All Movie Blogs: 2010

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Blu Tuesday DVD and Bluray Release Report Sept 28, 2010

Posted by Rodneyon 28. 09. 2010in News Chat

This is a good week for movies, and a few goodies to bring home today.

Check out what hit retail shelves today:

Iron Man 2 – Check out our Review
The world is aware that billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is the armored super hero Iron Man. Under pressure from the government, the press and the public to share his technology with the military, Tony is unwilling to divulge the secrets behind the Iron Man armor because he fears the information will slip into the wrong hands. With Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James “Rhodey” Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, Tony forges new alliances and confronts powerful new forces.

I didn’t like it as much as the first, but its a good addition. This will get bought.

Get Him to the Greek – Check out our Review
Aaron Greenberg (Hill) gets things done. The ambitious 23-year-old has exaggerated his way into a dream job just in time for a career-making assignment. His mission: Fly to London and escort a rock god to L.A.s Greek Theatre for the first-stop on a $100-million tour. His warning: Turn your back on him at your own peril. British rocker Aldous Snow (Brand) is both a brilliant musician and walking sex. Weary of yes men and piles of money, the former front man is searching for the meaning of life. But that doesnt mean he cant have a few orgies while he finds it.

I had more fun with this movie than I thought I would – considering Jonah Hill is in it. And I still will likely buy it, but maybe not today.

Frozen
A typical day on the slopes turns into a chilling nightmare for three snowboarders when they get stranded on the chairlift before their last run. As the ski patrol switches off the night lights, they realize with growing panic that they’ve been left behind dangling high off the ground with no way down.
With the resort closed until the following weekend and frostbite and hypothermia already setting in, the trio is forced to take desperate measures to escape off the mountain before they freeze to death. Once they make their move, they discover with horror that they have much more to fear than just the frigid cold. As they combat unexpected obstacles, they start to question if their will to survive is strong enough to over the worst ways to die?

Looked interesting and will probably get rented.

Legendary
Cal Chetley, a bright, undersized fifteen-year-old, is an outsider in the blue collar town of Sallisaw, Oklahoma known for its high school wrestling program. His older brother Mike, a one-time high school champion with whom Cal is estranged, left Cal and his mother Sharon behind years ago after the tragic car accident that killed their father. Sharon is grieving the loss of her husband while struggling with an estranged, older son and her bright, socially isolated younger one, the latter of whom is determined to put his family back together. With the encouragement of Harry “Red” Newman, a charming, albeit mysterious man who has a way of showing up in Cal’s life just when he needs him most, Cal joins the high school team hoping his brother will train him. What ensues is an emotional, uplifting journey about Cal’s drive to succeed and his unwavering pursuit to reunite his family.

I never thought I would say this, but I am curious about a John Cena film. This actually looks pretty good, and I will surely rent it.
Verdict

Batman/Superman: Apocalypse
Batman discovers a mysterious teen-aged girl with super-human powers and a connection to Superman. When the girl comes to the attention of Darkseid, the evil overlord of Apokolips, events take a decidedly dangerous turn.

Even with the whole “Superman punching fire” thing, this still looks great, and the DC Direct titles have been great so far. This will get bought on blind faith.

So what’s making your “must have” list this week?

View the original article here

Peter Jackson Responds to New Zealand Hobbit Boycott

Statement regarding The Hobbit and claims by the Australian Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA)
:The Australian Labour Union, the MEAA is using our production The Hobbit in an attempt to widen it’s membership, and power within the New Zealand film industry. As a New Zealand filmmaker, who has nothing to hide or be ashamed about, I’m not going to see this threatening behaviour continue without some form of sensible discussion about the “facts” and “truth” behind their various allegations.
It’s incredibly easy to wave the flag on behalf of workers and target the rich studios. It’s not hard to generate an emotive response, nor is it hard to sway public opinion, since nobody seems to like the facts to get in the way of a good story in these situations.
Behind the claims of exploiting actors who are cast in the “non-Union” Hobbit production, and claims that various high-profile stars will refuse to take part in the films, there are clear agendas at work. As usual with these agendas, they are based on money and power.
I am not a lawyer, nor am I an expert in unions and how they operate – but I like to think I have a degree of common sense, and that’s what I’m basing my observations on. Let me run over a few facts:
– Personally speaking, I’m not anti-Union in the slightest. I’m a very proud and loyal member of three Hollywood Unions – the Directors Guild, the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild. I support the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). All these organisations (I must confess I’m not entirely sure what the difference is between a “Guild” and a “Union”) do terrific work on behalf of their members.
– Many Actors are members of SAG, but many are not — especially younger actors and many Australian and New Zealand performers. MEAA claims we are “non-Union”, but whenever we hire an actor who belongs to SAG, we always honour their working conditions, their minimum salary agreements and their residuals.
– The SAG residuals is a small pot of money that comes from the movie’s profits. The DGA and WGA have similar schemes. An agreed upon percentage of movie profits is placed in a pot, which is shared amongst the members of the guild who worked on the film in question. Despite MEAA claims that The Hobbit is “non-Union”, our studio, Warner Brothers, is honouring these residuals, and making the profit sharing available to all the various Guild members – just as it did on The Lord of the Rings, and Universal did on King Kong.
– These residuals can be worth tens of thousands of dollars to an individual if the film is successful – however the normal situation is that if an actor is not a member of SAG, they do not share in the profit pot.
– This has always struck us as unfair, since most Kiwi actors are not lucky enough to be SAG members. For the Hobbit, Warner Brothers have agreed to create a separate pot of profit participation, which will be divided up amongst non-SAG actors who are cast in the film. This was not done because of any pressure from Guilds or Unions – it was actually Warners doing the decent thing, and New Zealand and Australian actors will be the principle beneficiaries. SAG members have their pot, and non-SAG members now have theirs. We have introduced the scheme to Kiwi agents and it’s now part of all our Hobbit cast deals.
– Whatever damage MEAA is attempting to do — and it will do damage, since that’s their principal objective in targeting The Hobbit – we will continue to treat our actors and crew with respect, as we always have.
– As I said earlier, money and power lies behind this threatening behaviour from our Australian cousins, and to fully understand that, you simply have to step back and look at the greater picture in context.
– It starts with “NZ Actors Equity”. This is a tiny organisation that represents a small minority of New Zealand Actors. They are not a Union, and have none of the legal status of a Union. They are a … well, a smallish group who have some New Zealand actors as members. How many actors are members of NZ Equity? They guard that information very closely, but various reports I’ve seen put their membership at 200, although somebody in the know swears it’s nearer 100.
– How many professional actors are there in New Zealand? Somewhere between 2000 and 4000, depending on just how you describe a “professional actor”. Obviously most Kiwi actors have other employment too, but there’s certainly over 2000 actors available to cast in a film production.
– So taking the most generous numbers, NZ Actors Equity represents 200 out of 2000 Kiwi actors, or 10%. Perhaps I’m wrong, and if so, NZ Equity will no doubt reveal their real membership numbers.
- Now there’s nothing wrong with NZ Actors Equity representing 10% of the actors in this country. It’s great that they offer that service, and if an actor chooses, there’s a supportive group they can join. Obviously the more actors that join NZ Equity, the better, since these organisations usually survive by taking a small percentage of their members acting fees. I’m guessing that Equity do something like that. Recently they have been part-funded by MEAA.
- Over the last 10 years our relationship with NZ Equity has been rocky — whenever we cast an “overseas actor”, we get a letter telling us why such and such Kiwi actor would be so much better in the role. In most cases we have already auditioned the actor in question, and formed our own opinions — but what strikes me as unfair, is how this “helpful” service of suggesting better choices only includes the “Equity 200?. If you happen to be a good actor who doesn’t belong to NZ Equity (and many don’t), you’re automatically not good enough to be put forward.
– What really does strike me as wrong, and this is my personal opinion, is the why that the MEAA is using NZ Actors Equity as a vehicle to represent the voices and opinions of New Zealand actors. A couple of years ago, the members of NZ Actors Equity voted to join some kind of alliance with the Australian MEAA group. At the time, there were voices of alarm at how this relationship could damage the interest of Kiwi Actors, but the merger went ahead – and now we’re about to find out just how damaging it’s going to be.
– As far as I know, the membership of NZ Actors Equity was allowed into the MEAA, meaning that the Australian MEAA organisation represents 200 out of 2000 Kiwi actors. I don’t believe it represents non-Equity NZ actors. It speaks on behalf of a tiny minority of our actors.
– The management of NZ Equity are clearly happy to be used as a political football by the Australians — but my sympathy goes to the 1800 New Zealand Actors who are not part of the “Equity 200?, but who are going to suffer the fallout if this Hobbit thing goes nuclear.
– I also feel a growing anger at the way this tiny minority is endangering a project that hundreds of people have worked on over the last two years, and the thousands about to be employed for the next 4 years. The hundreds of millions of Warner Brothers dollars that is about to be spent in our economy.
– Why is this endangered? Because the “demands” of MEAA cannot be agreed to, or even considered – by law – and therefore the only options that remain involve closing the Hobbit down, or more likely shifting the production to Europe. It could so easily happen. I’ve been told that Disney are no longer bring movies to Australia because of their frustration with the MEAA.
– The MEAA is demanding that the Hobbit production company (Warners owned, 3foot7 Ltd) enter into negotiations for a Union negotiated agreement covering all performers on the film.
– I personally have a problem with any organisation who represent a small minority, but attempt to take control of everyone – but that’s not the real issue. The complex web of NZ labour laws are the reason why this demand will never be agreed to.
– NZ law prohibits engaging in collective bargaining with any labour organisation representing performers who are independent contractors, as film actors clearly are. The NZ Commerce Act claims it would be unlawful to engage with an Australian Union on these matters.
In closing:
My personal opinion is that this is a grab for power. It does not represent a problem that needs a solution. There will always be differing opinions when it comes down to work and conditions, but I have always attempted to treat my actors and crew with fairness and respect. We have created a very favourable profit sharing pool for the non-Union actors on The Hobbit — and now the Union is targeting us, despite the fact that we have always respected SAG conditions and residuals.
I can’t see beyond the ugly spectre of an Australian bully-boy, using what he perceives as his weak Kiwi cousins to gain a foothold in this country’s film industry. They want greater membership, since they get to increase their bank balance.
The conspiracy theories are numerous, so take your pick: We have done better in recent years, with attracting overseas movies — and the Australians would like a greater slice of the pie, which begins with them using The Hobbit to gain control of our film industry. There is a twisted logic to seeing NZ humiliated on the world stage, by losing the Hobbit to Eastern Europe. Warners would take a financial hit that would cause other studios to steer clear of New Zealand.
– Seriously, if the Hobbit goes east (Eastern Europe in fact) — look forward to a long dry big budget movie drought in this country.
– Others gain from that too. SAG would much rather have it’s members hired on movies — as opposed to non-SAG actors. The easiest way to control that, is to stem what are called “runaway productions”, which are American funded films made outside of America. The Hobbit is one of them, as was King Kong and LOTR. SAG, which is naturally supporting MEAA, would see it’s own benefit in studios having a miserable experience in Australia/New Zealand. That may well be pushing the conspiracy theories one step too far, and it’s perfectly natural that one Union would support another – but the point is that in the complex web of Hollywood intrigue, you never really know who’s doing what to whom and why.
But it sure feels like we are being attacked simply because we are a big fat juicy target – not for any wrong doing. We haven’t even been greenlit yet! It feels as if we have a large Aussie cousin kicking sand in our eyes … or to put it another way, opportunists exploiting our film for their own political gain.
Peter Jackson

(NB: This represents Peter Jackson’s opinion as a Kiwi filmmaker, and not that of Warner Bros or New Line Cinema, who were not consulted about this statement.)

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New Yogi Bear Trailer Online

New Yogi Bear Trailer Online - The Movie Blog Home About Contact Favorites Features Headlines News Chat Reviews Uncut PodcastYou Are Here : Home » » New Yogi Bear Trailer OnlineNew Yogi Bear Trailer Online
Posted by Rodneyon 28. 09. 2010in News Chat

A new Trailer is available for the Live Action Yogi Bear movie, and its looking a lot better (and less creepy) than the teasers and stills we have seen so far.

This does look a little better. There are some clever lines, and it looks like it has its own charm and a real feel of Garfield, which I didn’t hate, so the kids will be all over it.

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Gore Verbinski may Direct The Lone Ranger

Posted by Rodneyon 28. 09. 2010in News Chat

Looks like Jerry Bruckheimer’s Lone Ranger, set to star Johnny Depp as that mysterious masked man still hasn’t got a director, but now it seems like the Pirates Trio might reuinite again as Gore Verbinski is rumoured to be in talks for the comfy director’s chair.

ScreenJunkies shares:

The director has teamed with Johnny Depp on three Pirates Of The Caribbean films as well as the animated Rango. Now, there are rumors that they’ll work together again with Verbinski helming Depp’s upcoming The Lone Ranger.

Now nothing is official, but Depp has a habit of working with people he likes, and Bruckheimer produced the Pirates films with Verbinski on point. These guys know and trust each other.

I am of mixed feelings with this, and I hope that if this does come together that we get more of a Pirates 1 and less of Pirates 2&3 feel.

View the original article here

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Maggie Grace joins Twilight Breaking Dawn

Posted by Rodneyon 28. 09. 2010in News Chat

The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn Part 1 will be out on November 18th 2011, and the next casting announcement seems to be Maggie Grace as the veggie vamp Irina.

Movies Online says:

Deadline is reporting that LOST and TAKEN star Maggie Grace has just signed on to star in The Twilight Saga Breaking Dawn which is being directed by Dream Girls Director Bill Condon.
Maggie will play a member of the Denali Coven known as Irina who is a ‘vegetarian’ vampire related to the Cullen’s who has a falling out when they are responsibel for the death of her lover.

The role is minor, but Maggie Grace is a beautiful woman and I would love to see her in just about anything.

There is storyline that has a struggle to win the character over to the side of the Cullens in the epic battle between a peaceful Vampire Clan, their reluctant Wolf Shapeshifter allies and the super powerful Volturi elite army…. that concludes with a shrug and a chat.

This chapter didn’t need two movies. Hell it doesn’t need one. No, I am not Twibashing and jumping on that “None of these should be made” mantra the Twhaters go out of their way to rant about.

The story ended at Book 3. Book 4 is the longest epilogue and the most anticlimactic add-on ever. The only reason to drag this out is to bleed more money from the rabid fanbase.

View the original article here

Studios Respond to New Zealand Hobbit Boycott

Posted by Rodneyon 28. 09. 2010in News Chat

The New Zealand performers’ guilds recently staged a very vocal and pointed threat at Peter Jackson and producers of The Hobbit, suggesting that its membership boycott The Hobbit threatening yet another delay in the film.

Peter Jackson responded to the statement yesterday, and now we get wind that New Line, Warner Bros. Pictures and MGM are collectively against this movement too.

TheOneRing.net quotes the statement:

New Line, Warner Bros. Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures are concerned by the recent allegations of unfair treatment of actors in New Zealand and instructions from the performers’ guilds to their membership to withhold services from the producers of “The Hobbit” in New Zealand. We are proud to have good relations with all of those performers’ guilds and value their contribution to the motion pictures produced in their respective jurisdictions throughout the world. But we believe that in this case the allegations are baseless and unfair to Peter Jackson and his team in Wellington who have been tireless supporters of the New Zealand motion picture community.
To classify the production as “non-union” is inaccurate. The cast and crew are being engaged under collective bargaining agreements where applicable and we are mindful of the rights of those individuals pursuant to those agreements. And while we have previously worked with MEAA, an Australian union now seeking to represent actors in New Zealand, the fact remains that there cannot be any collective bargaining with MEAA on this New Zealand production, for to do so would expose the production to liability and sanctions under New Zealand law. This legal prohibition has been explained to MEAA. We are disappointed that MEAA has nonetheless continued to pursue this course of action.
Motion picture production requires the certainty that a production can reasonably proceed without disruption and it is our general policy to avoid filming in locations where there is potential for work force uncertainty or other forms of instability. As such, we are exploring all alternative options in order to protect our business interests.

It seems this posturing was a power play and was just outpowered.

If they were discarding PJ’s well stated rebuttal, it will be hard for them to deny these other studios backing him up on this.

It was nothing but an effort to bleed more money from an industry already more than happy to populate their shores. They had more to lose than gain, so it was risky. Hopefully this will put an end to it.

View the original article here

Legend of the Guardians: The Owls Of Ga’Hoole — The AMG Review

September 24th, 2010 | 12:02 am est | Perry Seibert

In the mad-for-3D craze that gripped Hollywood in the wake of Avatar, so many films rushed to cash in on the trend that audiences were bound to suffer some fatigue. Zack Snyder’s animated adventure tale Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole offers up a single example for how 21st century 3D could disappear as quickly as 1950s 3D did.

The story concerns a young owl named Soren who, after being kidnapped by a group of fascistic owls known as the Pure Ones, escapes his captors to join the fabled Guardians of Ga’Hoole, an elite squadron of brave owls who make it their life’s work to battle the Pure Ones and keep the bravest and best elements of all owldom alive and well.

It’s hard to find much to say about this standard-issue hero’s journey story, other than it hits all the familiar story points — including the obligatory training montage set to a catchy pop tune — with as little surprise or creativity imaginable. However, the films’ state-of-the-art visual effects will stick with viewers. The 3D effects enhance the feeling of flying as the owls soar and dive through what seem like interminable chase and fight sequences. For at least 30 minutes or so, the vertiginous drops and crisp night skies are a visual feast — these are the kind of rare special effects that really are special.

Sadly, all the swooping camera moves can’t make up for the pedestrian storylines and characterizations, and eventually the novelty wears off. That’s what makes this movie representative of the 21st century 3D trend — it’s a microcosm of what very well may happen if filmmakers and producers continue to rely on gimmicks instead of the timeless traits associated with good storytelling.

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Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps: The AMG Review

Like the economic bubbles that are discussed throughout it, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps seems like it’s going to have a huge payoff, but bursts before that happens.

As the film opens, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) walks out of prison, and finds nobody there to pick him up. We’re then introduced to Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf), a young and hungry financier convinced that green technology is the next big thing. However, after fellow financial whiz Bretton James (Josh Brolin) destroys the firm Jake works for — and in turn Jake’s mentor, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella) — the now revenge-driven junior executive meets Gordon, who is speaking at a local university about the evils of the current financial climate. Complicating matters is the fact that Gordon’s estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), and Jake are engaged. Gordon wants back in her life, and offers to trade Jake tips on how to get back at Bretton in exchange for access to his daughter. While Gordon’s dealings with Jake appear to be on the level, Winnie continues to insist she wants nothing to do with her father — concerns that seem justified as Gordon begins manipulating Jake into getting him access to Winnie’s 100-million-dollar trust fund.

Say this for the movie, much of it is fun. As a pulpy drama set in the very recent past, Money Never Sleeps feels perfectly timed to capitalize on our current economic troubles for the same reason that Dallas became a smash TV show during a protracted recession in the ’70s — regular people want to live vicariously through rich and powerful people’s lives, but still be assured that the movers and shakers are amoral a-holes. And if the screenplay didn’t soften that blow in the final act, you get the sense that Stone would have had his first culturally impactful work since JFK. The director is in full command of his material and his skills for the first time in over a decade, effortlessly throwing out stylish — if not exactly necessary — split screens and special effects. He seems artistically alive, and an engaged Oliver Stone is a very good thing for movies in general.

He gets good work from his actors as well. Once LaBeouf lays off the overly thick New York accent he starts the movie with, you can see why Stone was drawn to cast him as an ambitious but honest hero who slowly gets sucked into a world of corruption. Michael Douglas slips back into Gordon Gekko’s skin like it’s a favorite power suit, and while he comes awful close to chewing on the scenery, Stone keeps things at such an elevated emotional pitch that Gordon’s flowery monologues never feel out of place. And in the scene that requires the most from him as an actor — Gordon’s heart-wrenching attempt to explain himself to his grown daughter — Douglas is flawless, never letting us know for sure if this antihero’s confessions are heartfelt, or just another ploy to get the best deal. It doesn’t hurt that he gets to play the scene with Mulligan, an actress talented enough to convince us of both Winnie’s emotional vulnerability and the steely resolve she no doubt inherited from her dad.

In films like Salvador, Platoon, and Born on the Fourth of July, Stone expertly tapped into righteous anger — both his own and the public’s — in order to feed his effective, if often overwrought, style and themes. The best aspect of Money Never Sleeps is its lightness; he’s still angry, but he’s having some fun, much like he did throughout the paranoid fever dream that was JFK. Where it disappoints is the shift in the third act from fun to soft. If he’d dropped the film’s closing 20 minutes, he would have improved a great deal on the original Wall Street. As it is, though, this new Wall Street is his best film in over a decade, but it’s hard to shake the sneaking suspicion that Stone — like his most famous character — is mellowing. If that’s true, he’s going to have to look to something other than anger for inspiration.

View the original article here

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Catfish: The AMG Review

Catfish (2010) It seems like it’s getting harder and harder to tell documentary from fiction these days. Catfish fits into an increasingly popular genre of filmmaking, the “purported documentary.” Certainly, much of what appears onscreen seems to have been filmed as it happened, but how much of a hand the filmmakers had in making those events occur is very much open to question. At the very least, one suspects, they could more quickly have ascertained the truth about the situation they found themselves in, but decided it would make for a more dramatic movie to keep themselves in the dark as long as possible.

Co-directors Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost begin their movie as New York photographer Nev Schulman, Ariel’s brother, receives a painting of one of his photos in the mail from a young fan in Michigan named Abby. Soon, Nev friends the eight-year-old on Facebook, and eventually “meets” Abby’s family online, including mom Angela and Abby’s beautiful stepsister, Megan. They appear to be a multi-talented family. Beyond Abby’s painting, Angela and Megan are also musicians. Nev is increasingly drawn to Megan, and Ariel and Henry shoot him as he flirts with Megan on Facebook, and eventually speaks to her on the phone. Other friends and family members also become a part of Nev’s extended Facebook community. This goes on for several months, when the filmmaking trio plans a business trip to Colorado, which Nev sees as an opportunity for him to meet Megan. But when Nev learns that Megan and Angela may not have written and/or performed some of the songs they’ve uploaded onto Facebook, he begins to get suspicious. Ariel, Henry, and Nev decide to drop in on Abby’s family unannounced, and they make some unexpected discoveries.
Catfish is a fairly engrossing experience, driven by Nev’s engaging if somewhat callow personality (he’s an actor, whatever he may claim), and by a subject matter and presentation that authentically evoke contemporary notions of human interaction and privacy (though the heavy reliance on Facebook, Google Maps, and GPS does make the thing feel like one long commercial at times). The movie’s titular metaphor even has a surprising amount of resonance.
Promotion for Catfish has focused on the shocking nature of those discoveries, but in the broader sense, there’s nothing particularly shocking, or even much unexpected, about what the filmmakers find in Michigan. There are some very tense moments in Catfish, as they explore Megan’s property in the middle of the night, and then visit Abby’s house the next day, but all the buildup — both in the promotional materials and within the movie itself — isn’t justified by the payoff. The truth is, we’ve all heard stories like this one before. It’s strange and sad, and it’s even kind of fascinating, but it’s nothing new. Without giving away too much, anyone who’s used any kind of social website or chat room in the past decade or so knows that people often misrepresent themselves — sometimes elaborately so.
Aside from the anticlimactic nature of Catfish’s revelations, this brings up nagging questions about how these three smart, tech-savvy New York hipsters could have been so easily misled. It certainly seems possible that they realized early on that Abby and her family were not what they seemed, and played along because it would make for a more interesting movie. This raises some thorny ethical issues, because if they did encourage the ruse, then the filmmakers are the cynical manipulators, regardless of what they found on their journey, or how much compassion they tried to evince in the face of that discovery. The viewer may well end up wondering just who is being taken for a fool.

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You Again: The AMG Review

Watching You Again is not unlike seeing an old acquaintance from high school, if acquaintances were pleasantly predictable comedies. It tells the same stories, shares the same woes, and hasn’t quite come to terms with the fact that its glory days are over — but it’s not an unwelcome presence.

The film begins with Kristen Bell in the role of Marni, resident high school geek, circa 2002. Like the “four-eyed, pimple-faced” students that preceded her, as well of those who follow in her footsteps, it’s hard not to sympathize with Marni’s multiple attempts to hold her head high despite crippling social awkwardness and the kind of bad luck that ends up on YouTube. It’s equally as difficult not to inwardly cheer for her eight years after graduation, braces-free, and making a bang in the PR world. Not surprisingly, it’s downright easy to feel her indignation after finding out her kindhearted brother is marrying none other than her former arch nemesis, Joanna (Odette Yustman) — ex-cheerleading squad captain, self-proclaimed “warden of Ridgefield High,” and Alpha Mean Girl.

Though Marni reluctantly accepts that Joanna doesn’t recall her long stint as a teenaged “emotional terrorist” (phrase courtesy of Dwayne Johnson in a cameo appearance as a deceptively sensitive Federal Air Marshal), the idea that Joanna has transformed into an adult as saintly as her younger self was cruel is too much not to second guess. Marni’s suspicions are confirmed when she realizes Joanna has been dishonest about the significance of a former flame. Using her PR expertise, she launches an elaborate campaign to expose Joanna before her besotted brother can make his vows.

Much to the film’s credit, the actors are clearly committed to making the most of the material. Jamie Lee Curtis and Sigourney Weaver, playing Marni’s mother and Joanna’s aunt, respectively, are able to conjure a believable sense of competition as adults who have carried the baggage from an eventful senior prom into their middle age. Victor Garber seems perfectly natural as Marni’s standup yet slightly New Age father, and Kristin Chenoweth, in the role of celebrity “wedding extra-ordinator” Georgia King, should have her own television series.

While the trappings of comedy allow for a certain suspension of disbelief, Joanna’s bullying — both in high school and in several pointedly malicious moments toward Marni as an adult — is too extreme for her redemption to pack much of an emotional punch, despite the film’s concerted effort to humanize her. The groom-to-be (Jimmy Wolk) is such a two-dimensional character that it’s hard to muster any emotion in regard to his love life one way or another.

Despite the film’s shortcomings, however, Bell’s Marni is an endearing character, and the combined efforts of the cast and several genuinely funny moments from minor characters (played by Betty White, Dwayne Johnson, Kristin Chenoweth, and Kyle Bornheimer) inject just enough charm to outweigh the plot contrivances and make You Again a watchable paint-by-numbers comedy for queen bees and wannabes alike.

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

24: Season One

Movie DVD

Price: $49.98

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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