A Chinese woman named Chen Xiaomei is making international headlines by suing a local cinema under the claim that she was unjustly treated by its owners. Her case, which has been approved by the People’s Court in Xian, relies on her accusations that neither the cinema nor the distributors of the movie she was attending had properly warned her of the 20-minute barrage of commercial advertisements prior to the start of the movie. Xiaomei is suing the cinema for a full 35-Yuan refund and ditto in compensation for ‘emotional damages’. If that weren’t ground-breaking enough, Xiaomei is also requesting for official publishing of advertisement length on her local cinema’s website or customer hotline, or (brace yourselves) even in the cinema’s lobby itself.
Obviously, the Holocaust is an historical event that should never be forgotten. It stands forever as a glaring reminder of humanity’s underlying potential to commit acts of unthinkable monstrosity and profound evil. On the flip side of things of course, the Holocaust was filled with countless tales of mind-blowing courage and inspiring determination, as the best of humanity’s nature showed face against evil. Such delicate intricacies of the human condition, as seen in both its worst and best forms during the period of the Holocaust, are profoundly difficult to grasp at emotional levels let alone film adaptations. Cue Uwe Boll (generally considered one of the worst directors of all-time - seriously no exaggeration there)??!
Despite reports of its sluggish slow-pace, The American came out on top of the Labour Day weekend box-office results, earning a total of $16.4M (bumping up its total gross earnings to $19.5M). Surprising some, The American turned out to be something more than just another spy movie. Despite boasting the charismatic George Clooney as its top billing, The American actually has more in common with art-house sensibilities then it does with its spy-thriller predecessors. This shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise however, since Clooney has been known before to have bordered the lines of art-house cinema and genre-filmmaking in one single movie (take Up in the Air or Michael Clayton as examples). As word spreads (which these days takes no more than 5 minutes), one has to wonder if the name Clooney will have the power and influence to overcome the demands of the high-octane seeking mainstream box-office audience. There’s only one way to find out: patiently wait until this time next week.
Today is Labour Day Monday; that makes tomorrow the first day of school for many young students across North America. The significance of this occasion is two-fold for High School students: 1) another year of amplified adolescent maturation (aka gossip) is about to begin; 2) an introduction to a whole new chapter in the lives of many 13-14-year-old teenagers is a day away from fruition. High school, as we all know, can be an exhilarating yet distressing experience for its adolescent clientele. Life, after all, as an individual adolescent, is enough of a journey on its own; however, assemble a thousand other confusion-ridden souls in one building and that journey begins to look more like a cruel practical joke. Then again, the word adolescence means exactly as it sounds: adult lessons. If there’s one key lesson that teenagers need to learn, it’s how to manage personal change responsibly, amidst a perpetually transformative world. Cue the practical cruelty of high school and the eons of its cinematic depictions. In the spirit of Labour Day weekend, here is a look back at some famous movies from Hollywood High.
Let’s be clear: the odds of receiving high-quality cell phone reception while buried in a coffin six feet underground are probably not that good. Then again, I ain’t no doctor. Moving past that ‘moot’ point, the upcoming thriller Buried looks deliciously Hitchcockian in its portrayal of a seemingly innocent man (Paul Conroy, played by Ryan Reynolds) who awakens one day buried in a coffin, knowing only one thing: he was put there.
Hello, Mr. Owl. Okay, that didn’t have quite the same zing as Hugo Weaving’s monotone line in The Matrix, “Hello, Mr. Anderson”, but still, Hugo Weaving is doing voice-over animation for the upcoming animation/fantasy film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, so there’s no real reason to complain. Given the similar themes that Guardians seems to share with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it is fitting that Weaving - who played Lord Elrond in The Lord of the Rings movies - would land a voice-over role as the all-wise owl Noctus, in this lord of the owls-like adventure.
It definitely seems like Hollywood’s love affair with 3-D is here to stay. Whether or not you’re a fan of modern 3-D technology, it looks like Hollywood studios are going to be advertising 3-D movies aggressively for a long time to come. On the surface, 3-D filmmaking seems like a novel idea, replete with plenty of profit to show for it. Beyond the ticket sales (just joking, there is no such as ‘beyond the ticket sales’), on an experiential level only, is the continuous growth of 3-D filmmaking really a good thing for the future of cinema? Or, on the other hand, does everything in a movie become more enticing, and thus better, when watched in 3-D?
Never before would I have thought to say anything remotely like this in regards to a horror movie, but, thanks to the manner through which Paranormal Activity ended, I don’t think I have much of a choice: more likely than not, we’d all be damned if Paranormal Activity did not spawn a sequel. We can be thankful that Hollywood studios know a good thing when they see it, for come October 22nd, 2010, Paranormal Activity 2 will be released in theatres across North America.
Today is the last Sunday in August, which means September is just around the corner. Fall is upon us, and with it, comes a brand new season at the Cineplex. With its vast assortment of genres to choose from, the fall movie season is like a candy store for movie buffs. Despite the inevitable decrease of summer blockbusters, the fall/early winter season still has a lot to offer to mainstream movie fans. After all, both Titanic and Avatar were released just before the first official day of winter. Of course, in the hopes of having their films remain fresh in the memories of Academy members, studios, upon the first sighting of a falling leaf, will release a plethora of potential Oscar contenders. Here now is a look at some of the highlights of mainstream movies (Oscar contenders or otherwise) for the upcoming fall season:
He’s back, and he’s brought the city of Boston back with him. From the man who brought Boston to the silver screen in such popular dramas as Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone, comes Ben Affleck’s latest Beantown piece, The Town. Town is an upcoming crime thriller that focuses on four bank robbers from the Boston neighbourhood of Charlestown, and their unrelenting game of cat-and-mouse with the FBI. This four-robber crew is led by Doug MacRay (Affleck), a career criminal who, after an extremely dangerous heist, falls in love with the bank manager (Rebecca Hall) of a bank that he and his crew had robbed. I know that sounds a bit corny, but we’ll give Affleck the benefit of the doubt for the time being. As the movie progresses, so too does the complicated relationship of our anti-heroic thief and his honourable citizen of a girlfriend. To make matters even more complex, MacRay is being pursued constantly by an FBI agent (Mad Men’s Jon Hamm - possibly the greatest name for a man’s man in history), who is trying desperately to catch MacRay, before another bank robbery opportunity can present itself.
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