Starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Written by Stephen Chbosky & Evan Spiliotopoulos. Directed by Bill Condon.
★★★
This movie for the most part balanced that fine line between being faithful to the original but finding parts where it can be its own thing. If anything, it's too faithful to the original, so that variances stuck out more.
Emma Watson is Belle, our French bookworm who longs for adventure. Dan Stevens is the Beast, a spoiled prince living in a cursed castle. One element they added that I appreciated was an explanation on why the townspeople didn't seem to know about this castle or this alleged prince.
The "Be Our Guest" number was a highlight, no small thanks to Ewan McGregor's capable vocals. Luke Evans as Gaston does the best among the human actors.
Starring Michael Douglas, Robert DeNiro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenbergen, Romany Malco, Jerry Ferrara, Roger Bart, Joanna Gleason and Michael Ealy. Directed by Jon Turteltaub.
★★
A movie with this cast would have been the must-see movie of 1989. Nowadays we know what we're going to get. Its humor is broad and safe. It reminded me of when Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas had their one last hurrah in 1986's Tough Guys. Nothing too demanding, and a lot of that may be because Hollywood has no idea how to write good parts for older people unless it involves dying.
So these four Academy-Award winners play four old friends who reunite for a bachelor party when the one of them who's never been married is finally getting married. Douglas is the lifelong playboy marrying a woman half his age; DeNiro is the widower who's closed himself off from life; Freeman's the bored grandpa who's tired of taking it easy after his stroke; and Kline is the persnickety one whose wife tells him he can have a freebie if he wants (as long as he doesn't tell her about it.)
So they party, they get drunk, they each have their epiphany, and we probably would have been more entertained listening to the four of them swap movie-making stories for two hours.
- Fresh off his expensive flop John Carter, director Andrew Stanton is returning to animation with a sequel to his own Finding Nemo. It's set for a 2016 release date. Pixar has Monsters University set for 2013, The Good Dinosaur for 2014, and Inside the Mind and Dia de Los Muertos for 2015.
- Anthony Mackie (The Hurt Locker, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is in talks to play the Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, starring Chris Evans. The Falcon helps the Captain fight crime via a special suit that helps him fly and enhances his strength. He can also communicate telepathically with birds.
- Amanda Plummer (Pulp Fiction) has joined the cast of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as Wiress, a veteran tribute from the Games. Her character is nicknamed "Nuts."
- Johnny Depp will next star in The Grand Budapest Hotel for director Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, The Royal Tenenbaums). With his Thin Man reboot on hold, it'll be his next movie after The Lone Ranger.
- Robin Williams will play Dwight D. Eisenhower in The Butler, based on the true story of Eugene Allen, who served as butler in the White House from the administrations of Harry Truman through Ronald Reagan. Alan Rickman will play Reagan, James Marsden will play JFK, and John Cusack will play Richard Nixon. The cast also includes Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Nicole Kidman, Melissa Leo, Jane Fonda, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alex Pettyfer and Zac Efron. Lee Daniels (Precious) will direct.
- Kevin Kline is joining Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas and Morgan Freeman in Last Vegas, about four old friends who decide to have a bachelor party in Vegas for the one of them who's always remained single. Jon Turtletaub (National Treasure) will direct.
- Vince Vaughn will produce and star in Gunslingers, about some iconic Wild West heroes who find themselves in modern-day Los Angeles.
- And here's a viral video for After Earth. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, it's a futuristic actioner where Earth has been abandoned and humanity has moved to a new planet, Nova Prime. Will Smith and Jaden Smith play a father and son who go back to visit the now unknown, dangerous Earth.
Starring James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston, Justin Long, Colm Meaney, Alexis Bledel, James Badge Dale, Toby Kebbell, Norman Reedus and Stephen Root. Directed by Robert Redford.
As a portrayal of historical events, this film is a valuable document. As its own entertainment, it never really comes to life.
The Civil War is finally over, and Pres. Abraham Lincoln has cause to celebrate, but before the nation can even exhale, he is shot in the back of the head. Quickly, John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators are chased down. Booth was killed, but the rest are on trial.
Only one on trial is Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), and as her reluctant lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) quickly learns, she may be innocent after all. The movie is seen through Aiken's eyes, and the more convinced he becomes of Mary's innocence, the more the chips are frighteningly stacked against her.
If The Crucible was a response to the McCarthy hearings, then The Conspirator is a response to Guantanamo Bay. The parallels are too juicy. The nation is in fear, prisoners' right are ignored, a military tribunal judges instead of a civilian court, and the movie all but argues that Dick Cheney was War Secretary Edwin Stanton in a previous life.
One choice I wish Redford hadn't made: all the interior shots are done with realistic lighting, so that beams of light coming through the windows puts half of any room in shadow. Another is to keep Mary Surratt a cypher. Oh, Robin Wright makes you think more will be revealed about Mary, but it's never allowed to surface. It's all about the lawyer.
I support this being shown in high-school classrooms, but it is about at the level of your average Masterpiece Theater.
Starring Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, Audra McDonald and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
