9 articles from 2008
29 September 2008 1:15 AM, PDT | From Rope Of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news
Can anyone catch up to this cool cat? With Shia Labeouf's Eagle Eye taking the top spot at the box-office this weekend it makes four-in-a-row for the actor (not counting the animated Surf's Up) and it made me wonder if the 22-year-old is our next big time actor or if it's just a case of him starring in the right film at the right time that has made his films so popular leaving the title of "The Next Big Thing" up for grabs. Let's face it, Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull were going to make big bucks no matter what, Shia had very little, if anything, to do with their success. One could make the argument that Disturbia opened during a very weak time in 2007 and that accounts for its three week box-office domination with rather modest numbers, winning that third weekend with barely over $9 million.
(more)
Brad Brevet
9 September 2008 8:52 AM, PDT | From Cinematical.com | See recent Cinematical news
Filed under: New on DVD, Home Entertainment
Welcome to Cinematical's revamped but still opinionated guide to movies on disc, whether new-fangled Blu-ray or good old fashioned DVD, Hollywood blockbusters or indie wonders, direct to video debuts or refurbished classics.
Buy: The Fall
Rent: Baby Mama, The Forbidden Kingdom, How the West Was Won
Pass: Foreign Exchange, Seed, Sarah Landon & The Paranormal Hour, Then She Found Me
Blu-ray Spotlight: Exiled, Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2, Jerry Maguire, Cool Hand Luke, Rudy
Indies on DVD: Heckler, The Last Days of Left Eye, Last House on the Beach
Collector's Corner: The Big Lebowski, Child's Play, Pumpkinhead
Directed by Tarsem (The Cell), this incredible visual feast, filmed over four years, imagines the fantastical, far-flung stories told to a little girl recovering from a fall in a hospital. A wild, weird trip of a flick that cries out to be replayed time and again. Extras include deleted scenes,
(more)
Peter Martin
8 September 2008 11:12 AM, PDT | From QuietEarth.us | See recent QuietEarth news
Some classic 80s horror, an art-house epic, and strippers fighting zombies are just a few of the treats that await us on DVD this week. First up, Tarsem's visually stunning The Fall finally drops this week. I've been waiting for this one for about a year. Next we have the fun, if a little too kid oriented, martial arts adventure flick Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Next are two discs that I know fans of 80s horror have been waiting with baited breath for; Pumpkinhead: Collector's Edition, and the Child's Play: Chucky's 20th Birthday Edition. And lastly; you wanted it so you got it! It's Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! Strippers vs. Zombies! Trailers, synopsis, and links after the break folks!
Purchase The Fall
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman (Pace) begins to tell a fellow patient, a
(more)Permalink | Report a problem
8 September 2008 12:10 AM, PDT | From Rope Of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news
I avoided reviewing The Fall after I saw it at the Seattle Film Festival earlier this year. I even avoided saying much about it when I named it one of my favorite movies from the first half of 2008. The reason I have strayed from writing much about it is due to the fact that there isn't a whole lot to say. At least there wasn't. The Fall is a love story as seen through the eyes of a child, told by a man with a broken heart. It's beautifully shot, told, acted and imagined. Director of The Cell, Tarsem Singh, spent 17 years preparing to make the film and once he met 7-year-old Catinca Untaru he knew he finally had his star and she was only going to be this old for so long. It then took another four years to finish while being shot in 18 different countries. Picking up where The Cell left off,
(more)
Brad Brevet
2 September 2008 1:07 AM, PDT | From Rope Of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news
Director and co-writer Tarsem's The Fall, the follow-up to the visually resplendent Jennifer Lopez thriller The Cell, is one of the year's best films you probably haven't seen. Filmed in 18 different countries over a four year period, this audaciously constructed and paced gothic fairy tale of friendship and loss is as engrossing as it is wonderful. It is a story of intense drama, stirring action and heartbreaking emotion, all of it stimulated by the actions of a five-year-old child whose limitless curiosities can't help but inspire. Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) is the young daughter of immigrant migrant farmers working the fields in 1915 Los Angeles. After she breaks her arm in a fall during a tragic accident, she finds herself wandering the halls of a secluded hospital looking for things to do. It is here she meets bedridden movie stuntman Roy Walker (Lee Pace), also the victim of a horrific fall
(more)
Sara Michelle Fetters
11 August 2008 2:30 PM, PDT | From blogs.suntimes.com/ebert | See recent Roger Ebert's Blog news
I was one of the allegedly three billion people watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on TV, and I think I received the intended message: China is here, big time. The scope, precision and beauty of the production was, you will agree, astonishing. The distinguished director Zhang Yimou was given $300 million and full rein of his imagination, and perhaps some of his background in opera was also useful.
The sheer size of the production was awesome. It said a lot for China, both positively and perhaps negatively. With the exception of the star pianist Lang Lang, a duet between Sarah Brightman and Liu Huan, and some featured dancers, the emphasis was not on individuals, but on masses of performers, meticulously trained and coordinated. What was your reaction to the opening spectacle of 2,008 drummers, creating waves and shapes of lights with their drums? Mine was amazement and pleasure. Also
(more)
Roger Ebert
27 June 2008 12:09 AM, PDT | From DreadCentral.com | See recent Dread Central news
The remake of Clash of the Titans is still a go, no matter how much voodoo and black/white magic I dabble in to make it go away. Damn you, forces of darkness, why won’t you do my bidding?
Variety reports this morning that Clash now has some competition in the realm of big-budget Greek mythology green screen movies: War of the Gods, which has Tarsem (The Cell, The Fall) Singh on board to direct. Incredible Hulk helmer Louis Leterrier is attached to the Clash remake, so perhaps the two could just fight it out Thunderdome-style?
Relativity Media’s War of the Gods is set in ancient Greece (duh) and tells of a young warrior who leads his men against an evil so great, it pits man against demons and titans. Sign me up! Warner Bros.' Clash of the Titans is, of course, about Perseus, son of Zeus,
(more)
Johnny Butane
8 May 2008 2:05 PM, PDT | From avclub.com | See recent The AV Club news
As writer-director Tarsem Singh (these days, just "Tarsem") explains it, he first had the idea for The Fall 14 years ago, but was unable to secure funding for a dark, miserablist fantasy shot in more than a dozen countries, based on a Bulgarian drama (1981's Yo Ho Ho), and largely written by the improvisational choices of a 5-year-old girl. And no wonder. The Fall ranks up there with the collected directorial works of Crispin Glover as an impossible-to-sell act of creative love and insane genius; Tarsem wound up financing it himself, piggybacking his shoots on his commercial-directing work around the world. But for such a homemade project, it's a staggeringly polished and beautiful one, heavily informed by Tarsem's work in commercials and music videos. (He's best known for R.E.M.'s "Losing My Religion.") It resembles Cirque Du Soleil's Journey Of Man, another vividly colored fantasia that drew on some of the.
(more)
Tasha Robinson
5 May 2008 8:14 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news
By Neil Pedley
This week sees the return of the Wachowski brothers, Tarsem Singh ("The Cell") and Henry Bean ("The Believer") to the big screen, not to mention new films from documentarians Nick Broomfield ("Tupac and Biggie") and Doug Pray ("Scratch"). On the other hand, after running around Tribeca, we still need to catch up on last week's releases.
The idea of the spunky teenage boy succumbing to the allure of an experienced older woman is the kind of Hollywood golden goose that launches major careers (think Dustin Hoffman). But when the roles are reversed, the result is the directorial debut of David Ross that sees an entrepreneurial high schooler (Katherine Waterston, daughter of Sam) and her friends turn their babysitting ring into a call girl service, realizing there are alternative ways to pay for college besides waiting tables. It stars when one local dad (John Leguizamo) goes
(more)
Neil Pedley
9 articles from 2008