05/2008 by Thomas

  The Jane Austen Book Club | The Brave One | Across the Universe | The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Blonde and Blonder

Sunday, October 14

• Weekend Box Office Wrap Up

  Tyler Perry's endless hot streak continued this weekend as his latest, Why Did I Get Married?, took the top spot at the box office with $21.5 million. The Game Plan beat out the opening of star-studded We Own the Night and the expansion of Michael Clayton with $11.5 million. The massively successful Game Plan has taken in a $59.4 million toll to date.  

  Michael Clayton, which is already receiving strong awards buzz for star George Clooney, expanded its release this weekend to the tune of $11.01 million for third place and We Own the Night came in fourth with $11 million.

  This weekend's other highly buzzed about open, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, came in sixth with $6.1 million in box office receipts.

  
  
  

  Why Did I Get Married? Trailer

  Tyler Perry's big screen adaptation of his stage play.
  

  Weekend Box Office Numbers

  Tyler Perry Owned the NIght and Day

  Posted 10/14/2007 by reelz

  Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Why Did I Get Married? | The Game Plan | Michael Clayton | We Own the Night

Friday, October 12

• By the Numbers: Reviews of this Weekend's New Releases

  It's a crowded weekend at the Cineplex for new movies, with four major releases, We Own the Night, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? and The Final Season, opening. Oscar candidate Michael Clayton also expands nationwide.

  A rundown of our reviews of this weekend's new releases:  

  We Own the Night  
  "A solid, angst-ridden thriller with strong performances from Phoenix, Wahlberg and Duvall." [Full Review] 

   

  Elizabeth: The Golden Age 
  "Takes dull pages of a history book and turns them into powerful, enveloping, stirring, and gorgeous drama."  [Full Review]  

  Why Did I Get Married? 
  "Why does Tyler Perry have a job?"  [Full Review]

    

  Lust, Caution 
  "If one submits to its rhythms rather than rage against them, its acting and just-so overall design prove a more than inviting combination for the arthouse set."  [Full Review]     

  Sleuth 
  "An occasionally entertaining, mostly tedious exercise in actor self-indulgence."  [Full Review]

   

  Lars and the Real Girl 
  "A lovely little indie dramedy...Gosling is pitch perfect, oozing painful vulnerability down to his twitching eyes and innocently hopeful gazes"  [Full Review]

  Also opening: Control, Terror's Advocate

  
  

  Posted 10/12/2007 by Thomas

  Lust, Caution | Why Did I Get Married? | We Own the Night | Sleuth | Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Lars and the Real Girl

Thursday, October 11

• Oscar race must-see: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

  If you're an awards junkie like we are, then you know the time to start hitting the theaters is upon you.

  Opening this weekend is Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and if you know anything about the Oscars, you know this one has been getting contender buzz for months now. Under the tutelage of director Shekhar Kapur, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush are back in their courtly garb as Queen Elizabeth I and her trusted advisor Walsingham, tearing up the British court with romantic and political intrigues.

  But before you head to the theaters, check out our review of the movie as well as our exclusive interview with Geoffrey Rush. It's a royal proclamation.

  
  
  Next Showing: Elizabeth: The Golden Age opens Friday, Oct. 12, 2007.
  

  Elizabeth: The Golden Age trailer

  Cate Blanchett is back as Queen Elizabeth I.

  Posted 10/11/2007 by Heather

  Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Thursday, July 12

• 2008 Oscar race beginning at Toronto

  The Toronto Film Festival (TIFF), which takes place in September, is heralded as the beginning of the annual Oscar race. That is to say, studios often save up the films they think will be contenders to release in the fall (they don't trust the Academy's memory to reach back more than a few months come nomination time), and often debut said films at the TIFF.

  So what are some of the films on the TIFF lineup that are being buzzed about?

  Rendition, a Middle East political thriller starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin and Peter Sarsgaard, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a costume drama about Queen Elizabeth I with Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush (reprising their roles from Elizabeth) lead the pack.

  Other potential TIFF Oscar candidates: Tony Gilroy's directorial debut Michael Clayton, a law firm drama starring George Clooney; Peter Greenaway's historical drama about Rembrandt, Nightwatching; the Indian drama Before the Rains; the Jodie Foster revenge drama The Brave One; a Joaquin Phoenix-Jennifer Connelly drama about coping with the death of a child entitled Reservation Road; the biography about paralyzed Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Beauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; and Alan Ball's (American Beauty) drama about the struggles of an Arab-American girl, Nothing is Private.

  Source: Variety.com.

  
  

  Posted 07/12/2007 by Heather

  Rendition | Elizabeth: The Golden Age | Michael Clayton | Nightwatching | The Brave One | Reservation Road | Nothing is Private