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Multiple Oscar-nominated legal drama Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney and Tilda Swinton, leads this week's impressive crop of new releases. Also arriving on DVD are Noah Baumbach's dysfunctional dramedy Margot at the Wedding, Ang Lee's saucy Lust, Caution, Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron's somber Iraq drama In the Valley of Elah and Reese Witherspoon's political drama Rendition.
Our pick for the week is American Gangster, which inexplicably managed to score only two Academy Award nominations, for Best Art Direction and Best Supporting Actress (Ruby Dee). Go figure.
Posted 02.19.08 by reelz -
If director Gavin Hood gets his way, expect the upcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine to differ dramatically in tone from 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.
Speaking last week to Secret's Out guest host Aisha Tyler, Hood described his Wolverine as "a person who's really suffering from a great deal of existential angst, who wants to lash out and yet hates himself for doing so...his battle is within his own nature."
Referencing ancient Greek lore, the Rendition director laid out his ambitious plan for the highly anticipated X-Men prequel, in which Hugh Jackman will reprise his trademark role. "These characters are modern mythological characters that represent human emotion in a grand and somewhat operatic way," Hood said of the inhabitants of Wolverine's comic book universe. "And if we can access that and combine it with some good action and some great cinematography and music and sound and so on, then we could have an exciting, emotional movie."
"Exciting and emotional" sounds pretty good, especially when contrasted with Brett Ratner's controversial "shallow and bombastic" approach toward X-Men 3.
Posted 10.24.07 by reelz -
Vampires have forcefully removed Tyler Perry from the top spot at the box office this weekend. 30 Days of Night took in $16 million at the box office this weekend to plunge their proverbial stake into the top spot and virtually assure that the rumored sequels (which Reelz.com reported last week) are a go.
Perry's Why Did I Get Married held strong in second place with $12.1 million. Gone Baby Gone lead the the Oscar buzz newcomer crowd, taking fifth place with $6 million in receipts.
Other the newcomers The Comebacks, Things We Lost in the Fire, and Rendition didn't fare as well. The goofy sports comedy placed sixth with $5.85 million, and political drama Rendition debuted ninth with a lowly $4.175 million. Halle Berry appears to have lost her star luster a bit; Fire made only $1.6 million for 15th place.
Posted 10.21.07 by reelz -
It's a good weekend for movie fans as a slew of new releases hit theaters for the first time or expand this weekend. For genre fans, there's the gory 30 Days of Night and for drama lovers, there's Rendition and Ben Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone.
A rundown of our reviews of this weekend's new releases:
30 Days of Night 
"This vampire movie with a novel twist makes for a refreshing anomaly: a horror flick that's actually scary." [Full Review]
Gone Baby Gone
"A double dose of Affleck in a Boston-set (where else?) investigatory drama that establishes a solid second career beachhead for older brother Ben." [Full Review]
Rendition
"Critics are lukewarm on this one, but what will the standard movie-goer think?" [Full Review]
Reservation Road 
"This drama about intrigue and loss in the suburbs is a little too bitter a pill for even me to swallow." [Full Review]
Wristcutters: A Love Story 
"An occasionally clever, moderately amusing black comedy in the vein of Heathers." [Full Review]
Also opening: Things We Lost in the Fire, The Ten Commandments, Paranormal Hour and The Comebacks.
Posted 10.19.07 by reelz -
On today's episode of Secret's Out, guest host Aisha Tyler talks with the director of Rendition, Gavin Hood.
He talks about what it was like directing Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep, as well as his previous directing effort, the Oscar winning Tsotsi.
Posted 10.19.07 by reelz -
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 07.12.07 by reelz