Edge of Darkness Cast & Crew, Synopsis

Movies Coming Soon : Edge of Darkness
Upcoming Movie : Edge of Darkness

Opens: January 29, 2010 Runtime: 1 hr. 48 min. Rated: R Genre: Drama, Suspense/Thriller

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Cast: Mel Gibson Ray Winstone Danny Huston Bojana Novakovic Shawn Roberts

Crew: Martin Campbell - Director Graham King - Producer Michael Wearing - Producer William Monahan - Screenwriter

Casino Royale's Martin Campbell returns to familiar territory with this adaptation of his own 1985 BBC miniseries -- a mystery starring Mel Gibson as a detective looking into his political-activist daughter's death and uncovering layers of governmental conspiracies in the process. William Monahan (The Departed) provides the screenplay for the GK Films production, co-starring Ray Winstone and Danny Huston. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

The Wolfman (2010) Sypnosis Cast & Crew

Synopsis

Joe Johnston	Director
Benicio Del Toro	Lawrence Talbot
Anthony Hopkins	Sir John Talbot
Emily Blunt	Gwen Conliffe
Hugo Weaving	Detective Aberline
Art Malik	Cast
Andrew Kevin Walker	Screenplay
David Self	Screenplay
Curt Siodmak	Source Material
Benicio Del Toro	Producer
Scott Stuber	Producer
Rick Yorn	Producer
Sean Daniel	Producer
Bill Carraro	Executive Producer
Andrew Z. Davis	Executive Producer

Lawrence Talbot's childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother's fiancée, Gwen Conliffe, tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named

Studio: Universal Pictures

Release Date: Feb 12, 2010

Country Of Origin: United States

Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins,Art Malik Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving,

Director: Joe Johnston

Aberline has come to investigate.

As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself-one he never imagined existed.

Avatar Movie Review : Star Cast

Movie Review: “Avatar”; Cast: Sam Worthington, Zo Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver; Director: James Cameron; Rating: **** -”Avatar” is a film that leaves you ‘nishabd’ (speechless).

James Cameron may have placed this story on a moon called Pandora with alien characters (known as Na’vi) that could have belonged to human race if not being double the size, a longer face, sharper features, blue body, white fluorescent marks on the face and tail at the back.

Still, emotions felt are just the same where Na’vis fight for their land, people, pride and right to live.

In a way, the story is no different from what locals may feel in any part of the world when outsiders make an attempt to make inroads into their land to gain hold of their resources. This is what happens to Na’vis as well when their peaceful existence is challenged with American troops entering their world to gain hold of precious minerals worth billions.

While they send one of their men (Sam Worthington) to Pandora by turning him into a Na’vi avatar so that he can understand the way of the natives and talk them into handing over their land, they also nurture a plan of their own.

With round of talks merely being a cover to understand how Na’vis feel and react, there is a deadly operation brewing in the background that would has a single point agenda of destroying and winning.

“Avatar” is an admirable effort because not even once viewers feel that it’s an ‘alien story’ (pun intended) being told. There is a love story brewing between Sam’s Na’vi avatar with the Pandora princess (Zo Saldana) and soon he discovers an altogether new world. Literally. He wages a battle of his own with support from a handful of friends from ’sky people’ along with tribe members and animals belonging to all shapes and sizes.

The story conveys that Cameron is a big fan of Bollywood films from the 60s and the 70s. Just like his last effort “Titanic” which was as Bollywood as it gets, even “Avatar” has quite a few Hindi film references if one starts plotting them on paper.

After watching “Avatar”, the question of paramount importance is - what does one pick and what is it that should be left behind the experience that goes by the name of “Avatar”?

Does one admire Cameron for the sheer vision that he has put to tremendous use in the making of “Avatar”? Does one pick up each and every frame in the film and start bisecting it for every pixel which has been designed to perfection? Or does one silently nod in approval for the familiar world of love, brotherhood, attachment, greed, misunderstandings and the ultimate reunion where spirit of togetherness is the ultimate winner?

In short, “Avatar” is not a film to be seen and then talked about. It’s one to be experienced.

Avatar Premiere

Avatar Premiere
Avatar Premiere Attended By Big B SRK Vivek Ash Abhi 

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The Avatar Primer

The Avatar Primer
The Avatar Primer: We Plan Your Double-Feature For You

Avatar is nearly here. It's been a long journey. The leaked treatment that's been floating around the internet for years. The ever-expanding budget rumors. The "Sam Who?" casting announcements. This Friday, fans and movie lovers everywhere will find out if all those years playing around underwater have inspired creative brilliance in James Cameron or just left him with a soaked head.

 

We've been celebrating the occasion across the site this week, with retrospectives on Cameron's career, looks back at advances in movie technology that lead up to Avatar, and even Mack's love letter to the cinematic use of the color blue. But there's one thing we haven't touched on yet, something fundamental to the fanboy experience: the movie marathon. I remember having friends over opening weekend of The Dark Knight to watch Batman Begins on Blu-ray before we all headed to the multiplex to get our minds blown. How many of us rewatched all three original Star Wars

films before lining up for The Phantom Menace, or revisited the classic Trek movies before checking out J.J. Abrams' version?

Of course, Avatar's a brand new universe, so we don't have any way to immerse ourselves in that world prior to having our ticket stub torn. Well, I suppose you could play the video game, but we wouldn't recommend that. Still, just because we don't have any prequels to play with doesn't mean we can't find a few flicks that pair well with Cameron's latest science fiction epic. We know you guys are busy, so we've done the work for you. Here are seven double-feature possibilities to get you stoked for your voyage to Pandora.

Warning: May Contain Minor Avatar Spoilers


Dances With Wolves

This should surprise no one. Everybody (ourselves included) has been making "Dances With Smurfs" jokes ever since the first images from the movie were released. And to hear the early reviews tell it, it's not an unfair comparison. Still, if you're going to crack wise, at least crack wise while well informed. Revisiting Kevin Costner's Oscar-winning 1990 epic will mesh tonally with Cameron's latest outing, plus it will leave you better equipped to be dismissive and petty once the inevitable online backlash against Avatar goes into full swing. It's win-win! It also doesn't hurt that Dances With Wolves is a pretty damn fine film, and Kevin Costner could probably use the residuals these days. Go for the Extended Cut they put out a few years back.

Or You Could Try...: Braveheart. Underdogs fighting against a much more powerful enemy force? Check. Thrilling action setpieces? Check. And hey, Mel Gibson even paints himself blue!

Piranha II: The Spawning

Everybody's got to start somewhere. For James Cameron, that somewhere was the 1981 flick Piranha II: The Spawning, his feature directorial debut. I'll be honest, I've never seen it, so we can all go on this journey together. But while I may not know much about Piranha 2: The Spawning, everything I need to know about it is summed up in that picture above. Flying piranhas, people! Flying. Freaking. Piranhas. Until somebody makes a movie about skateboarding grizzly bears with chainsaw hands, it's hard to get more awesome than flying piranhas. Pairing P2 with Avatar will perfectly bookend Cameron's career, letting you appreciate the artistry that went into the latter while getting a kick out of the sheer corniness of the former. Plus, for all you creative types out there, I dare you not to come away from this double-feature feeling inspired. Like I said, everybody's got to start somewhere, and I'm betting that latest draft of your novel or short film you thought was irredeemable crap will look a lot less dire in the cold light of Piranha 2: The Spawning. The DVD is out of print, but you shouldn't have too much trouble tracking down a rental.

Or You Could Try...: Battle Beyond the Stars. A young James Cameron worked on the special effects for this flick that came out the year before P2, and while it doesn't have flying piranhas, it does have The A-Team's George Peppard playing a Space Cowboy.

The Abyss

Still my favorite Cameron flick of all time, The Abyss is the underdog when it comes to his oeuvre, too often overshadowed by your Terminators and your Aliens. Aside from personal preference, it also pairs better with Avatar than any of his other films (excepting perhaps the aforementioned Piranha 2: The Spawning). Like Avatar, The Abyss is focused on the conflict that arises when humanity starts trying to exploit the home turf of strange creatures who are just trying to mind their own business. Like Avatar, The Abyss was at the forefront of advancing technology at the time -- remember the water tentacle? Like Avatar, The Abyss shares Cameron's focus on average, blue-collar folks just trying to do a job who get swept up in larger events -- in Avatar, they're soldiers, whereas The Abyss gave us undersea oil workers. All that being said, I dare Avatar to give me a villain anywhere near as fun as Michael Biehn's unhinged Lt. Coffey. It's still not out on Blu-ray, so make sure to get the director's cut, featuring a vastly superior ending to the theatrical cut.

Or You Could Try...: Aliens. It's hard to go wrong with Aliens. Before you watch Michelle Rodriguez do her best to channel Vasquez in Avatar, revisit the original. Just don't ask her if she's ever been mistaken for a man.


Star Trek

She's hiding under several layers of azure CGI, but this year's brand-new Uhura model, Zoe Saldana, is playing Neytiri, the main Na'vi that Avatar hero Jake Sully connects with. Between those two movies, the actress' career is likely to blow up in the coming days, so why not take another look at the role that introduced most of us to her this past summer? She was bold enough to embrace the iconic role and take in a new direction, truly making the character her own without disrespecting the classic work of Nichelle Nichols. Plus, this is the second movie in a row where her romantic tastes have extended beyond her own species, and you have to love a girl with some kink in her. Star Trek just hit Blu-ray and DVD a few weeks ago, so this is a perfect excuse to use one science fiction blockbuster to get you stoked for another. Plus, if you dig much deeper into Ms. Saldana's resume, you're just going to run into the likes of Drumline and Center Stage, and nobody wants that.

Or You Could Try...: Terminator Salvation. Sure, it's not a great movie, but for most of us, this was the one that answered the question of "Who the hell is Sam Worthington?" You'll probably see a lot of him in coming days thanks to Avatar and the upcoming Clash of the Titans, but this is where the breakthrough began breaking through. If nothing else, take it as an object lesson in what can happen to a James Cameron movie without James Cameron.

Enemy Mine

Standing proudly alongside The Abyss in the "Underappreciated Genre Movie Hall of Fame" is this buddy tale of a the burgeoning friendship between man and lizard. After space pilot Willis Davidge crash lands on a barren alien world, he goes from trying to kill one of his alien enemies to accepting a begrudging partnership in order to survive. As the years role on, that partnership grows to friendship and a mutual understanding of each other's culture. Like Avatar, Enemy Mine forces its protagonist to come to know his enemy as more than just a target or an opposing force, and to realize that they have far more in common than separating them. I remember watching the hell out of the old VHS copy of this that my dad had, and having revisited it not long ago, it still holds up remarkably well. Featuring great performances from Dennis Quaid as Davidge and Louis Gossett Jr. buried under tons of make-up as "Jerry," Enemy Mine is one of those rare Hollywood sci-fi outings that relies more on character and exploration of human nature than it does on flashy special effects. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I still tear up during at least two scenes, every single time.

Or You Could Try...: The Last Samurai. Me, I'll take Quaid over Cruise any day of the week. Gossett Jr. versus Ken Watanabe? That might be more of a toss-up.

Big

Body-swapping is a major plot point in Avatar, with wheelchair-bound Jake Sully being lured into traveling to Pandora by the prospect of walking again -- albeit in a body not his own (or even his own species). They might seem like a strange pairing at first, but both Avatar and Big ultimately deal with their protagonist's dissatisfaction with his own body, and a misguided belief that changing that body will solve all their problems. Big might get there by way of magic fortune-telling machine rather than test-tubes and DNA splicing, but there's plenty of tonal resonance to make this a great double-feature. Bonus points because it's an entirely different genre and style of movie, but they could feed into each other really well. On a related note, I think it would be awesome to watch a couple of Na'vi have a dance-off on one of those giant keyboards. YouTube, get on that.

Or You Could Try...: Face/Off. Because really, how often do you get to watch a guy with no face smoke a cigarette?


Star Wars, Episode One: The Phantom Menace

Avatar may fall victim to its own hype to some degree. Between Cameron's braggadocio, all the hullaballoo about the visuals, and the return of a legendary director, there's likely no way it can live up to all the expectations. Still, early reviews suggest it is, at worst, an ambitious and entertaining epic despite its inability to turn water into wine or cure your erectile dysfunction simply through the purchase of a ticket. But if you leave the theater feeling a little disappointed, just remember: it could be so much worse.

Or You Could Try...: Anything else. Seriously. Anything.

New In Town Movie Review, Rating, Cast

New in Town is excruciatingly predictable

Cast: Renee Zellweger

Direction: Jonas Elmer

A foot massage, cleaning out your cupboard, perhaps some alone time with bubble-wrap. These are just a few things you could be doing that I absolutely promise will give you more joy than watching the Renee Zellweger starrer New In Town.

It's an excruciatingly predictable romantic-comedy about a high-powered executive from Miami (played by Zellweger) who's dispatched to a cold and snowy small town in Minnesota to downsize a yoghurt manufacturing plant.

Adhering faithfully to the feel-good rom-com guidebook, our protagonist first finds the place unsophisticated and dull, but love blossoms, and soon she is relishing the small-town life.

With gags involving freezing temperatures that result in stiff nipples, and factory workers indulging in a sloppy tapioca food-fight, New In Town strains for genuine laughs. In place of characters you get your standard stereotypes, and Zellweger herself – once a fine comic actress – brings neither warmth nor cheap giggles.

This is that rare comedy that has but one comic moment – the one in which Zellweger arrives at work the morning after accidentally shooting a man in his backside, only to be greeted by a whole factory floor of workers sporting dartboards on their bottoms.

I'm going with a generous one out of five for New In Town. Seriously, clip your toenails instead of wasting your time on this film.

Rating: 1 / 5

Ninja Assassin Movie Review

Ninja Assassin Movie Review:Cutting All the Fun out of Martial Arts

I’m not going to over-simplify and proclaim that making a good ninja movie is the easiest thing in the world. But I never would have guessed that doing so is as difficult as James McTeigue’s Ninja Assassin makes it appear. This is a big-budget movie with a top-flight crew and a star blessed with undeniable magnetism, not to mention the R-rated freedom to provide the copious blood and gore that so many genre fans crave. Yet it plays no better than a cheap direct to DVD feature. Ninja Assassin is a forgettable throwaway, a waste of creative talent and the audience’s time.

Like a relic from old Hollywood, only with a lot more blood, the film exists as a would-be star-making vehicle for the Korean actor/pop star Rain, who impressed the Wachowskis and producer Joel Silver while working on Speed Racer. The biggest surprise of this film is that, with respect to their estimation of Rain’s potential, Silver and the Wachowskis weren’t out in left field.  Rain has the raw physical prowess to make a career as an action star, and while there’s nothing in Ninja Assassin to say he can actually act, his strong silent persona here should be enough to carry a film or two.

Then again, it doesn’t carry Ninja Assassin. But I’m not sure anything could.

Legend has it that this shooting script is the result of J. Michael Straczynski rewriting a previous script draft in 53 hours. That feels generous; I would have guessed he penned the movie over lunch. What we’ve got is the origin story of a ninja, played by Rain, and the intertwining tale of two Europol agents who attempt to investigate and bring down a modern clan of shadowy killers in black pajamas. The story is merely an excuse for bloodshed, a fact underlined every time the agents Mika (Naomie Harris) and her superior, Ryan (Ben Miles) pause to cough up inane dialogue.

The overly grim bare-bones story doesn’t kick in until after a bait and switch opening promises more gratuitously gore-soaked action than the movie is able to deliver. A ninja attacks a room full of Yakuza wankers; the first swordstroke cuts a man’s head in half. The slice is an adrenaline jolt; that execution of an unflinching dismemberment plan is all we’re really here to see.

Old Dogs Movie Review, Trailor

Movie Review: 'Old Dogs'

"Old Dogs" is stupefyingly dimwitted. What were John Travolta and Robin Williams THINKING of? Apparently, their agents weren't perceptive enough to smell the screenplay in its advanced state of decomposition, but wasn't there a loyal young intern in the office to catch them at the elevator and whisper, "You've paid too many dues to get involved with such crap at this stage in your careers."

Williams and Travolta play business partners trying to float a big deal with Japan. Meanwhile, they're saddled with baby-sitting 6-year-old twins. Be sure your seat belt is visible on the outside of your blanket; you will be awakened for breakfast when this flight is about to land.

The film makes a big business meeting with Japanese investors a study in laugh-avoidance. The Japanese line up on one side of a table in a Las Vegas Japanese restaurant, and Travolta, Williams, their partner Seth Green and a translator are on the other. Travolta tries to warm them up with the funny story of how Williams just got divorced twice in the last 24 hours. The Japanese sit stony-faced. So do we. Then Travolta gets to his big finish, and the Japanese break into helpless laughter. My theory: Since almost all Japanese businessmen in Vegas speak English, they've been playing a practical joke.

This film seems to have lingered in post-production while editors struggled desperately to inject laugh cues. It obviously knows no one will find it funny without being ordered to. How else to explain reaction shots of a dog responding to laugh lines? Or the painfully obvious use of music as glaring as a yellow highlighter to point out comedy? Example: Rita Wilson gets her hand slammed by a car trunk, and the sound track breaks into "Big Girls Don't Cry."

Another clue is when characters break into bad sitcom dialogue. After the Old Boys end up at camp with their young charges, a muscular counselor (Matt Dillon) asks them, "You girls ready to play a little Ultimate Frisbee?" Williams: "I think so, Mr. Testosterone."

Another clue: "Funny moments" repeated in case we missed them. Example: Robin Williams test-drives a buckled-on, back-mounted device that allows him to fly. It loses power and he drops into a pond. Wow, that was funny! Wait! Here it is again! Same drop, new angle! Twice as funny! Oh, no! A third drop! Ohmigod! Wait -- wait -- a FOURTH time? Usher, quick! Bring me oxygen!

Seth Green is not a tall man. But hell, he's only 3 inches shorter than Robin Williams. In this movie, you'd think he was Danny DeVito. He ends up wrapped in the arms of a gorilla. Never mind why. Doesn't matter. First Law of Movie Gorillas: Guy in a gorilla suit is never funny, unless the joke is on him.

To save himself from the enormous beast, Green sings a soothing lullaby. The gorilla dozes off peacefully. Hey, that's good! That's very good! Green gently tries to extricate himself from the gorilla's embrace. Nothing doing! Green desperately starts crooning again. Just think. If the gorilla wakes up, Green will be crushed to death! Man, oh, man!

The release of "Old Dogs" was delayed from April until now because of the death of another of its co-stars, Bernie Mac. I can think of another way they might have respected his memory.

Armored (2009) Released Next Week

Armored (2009) Released On 4th December, 2009

 

 Armored (2009) Released On 4th December, 2009

A crew of officers at an armored transport security firm risk their lives when they embark on the ultimate heist against their own company. Armed with a seemingly fool-proof plan, the men plan on making off with a fortune with harm to none. But when an unexpected witness interferes, the plan quickly unravels and all bets are off.

Production Status:	In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline:	A young armored car guard is persuaded by his veteran cohorts to empty the truck of its $10 million.
Genres:	Action/Adventure, Drama and Thriller
Release Date:	December 4th, 2009 (wide)
MPAA Rating:	PG-13 for sequences of intense violence, some disturbing images and brief strong language.
Distributors:	Screen Gems
Production Co.:	Farah Films & Management, Stars Road Entertainment
Studios:	Screen Gems
Filming Locations:	Los Angeles, California, USA
Produced in:	United States

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) Hits Screen Today

From all outward appearances, Pippa Lee leads a charmed existence. She is the devoted wife of an accomplished publisher thirty years her senior, the proud mother of two grown children, and a trusted friend and confidant to all who cross her path. But as Pippa dutifully follows her husband to a new life in a staid Connecticut retirement community, her idyllic world and the persona she has built over the course of her marriage will be put to the ultimate test. In truth, looks are deceiving, and this picture-perfect woman has seen more than her fair share of turmoil in her youth. Embarking on a bittersweet journey of self-discovery, accompanied by a new, strange and soulful acquaintance, Pippa must now confront both her volatile past and the hidden resentment of her seemingly perfect life in order to find her true sense of self.

Also Known As:	The Secret Lives of Pippa Lee
ProductionStatus:	In Production/Awaiting Release
Logline:	A dutiful housewife, Pippa Lee, explores her buried sensuality after her husband falls for a younger woman.
Genres:	Comedy, Drama, Romance and Adaptation
Running Time:	1 hr. 40 min.
Release Date:	November 27th, 2009 (limited)
MPAA Rating:	R for sexual content, brief nudity, some drug material and language.
Distributors:	Screen Media Films
Production Co.:	Elevation Filmworks, Plan B Entertainment
Filming Locations:	Connecticut, USA
Produced in:	United States

Cast & Crew
Actors
Robin Wright Penn	Pippa Lee
Blake Lively	Young Pippa
Alan Arkin	Herb Lee
Keanu Reeves	Chris Nadeau
Maria Bello	Suky Sarkissian
Zoe Kazan	Grace Lee
Winona Ryder	Sandra Dulles
Mike Binder	Sam Shapiro
Monica Bellucci	Gigi Lee
Ryan McDonald	Ben Lee
Julianne Moore	Kat
Shirley Knight	Dot

Directors
Rebecca Miller	Director

Writers
Rebecca Miller	Screenplay (Adaptation)
Rebecca Miller	Source Material (from novel: "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee")

Producers
Jean-Luc De Fanti	Executive Producer
Jill Footlick	Executive Producer
Lemore Syvan	Producer
Dede Gardner	Producer

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee Trailers & Video Clips (1 video)

New Moon Review

Rating:



2.5 out of 5

Short version: Like Twilight, New Moon is strictly for fans of the book – for the rest of us, it’s actually worse than the first film.

Screen Rant reviews The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Well, maybe the third time will be the charm.

In an earlier article we speculated whether New Moon might turn out to be a good movie not just for fans but for general audiences (maybe even guys!). With the replacement of Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke with Chris Weitz on New Moon, many people were hoping for a more exciting film this time around. Unfortunately, if anything what we’ve gotten is a film that is even slower than the first one.

As New Moon opens things seem to have fallen into as close to normalcy as they can get in Forks, where Bella (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) are a couple, even though Bella’s circle of friends still finds him and his family creepy. Bella hasn’t seen Jacob (Taylor Lautner) in quite a while and is shocked to see how he’s beefed up when he turns up. There’s a rivalry between Edward and Jacob, but nothing compared to what it will be by the end of the movie.

Bella still (idiotically) wants to be “turned” – be bitten so she can become a vampire and live forever with Edward at the physical age of 18. Edward refuses because obviously he’s smarter than she is – he’s 109 years old and with that apparently has come some wisdom. They actually joke about the fact that an 18 year old girl is dating a 109 year old guy – while it may seem silly, it’s actually true and quite creepy. You’d think he’d be (as a 109 year old) more interested in hooking up with a woman in her 30s, who’s actually experienced more of life and matured.

Edward tells Bella that the Cullens are leaving, ostensibly to protect their identities, but in reality he believes that as long as he’s around her he puts her in danger. Before he leaves he tells her not to do anything reckless – and the only reason to say something as non-sequiter as that is to set up what comes up later in the movie. Saying she doesn’t take it well would be an understatement. Bella is depressed and morose, doing nothing but sitting in her bedroom moping for months.

Eventually she pretends to snap out of it, just to make her dad happy, and while out with a friend discovers that if she contemplates doing something dangerous, risky (or hey, reckless!), Edward appears to her to tell her not to do it. So she becomes a bit of an adrenaline junkie, looking for dangerous things to do just so Edward will appear to her to tell her NOT to do it. This is a major point in the film, and frankly the more I thought about it, the more it seemed pretty stupid. First, let’s just reverse what I said earlier about Edward being wise – appearing to her ONLY when she’s about to do something risky, with the fact she misses him so much, guarantees she will engage in that behavior. Second, isn’t Bella the only person who he’s not able to “read?” He can’t read her thoughts, can’t tell what she’s planning on doing, etc? Then how the HECK does he appear to her when she’s about to do something stupid? Of course if he’s not appearing to her and she’s imagining it, then she’s having pretty vivid hallucinations and has even bigger problems than we thought.

Meanwhile back on the (Indian) ranch, there are a bunch of guys who hang together and seem to worship the gang leader. This particular fellow seems to be waiting for Jacob to join them even though Jake isn’t interested. Of course there’s a reason they’re called the “Wolf Pack” and soon enough Jacob will be joining them (once he joins them, he spends the rest of the film shirtless just like them). He comforts Bella, who takes advantage of their friendship because it’s obvious he has serious feelings for her, and she allows things to progress as far as closeness and some physical affection, but keeps him at arm’s length. Eventually he, too tells her he can’t be friends with her any more and Bella is now 0 for 2 on people who said they’d never leave her – and do.

Eventually Edward comes to believe that Bella is dead, and heads to Italy to request that the vampire council known as the Volturi agree to kill him so he doesn’t have to live in a world without Bella. She, of course, isn’t dead and heads to Italy to stop him. There’s a a scene where they try to ratchet up the suspense that seems silly – if only they allowed her to call out much of the suspense would have been drained from the scene, and there’s no good reason for her not to have done that. Oh, and the method Edward comes up with to bring death upon himself doesn’t make any sense from the perspective of traditional vampire lore. I’ll elaborate in the following spoiler paragraph:

[Spoiler]

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Edward decides to break the main vampire rule, which is to not reveal himself to humans. To do this he removes his shirt and prepares to step into the sunlight in the middle of a local festival. In Twilight vampires “sparkle” so supposedly this would give him away. But if you saw some guy standing in a doorway in the sunlight sparkling, would you think “Vampire!” or would you think, “Check out the gay guy who’s covered himself in glitter.”?

.

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[End Spoiler]

At least the Volturi are suitably creepy, each of them in their own way – I actually liked the performance of the leader of the group. This is also were Dakota Fanning appears, and I hope you weren’t looking forward to a lot of on screen time from her here because she’s in the film for maybe five minutes tops.

Is there any actual action? Yes, there’s a semi-cool fight in the Volturi chamber and we get some werewolf scenes that serve to highlight some pretty bad CGI and shorts that rip upon transformation like tissue paper. I’d say overall there was bit more action than in the first film, but not a whole lot more.

Overall despite a bit of action and a few scattered laughs (the jokes related to the fictional movie “Face Punch” are pretty funny), I found the movie to be long, slow and fairly boring. Bella is annoyingly miserable and seems to me to be in serious need of therapy, anti-depressant medication, or perhaps a stronger father figure(?). I actually like the supporting characters better than the leads – her dad, his Native American buddy, and Bella’s friends were all pretty entertaining.

In the end, I can’t see New Moon being enjoyable to anyone other than Twilight fans, and if you’re the husband or boyfriend of a fan, do your best to find a way to avoid it (suggest a girl’s night out – there’s a free tip from me to you). And finally, I’d be curious to hear from Twilight fans whether this film was a better representation of the book than the first film, since I’ve seen complaints even from Twilight fans about the first movie.

Twilight Review

Twilight Review

Rating:


3 out of 5

Short version: Twilight really is strictly for fans of the book – while not terrible, it’s far from great.

Screen Rant reviews Twilight

So it’s finally here.

Twilight, at least for a select group of ladies, has been THE most anticipated movie of 2008 – and their wait is finally over. The question is: Was it worth it?

For them, yes.

For the rest of us? Eh, not so much.

Twilight opens with the introduction of our heroine, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart). She is in sunny Arizona with her mom and new stepfather, and as they prepare for a long road trip she decides that she’d rather go up to Washington state to stay with her estranged father, Charlie (Billy Burke). He lives in the small town of Forks (population 3,000) and is the local sheriff.

She arrives in the middle of the school year so although it should be hard to make friends (and it’s implied), she manages to connect with a group of kids who are far more welcoming than she is ready to be welcomed. They give her the scoop on who’s who and they soon point out the Cullens, an odd assortment of very pale-skinned guys and gals. To make things weirder, they are apparently foster brothers/sisters yet they are “couples.” They’ve been taken in by the local Dr. Cullen and his wife.

One of the group is of course, Edward (Robert Pattinson). His story is that “no girl is good enough for him.” Of course Bella is immediately fixated on him, although the feeling is apparently very much not mutual. As a matter of fact when she is assigned to be his lab partner, he seems to be repulsed by her.

Edward leaves for a few days, and when he returns his mood towards Bella has changed considerably. He’s now polite and at least feigns interest. She (mostly) gets over being offended and tries to get to know him although he still doesn’t want to get close to her. Almost immediately he saves her from being killed in a car accident in a scene that’s been shown in the trailer. She’s no dummy and doesn’t miss the fact that he was across the parking lot, got over to her in a flash and was able to keep a van from smashing into her (to the point that he left a dent in the door with his hand). [Note slight sarcasm there, folks]

Anyway, we soon meet Dr. Cullen (Peter Facinelli) at the hospital, whose makeup job is so incredibly white that he looks like the Cesar Romero version of the Joker. He is none to pleased about Edward (I guess I can’t call him “Ed,” huh?) possibly exposing who he really is to save Bella’s life.

One thing leads to another and the burgeoning romance is on its way, with a side trip to a confrontation with the “bad” vampires who actually kill humans to feed (go figure). You see the Cullens only drink the blood of animals. The bad guys have been responsible for a number of gruesome murders in town recently. One of them decides to target Bella and thus we get the final confrontation which finally brings us some decent action.

So what’s good?

I thought that the stars and supporting cast actually did a really great job. Bella’s friends were engaging, funny and they played their roles very naturally. Billy Burke was low key and very good as Bella’s father, Kristen Stewart did a decent job, and I have to say that despite his severely sculpted eyebrows and uber-funky hair that I liked Rob Pattinson’s portrayal of Edward Cullen. I don’t know how closely the way he played the character matched the version in the book, but I thought that his uncertainty and awkwardness in light of how powerful he really was made him quite charming.

There were quite a few moments of unexpected humor in the film that I enjoyed. Nothing huge or slapsticky, but just little things that were enough to actually make me laugh out loud (which some comedies this year didn’t manage to make me do). Really the performances made this worthwhile for me.

So what wasn’t so good?

For a non-fan, it was really a pretty bland film. It seemed very slow-moving at times, and let’s face it – it’s a pretty “stock” teen romance movie. There wasn’t anything really special here outside of the fact that it had, you know… vampires.

Nothing really eye-catching as far as cinematography or interesting shots, and one think that really struck me as bad were the visual effects. When the film had its first “super-speed” effect, where the bad vampires corner one of the locals, it was so poorly done that I think I actually gasped out loud. I mean there was this incredibly cheesy blur that I can’t really describe except to say that anything you see on an average episode of Smallville is done far better.

Imagine my shock at the end of the film when in the credits I saw Industrial Light & Magic listed among the visual effects companies. I can only guess that they were responsible for some other effect and not the one I just mentioned (which was terrible throughout the film).

Towards the end the teen-romance-cheese-factor pegged the needle in the aftermath of the big battle in a scene between Edward and Bella. That was about the hardest scene in the movie to sit through, and pretty much from there until the end it was quite sappy and reminded me of a typical teen TV series on the CW.

The audience full of Twilight fans seemed to enjoy it a lot and gave it a thumbs up, so I guess it’s achieved its goal. I’m curious to see if it does well enough at the box office to generate a sequel (which I’m thinking would actually be better than this film).

So take all that for what it’s worth – I’ll leave the decision of whether to see it or not up to you.

Oh, and yes (for the fans), Edward does “sparkle” in the film and Bella is clumsy.