Mama said knock you out! Well, LL Cool J did at least. Look, we all know egos and testosterone can be a dangerous combination in the locker room, but when you put that locker room on the set of a major motion picture, things can really blow up. And that’s just what happened during the making of Any Given Sunday, when Jamie Foxx – then trying to make a name as a dramatic actor – and LL Cool J – the hero of Deep Blue Sea – got into it, with the rapper trying to get ahead of an entirely different kind of shark.
In the Any Given Sunday scene in question, Foxx’s Willie Beaman and LL Cool J’s Julian Washington were to get into it over mishandling the ball. With tensions building apparently just from being on the same field as one other, LL Cool J reached over star Al Pacino...
In the Any Given Sunday scene in question, Foxx’s Willie Beaman and LL Cool J’s Julian Washington were to get into it over mishandling the ball. With tensions building apparently just from being on the same field as one other, LL Cool J reached over star Al Pacino...
- 4/9/2024
- by Mathew Plale
- JoBlo.com
Yorgos Lanthimos drama ‘Poor Things’ won two prizes.
Warwick Thornton was awarded the Golden Frog at Poland’s Camerimage International Film Festival on Saturday (November 18) for drama The New Boy.
The Australian Indigenous filmmaker received the festival’s top prize at a ceremony in the Polish town of Torun, where the director was recognised for his role as cinematographer on the film. Accepting the award, Thornton paid tribute to his fellow filmmakers and said: “I’ve had tears in my eyes the whole week and it’s not because of the alcohol or the cold weather. It’s the love of cinematography,...
Warwick Thornton was awarded the Golden Frog at Poland’s Camerimage International Film Festival on Saturday (November 18) for drama The New Boy.
The Australian Indigenous filmmaker received the festival’s top prize at a ceremony in the Polish town of Torun, where the director was recognised for his role as cinematographer on the film. Accepting the award, Thornton paid tribute to his fellow filmmakers and said: “I’ve had tears in my eyes the whole week and it’s not because of the alcohol or the cold weather. It’s the love of cinematography,...
- 11/20/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Cinematographer and director Warwick Thornton scored top honors Saturday at the Camerimage cinematography film festival for his magical tale of an aboriginal youth, “The New Boy,” which film jurors called a distinctive “portrait of an extinguished spirituality.”
Thornton, in accepting the Golden Frog, said he had been so moved by the cinematography work onscreen at the fest, a top global event for directors of photography, he’d been “tearing for a week.”
Ed Lachman, director of photography for Pablo Larrain’s horror fantasy “El Conde,” inspired by the life of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet, won the Silver Frog for what the jury called “cinematic high poetry,” while the Bronze Frog and Audience Award went to cinematographer Robbie Ryan for his Gothic dream-like imagery in Emma Stone-starrer “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Actor Peter Dinklage, honored with a festival director’s prize, expressed his gratitude for the Frog statuette,...
Thornton, in accepting the Golden Frog, said he had been so moved by the cinematography work onscreen at the fest, a top global event for directors of photography, he’d been “tearing for a week.”
Ed Lachman, director of photography for Pablo Larrain’s horror fantasy “El Conde,” inspired by the life of Chilean tyrant Augusto Pinochet, won the Silver Frog for what the jury called “cinematic high poetry,” while the Bronze Frog and Audience Award went to cinematographer Robbie Ryan for his Gothic dream-like imagery in Emma Stone-starrer “Poor Things,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Actor Peter Dinklage, honored with a festival director’s prize, expressed his gratitude for the Frog statuette,...
- 11/19/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
For the second year in a row, a film starring Cate Blanchett has taken the lead prize at Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Festival, celebrating the work of the world’s best cinematographers. This year, the Aboriginal drama “The New Boy” won the Golden Frog for its cinematographer Warwick Thornton, who also happens to be the picture’s director.
The film follows a 9-year-old Aboriginal orphan taken in by a rural monastery. It premiered to kind notices at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. However, the film still does not have a U.S. release date at this time. In 2022, Todd Field’s “Tár” won the Golden Frog for Oscar-nominated cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister and also starred Blanchett.
The Silver Frog went to Pablo Larrain’s moody vampire picture “El Conde,” for whom its legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman was honored. Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” continued its awards streak by winning the Bronze Frog for lenser Robbie Ryan,...
The film follows a 9-year-old Aboriginal orphan taken in by a rural monastery. It premiered to kind notices at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. However, the film still does not have a U.S. release date at this time. In 2022, Todd Field’s “Tár” won the Golden Frog for Oscar-nominated cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister and also starred Blanchett.
The Silver Frog went to Pablo Larrain’s moody vampire picture “El Conde,” for whom its legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman was honored. Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” continued its awards streak by winning the Bronze Frog for lenser Robbie Ryan,...
- 11/19/2023
- by Jason Clark
- The Wrap
This year’s winners at Camerimage Film Festival in Toruń, Poland were unveiled Saturday, with The New Boy, Warwick Thornton’s drama about an indigenous boy taken in at a mysterious remote monastery, taking the top prize.
Poor Things, Searchlight’s Yorgos Lanthimos drama starring Emma Stone, won the Audience Award at the festival, which focuses on the art of cinematography.
Camerimage’s Golden Frog is widely considered an Oscar precursor, with three of the past five Golden Frog winners going on to earn Oscar nominations in cinematography. Those titles include Lion (2016), Joker (2019) and Nomadland (2020).
Below is the complete list of this year’s winners.
Main Competition
Golden Frog: The New Boy
cin. Warwick Thornton
dir. Warwick Thornton
Silver Frog: El Conde
cin. Ed Lachman
dir. Pablo Larraín
Bronze Frog: Poor Things
cin. Robbie Ryan
dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Fipresci Award
The International Federation of Film Critics Award for Best Film: The Zone of Interest
cin.
Poor Things, Searchlight’s Yorgos Lanthimos drama starring Emma Stone, won the Audience Award at the festival, which focuses on the art of cinematography.
Camerimage’s Golden Frog is widely considered an Oscar precursor, with three of the past five Golden Frog winners going on to earn Oscar nominations in cinematography. Those titles include Lion (2016), Joker (2019) and Nomadland (2020).
Below is the complete list of this year’s winners.
Main Competition
Golden Frog: The New Boy
cin. Warwick Thornton
dir. Warwick Thornton
Silver Frog: El Conde
cin. Ed Lachman
dir. Pablo Larraín
Bronze Frog: Poor Things
cin. Robbie Ryan
dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Fipresci Award
The International Federation of Film Critics Award for Best Film: The Zone of Interest
cin.
- 11/18/2023
- by Caroline Frost
- Deadline Film + TV
The New Boy — the story of a young Aboriginal Australian orphan boy that was written, directed and lensed by Warwick Thornton — collected the Golden Frog in the main competition of the 31st EnergaCamerimage international cinematography film festival, which closed Saturday night in Torún, Poland.
Cinematographer Ed Lachman received the Silver Frog for Pablo Larraín’s El Conde, which positions Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire. Robbie Ryan’s lensing of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, the story of a young woman (Emma Stone) brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, claimed the Bronze Frog as well as the Audience Award. (Ryan collected the Golden Frog two years ago, for Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, and Lachman won the Golden Frog in 2015, for Todd Haynes’ Carol.).
The Fipresci Prize was awarded to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a chilling look at the life of Auschwitz concentration camp commander Rudolf Höss and his family,...
Cinematographer Ed Lachman received the Silver Frog for Pablo Larraín’s El Conde, which positions Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire. Robbie Ryan’s lensing of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, the story of a young woman (Emma Stone) brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, claimed the Bronze Frog as well as the Audience Award. (Ryan collected the Golden Frog two years ago, for Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon, and Lachman won the Golden Frog in 2015, for Todd Haynes’ Carol.).
The Fipresci Prize was awarded to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest, a chilling look at the life of Auschwitz concentration camp commander Rudolf Höss and his family,...
- 11/18/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There was an emotional start to the 31st EnergaCamerimage cinematography film festival as news spread that John Bailey — the cinematographer behind films such as Ordinary People, The Big Chill and As Good As It Gets, and former president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — died Friday at age 81.
During Saturday’s opening ceremony, festival director Marek Żydowicz gave a heartfelt tribute to the Dp as he opened Camerimage, which is held annually in Toruń, Poland. “It is very difficult for me to talk about it,” he said, introducing a black-and-while clip featuring portions of Bailey’s 2019 speech when he accepted the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award. Bailey and his wife, Oscar-nominated editor Carol Littleton, had attended the festival on multiple occasions. Żydowicz also emphasized the bond between Camerimage and the Motion Picture Academy that Bailey helped to strengthen. He said, “John, you will forever be in our hearts.
During Saturday’s opening ceremony, festival director Marek Żydowicz gave a heartfelt tribute to the Dp as he opened Camerimage, which is held annually in Toruń, Poland. “It is very difficult for me to talk about it,” he said, introducing a black-and-while clip featuring portions of Bailey’s 2019 speech when he accepted the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award. Bailey and his wife, Oscar-nominated editor Carol Littleton, had attended the festival on multiple occasions. Żydowicz also emphasized the bond between Camerimage and the Motion Picture Academy that Bailey helped to strengthen. He said, “John, you will forever be in our hearts.
- 11/11/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Prolific actor, director, and producer Adam Arkin directs four episodes of The Offer on Paramount+, including the upcoming penultimate episode and the finale.
We had a chance to chat with him about his work on The Offer and his other work just before he began shooting a series in Vancouver.
Catch his latest work with the final two episodes of The Offer Season 1 on June 9 and June 16 on Paramount+.
You have directed, starred in, and produced some of the best shows on TV over the decades. How have you managed to keep such a vibrant career going in so many different directions?
Oh, well, first of all, thank you. I wish that I could list some kind of divine plan that I came up with about doing any of it. I've generally tended to put one foot in front of the other and act on those opportunities that were opening...
We had a chance to chat with him about his work on The Offer and his other work just before he began shooting a series in Vancouver.
Catch his latest work with the final two episodes of The Offer Season 1 on June 9 and June 16 on Paramount+.
You have directed, starred in, and produced some of the best shows on TV over the decades. How have you managed to keep such a vibrant career going in so many different directions?
Oh, well, first of all, thank you. I wish that I could list some kind of divine plan that I came up with about doing any of it. I've generally tended to put one foot in front of the other and act on those opportunities that were opening...
- 6/8/2022
- by Carissa Pavlica
- TVfanatic
I didn’t get it. When Ron Howard’s The Da Vinci Code took the world by storm in 2006, I was far from being a professional critic, but I could still be highly critical of something like this. It was an adaptation of the biggest literary phenomenon of the decade not starring Harry Potter, and it was arriving in cinemas with the kind of media frenzy usually reserved for Star Wars. All the while, its rollout suggested it had aspirations to be an awards contender. How could something that high-handed live up to that kind of hype?
As a splashy Hollywood version of Dan Brown’s most popular potboiler, The Da Vinci Code premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and was the subject of countless faux-examinations about early Christianity on the cable news circuit—as well as the object of ire for some modern Christians’ growing need for perpetual outrage.
As a splashy Hollywood version of Dan Brown’s most popular potboiler, The Da Vinci Code premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and was the subject of countless faux-examinations about early Christianity on the cable news circuit—as well as the object of ire for some modern Christians’ growing need for perpetual outrage.
- 2/25/2021
- by David Crow
- Den of Geek
There are several constants that you find in a David Ayer movie. He loves to explore the world of crime, as well as the thin lines of good and evil that exist within the criminal underworld. The same goes for when he’s focusing on cops. We’ve seen Ayer’s best with End of Watch and Fury (plus his script for Training Day), as well as his worst with Suicide Squad (even if that wasn’t completely his fault). His newest outing, The Tax Collector, has several elements of good Ayer, as well as bad Ayer. The end result is a frustrating experience that hints at his talents but manages to let you down. The film is a mix of crime drama and action outing, more or less what you’d come to expect from this particular storyteller. David Cuevas (Bobby Soto) is a family man, first and foremost,...
- 8/6/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Shia Labeouf can give complex, transportive performances, with rough and edgy bursts of messy antics slathered on top of soul. Sadly, “The Tax Collector” is not “American Honey.” In writer-director David Ayer’s bland L.A. crime saga about a pair of drug lord minions caught in the crosshairs of a larger war, Labeouf stares and struts his way through a cartoonish and culturally insensitive performance as a troublemaking thug named Creeper that most certainly did not require him to get his character’s name tattooed across his chest.
If the two-bit Latino burlesque was the only problem with “The Tax Collector,” it would have to work overtime to make up for it. Yet even when “The Tax Collector” finds a steadier purpose as a taut revenge thriller, it’s mostly just a slog of vulgar threats and violent outbursts, trading substance for anger until the credits bring some measure of peace.
If the two-bit Latino burlesque was the only problem with “The Tax Collector,” it would have to work overtime to make up for it. Yet even when “The Tax Collector” finds a steadier purpose as a taut revenge thriller, it’s mostly just a slog of vulgar threats and violent outbursts, trading substance for anger until the credits bring some measure of peace.
- 8/3/2020
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
There was a time when a serial killer film, based on a novel written in part by James Patterson, would be a hot commodity in Hollywood. In fact, at one point, The Postcard Killers (the novel’s original name) had no less than famed cinematographer Janusz Kamiński signed to direct, after filmmakers like Paul Greengrass and Gavin O’Connor had flirted with helming. However, those incarnations were not to be, and this weekend The Postcard Killings (a retitling meant to make it seem even more generic) opened, destined to be quickly forgotten about. Without the same talent behind the camera, the flaws are even easier to spot than they otherwise would have been. Misguided, boring, and even often tasteless, this is a real dud. The movie is a crime drama, following a series of brutal murders. When his daughter is murdered, along with her husband, while on her honeymoon in Europe,...
- 3/15/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Famke Janssen has joined Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the cast of crime thriller “The Postcard Killings.” Variety has been given the first-look image from the movie.
Morgan plays Jacob Kanon, the New York detective intent on capturing his daughter’s murderer. Janssen plays Valerie Kanon, the mother of their now deceased daughter.
Across Europe, newlywed couples are being targeted in a string of bizarre killings that leave the young victims’ bodies looking like the murders have been staged.
Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic, who won an Oscar for “No Man’s Land,” and Berlin Grand Jury winner “Death in Sarajevo,” directs the pic.
The film is an adaptation of James Patterson and Liza Marklund bestselling novel. It is produced by Good Films Collective, and is being sold in Cannes by Christian Mercuri’s Capstone.
As well as Morgan and Janssen, the film features Denis O’Hare, Naomi Battrick, Ruairi O’Connor and Cush Jumbo.
Morgan plays Jacob Kanon, the New York detective intent on capturing his daughter’s murderer. Janssen plays Valerie Kanon, the mother of their now deceased daughter.
Across Europe, newlywed couples are being targeted in a string of bizarre killings that leave the young victims’ bodies looking like the murders have been staged.
Bosnian filmmaker Danis Tanovic, who won an Oscar for “No Man’s Land,” and Berlin Grand Jury winner “Death in Sarajevo,” directs the pic.
The film is an adaptation of James Patterson and Liza Marklund bestselling novel. It is produced by Good Films Collective, and is being sold in Cannes by Christian Mercuri’s Capstone.
As well as Morgan and Janssen, the film features Denis O’Hare, Naomi Battrick, Ruairi O’Connor and Cush Jumbo.
- 5/16/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar-winner Danis Tanovic’s chilling crime story “The Postcard Killings” has rounded out its cast with the addition of “American Horror Story’s” Denis O’Hare, “A Very English Scandal’s” Naomi Battrick and “The Spanish Princess’s” Ruairi O’Connor as shooting gets underway in London.
The movie, based on the James Patterson and Liza Marklund bestseller, stars “The Walking Dead’s” Jeffrey Dean Morgan and “Wonder Woman’s” Connie Nielsen, and features Cush Jumbo. The production will also shoot in Norway and Sweden.
The pic follows Jacob Kanon (Morgan), a hardened New York detective, in search of the person responsible for the murder of his only daughter. Across Europe, newlywed couples are being targeted in a string of bizarre homicides that leave the young victims’ bodies looking like copies of great works of art.
Tanovic’s first feature film, “No Man’s Land,” won the 2002 Oscar for best foreign-language film,...
The movie, based on the James Patterson and Liza Marklund bestseller, stars “The Walking Dead’s” Jeffrey Dean Morgan and “Wonder Woman’s” Connie Nielsen, and features Cush Jumbo. The production will also shoot in Norway and Sweden.
The pic follows Jacob Kanon (Morgan), a hardened New York detective, in search of the person responsible for the murder of his only daughter. Across Europe, newlywed couples are being targeted in a string of bizarre homicides that leave the young victims’ bodies looking like copies of great works of art.
Tanovic’s first feature film, “No Man’s Land,” won the 2002 Oscar for best foreign-language film,...
- 3/14/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Last week, I got the chance to check out Marvel’s latest outing, the combined production with Sony that relaunched Spider-Man. Yes, I’m talking about Spider-Man: Homecoming. The film screened pretty early for critics, which is almost always a sign of quality, and that sure was the case here. With it opening this week, it’s worth raving about, just a little bit more. This movie is outstanding, one of the year’s best. It also marks a really strong entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So, with that, today I’m going to be running down a list of the McU titles so far, focused on where Peter Parker and his web slinging alter ego fit in on the list. You see this list at least once or twice a year, but this is the most up to date one yet, obviously. First though, a quick bit more on this flick.
- 7/5/2017
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Marvel really can’t seem to do any wrong these days. They just have a feel for how to make some of the best blockbusters in the business. That trend will continue in a big way next month with the release of Spider-Man: Homecoming, a team up between Marvel and Sony. Getting the webslinger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a nice little cue, though the best part is just how amazing the movie is, no pun intended. Basically every part of this new Spider-Man franchise is the best that this character has ever been treated. It’s truly a spectacular comic book flick. The McU is lucky to have this friendly neighborhood wall crawler. Thankfully skipping over another origin story, this reboot puts Peter Parker (Tom Holland) already on the ground, having established him briefly in Captain America: Civil War. Following those events, we follow teenager Peter as he...
- 6/29/2017
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Here's the third futile attempt by director Ron Howard to turn the bestselling claptrap of author Dan Brown into something watchable. He comes close, but not close enough. This time Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist played as if against his will by Tom Hanks, suffers from retrograde amnesia. Lucky guy – I can remember all too well how the film's plodding predecessors, The Da Vinci Code (2006) and Angels & Demons (2009), stubbornly refused to come to life. Howard, shooting in Florence and Istanbul, makes things look compellingly atmospheric. And Hanks is one of...
- 10/26/2016
- Rollingstone.com
‘Inferno’ Review: Third Time Is Not the Charm For Latest Tom Hanks-Starring Robert Langdon Adventure
Whatever you might say about the quality of novelist Dan Brown’s writing, he’s created a terrific character in symbolist sleuth Robert Langdon – an indomitable, if reluctant hero, a Jack Ryan spliced with Umberto Eco’s William of Baskerville. And with adventures that combine mystery, cerebral riddle-solving and globe-trotting action adventure, surely it’s impossible to go wrong when bringing Langdon to the screen. Well, actually, no, it’s entirely possible.
In fact, after “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” “Inferno” makes it three duds in a row. Thanks to Tom Hanks, Langdon is a palpable, enjoyable presence. But once again Ron Howard and his screenwriters have failed to satisfactorily adapt the material around him. If the first film was ploddingly, airlessly faithful to its source, this follows the second in being frantically paced, chaotic and increasingly exasperating.
Brown has upped the stakes considerably. Whereas the earlier stories...
In fact, after “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” “Inferno” makes it three duds in a row. Thanks to Tom Hanks, Langdon is a palpable, enjoyable presence. But once again Ron Howard and his screenwriters have failed to satisfactorily adapt the material around him. If the first film was ploddingly, airlessly faithful to its source, this follows the second in being frantically paced, chaotic and increasingly exasperating.
Brown has upped the stakes considerably. Whereas the earlier stories...
- 10/11/2016
- by Demetrios Matheou
- Indiewire
Exclusive: A number of promotions and changes were just made at Dattner Dispoto and Associates, a talent agency founded in 1987 that represents below-the-line crew. nm2374492 autoJuanita Tiangco[/link] was named VP Commercials and Music Videos. Tiangco ran Dda's New York office for five years, repping such talent as Harris Savides, Lance Acord, Salvatore Totino, Tami Reiker and Jim Fealy. She returned to Dda in Los Angeles in 2005. She has been an agent for 26 years, including 16 at…...
- 7/12/2016
- Deadline TV
Exclusive: A number of promotions and changes were just made at Dattner Dispoto and Associates, a talent agency founded in 1987 that represents below-the-line crew. nm2374492 autoJuanita Tiangco[/link] was named VP Commercials and Music Videos. Tiangco ran Dda's New York office for five years, repping such talent as Harris Savides, Lance Acord, Salvatore Totino, Tami Reiker and Jim Fealy. She returned to Dda in Los Angeles in 2005. She has been an agent for 26 years, including 16 at…...
- 7/12/2016
- Deadline
Unbridled ambition, a ferocious storm, and the limits of human endurance collide at the top of the world in the white-knuckle adventure Everest, coming to Digital HD on December 22, 2015, and 3D Blu-ray™, Blu-ray™, DVD and On Demand on January 19, 2016, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Following a pair of expeditions to the highest point – and most dangerous place – on Earth, Everest captures the brutal majesty of the deadly peak, and the boundless courage required to conquer it, with breathtaking cinematography and spectacular storytelling. Exclusive extras make Everest a can’t-miss, must-own event, bringing viewers behind-the-scenes for a look at the making of the film, as well as astonishing insights about the real-life 1996 summit attempt that inspired it.
Wamg is giving away copies of the film to celebrate the Blu-ray/DVD release.
Enter Your Name And E-mail In Our Comments Section Below. We Will Contact You If You Are A Winner.
Following a pair of expeditions to the highest point – and most dangerous place – on Earth, Everest captures the brutal majesty of the deadly peak, and the boundless courage required to conquer it, with breathtaking cinematography and spectacular storytelling. Exclusive extras make Everest a can’t-miss, must-own event, bringing viewers behind-the-scenes for a look at the making of the film, as well as astonishing insights about the real-life 1996 summit attempt that inspired it.
Wamg is giving away copies of the film to celebrate the Blu-ray/DVD release.
Enter Your Name And E-mail In Our Comments Section Below. We Will Contact You If You Are A Winner.
- 1/19/2016
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Read More: Review: Thrilling 'Everest' is Guaranteed to Enhance Mountain Climbing Fears "Everest," Baltasar Kormákur's fact-based survival thriller that gripped audiences last year, has announced its DVD release for later this month, which will feature exclusive behind-the-scenes footage set to test audiences' endurance. The clip above teases prominent cast and crew members talking about their experiences with director Kormákur and how they faced intense and dangerous weather while shooting. While filming at levels of over 10,000 feet, many felt the severe consequences of such an endeavor. Cinematographer Salvatore Totino had to take Diamox for brutal altitude sickness, and wound up getting nerve damage in both of his feet despite taking many precautions. The semi-biographical film documents the journey of two different expeditions as they attempt to reach the summit of the highest mountain in the world, struggling to survive fierce snowstorms,...
- 1/15/2016
- by Kristen Santer
- Indiewire
At last, an adventure movie that does without action-epic superhero Bs. It's simply You Are There with a dozen likeable, determined climbers coping with calamity in a place that, for all the help that can be sent, 'might as well be on the moon.' The excellent depth effects all but nail us to the screen. Everest Blu-ray + DVD Universal Studios Home Entertainment 2015 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 121 min. / Street Date January 19, 2016 / 49.98 Starring Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Keira Knightley, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright, Martin Henderson, John Hawkes, Naoko Mori, Michael Kelly, Emily Watson, Sam Worthington. Cinematography Salvatore Totino Film Editor Mick Audsley Original Music Dario Marianelli Written by William Nicholson, Simon Beaufroy Produced by Nicky Kentish Barnes, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Baltasar Kormákur, Brian Oliver, Tyler Thompson. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I've heard no Oscar buzz surrounding Baltasar Kormákur's Everest, which makes sense. It isn't the kind of movie that courts awards,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
I've heard no Oscar buzz surrounding Baltasar Kormákur's Everest, which makes sense. It isn't the kind of movie that courts awards,...
- 1/12/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Cinematographer Salvatore Totino ("Concussion," "Inferno") now has a greater understanding of what the real-life climbers encountered when they were hit with one of the fiercest blizzards during their final ascent toward the summit of Mount Everest in 1996. "It was hard for all of us," recalled Totino who was forced to take Diamox for altitude sickness, which felt like being hit on the head with a baseball bat. "There were days when we wouldn't break for lunch, which was fine because it goes by quicker. I wore these mountain climbing boots but my feet froze and I wound up getting nerve damage in both of my big toes after the shoot," he said. "You had to be really loose in a lot of ways because the weather was constantly changing and you couldn't control it. We filmed in Italy on the Austrian border at 10,000 feet and they had the coldest winter in 25 years.
- 9/21/2015
- by Bill Desowitz
- Thompson on Hollywood
Emily Watson steals the show in this real-life story based on an expedition to climb Everest in 1996
Top-flight cinematography by Salvatore Totino, deftly edited by Mick Audsley, lends gravitas to Baltasar Kormákur’s tale of mountaintop disaster, based on real-life events from 1996. Jason Clarke is the leader of an “adventure consultants”’ climb beset by bad weather and overcrowding. The climbers are a mixed bag, ranging from Josh Brolin’s gruff Texan, Beck Weathers, to John Hawkes’s amiable but ailing postal worker, Doug Hansen, and Naoko Mori’s Yasuko Namba, a Japanese businesswoman dedicated to summiting the highest mountains of the seven continents.
For the most part, screenwriters William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy (the latter co-wrote the physical endurance tester 127 Hours) attempt to avoid the sentimental tropes of the disaster movie, although radio contact with distant partners leaves both Keira Knightley and Robin Wright simply waiting for tear-jerking phone calls. Emily Watson is terrific as the base camp controller trying to manage the unfolding chaos, and it’s her scenes that pack the greatest punch, her face and voice a pitch-perfect portrayal of alarmed restraint. Powerful sound design effectively accentuates the sense of stormy isolation, giving the mountain the last word.
Continue reading...
Top-flight cinematography by Salvatore Totino, deftly edited by Mick Audsley, lends gravitas to Baltasar Kormákur’s tale of mountaintop disaster, based on real-life events from 1996. Jason Clarke is the leader of an “adventure consultants”’ climb beset by bad weather and overcrowding. The climbers are a mixed bag, ranging from Josh Brolin’s gruff Texan, Beck Weathers, to John Hawkes’s amiable but ailing postal worker, Doug Hansen, and Naoko Mori’s Yasuko Namba, a Japanese businesswoman dedicated to summiting the highest mountains of the seven continents.
For the most part, screenwriters William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy (the latter co-wrote the physical endurance tester 127 Hours) attempt to avoid the sentimental tropes of the disaster movie, although radio contact with distant partners leaves both Keira Knightley and Robin Wright simply waiting for tear-jerking phone calls. Emily Watson is terrific as the base camp controller trying to manage the unfolding chaos, and it’s her scenes that pack the greatest punch, her face and voice a pitch-perfect portrayal of alarmed restraint. Powerful sound design effectively accentuates the sense of stormy isolation, giving the mountain the last word.
Continue reading...
- 9/20/2015
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Emily Watson steals the show in this real-life story based on an expedition to climb Everest in 1996
Top-flight cinematography by Salvatore Totino, deftly edited by Mick Audsley, lends gravitas to Baltasar Kormákur’s tale of mountaintop disaster, based on real-life events from 1996. Jason Clarke is the leader of an “adventure consultants”’ climb beset by bad weather and overcrowding. The climbers are a mixed bag, ranging from Josh Brolin’s gruff Texan, Beck Weathers, to John Hawkes’s amiable but ailing postal worker, Doug Hansen, and Naoko Mori’s Yasuko Namba, a Japanese businesswoman dedicated to summiting the highest mountains of the seven continents.
For the most part, screenwriters William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy (the latter co-wrote the physical endurance tester 127 Hours) attempt to avoid the sentimental tropes of the disaster movie, although radio contact with distant partners leaves both Keira Knightley and Robin Wright simply waiting for tear-jerking phone calls.
Top-flight cinematography by Salvatore Totino, deftly edited by Mick Audsley, lends gravitas to Baltasar Kormákur’s tale of mountaintop disaster, based on real-life events from 1996. Jason Clarke is the leader of an “adventure consultants”’ climb beset by bad weather and overcrowding. The climbers are a mixed bag, ranging from Josh Brolin’s gruff Texan, Beck Weathers, to John Hawkes’s amiable but ailing postal worker, Doug Hansen, and Naoko Mori’s Yasuko Namba, a Japanese businesswoman dedicated to summiting the highest mountains of the seven continents.
For the most part, screenwriters William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy (the latter co-wrote the physical endurance tester 127 Hours) attempt to avoid the sentimental tropes of the disaster movie, although radio contact with distant partners leaves both Keira Knightley and Robin Wright simply waiting for tear-jerking phone calls.
- 9/20/2015
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Everest
Written by William Nicholson & Simon Beaufoy
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
UK/USA/Iceland, 2015
The phrase “visually stunning” is used pretty liberally these days, what with a new blockbuster extravaganza arriving nearly every weekend. The new disaster drama, Everest, quite literally takes things to new heights. Director Baltasar Kormákur mixes breathtaking cinematography, dizzying special effects, and pummeling sound to bring the infamous mountain to life. Unfortunately, the script can’t keep pace, as it sidesteps the shortcomings of its characters in order to preserve an emotional denouement. It’s worth an afternoon at the IMAX theater to take in the sights, but don’t expect any new insight into this harrowing ordeal.
In 1996, eight climbers comprising two expedition groups died after being overtaken by a vicious storm atop Mt. Everest. One group, Adventure Consultants, was led by the amiable Kiwi, Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), while the other was helmed by the hard-living American,...
Written by William Nicholson & Simon Beaufoy
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
UK/USA/Iceland, 2015
The phrase “visually stunning” is used pretty liberally these days, what with a new blockbuster extravaganza arriving nearly every weekend. The new disaster drama, Everest, quite literally takes things to new heights. Director Baltasar Kormákur mixes breathtaking cinematography, dizzying special effects, and pummeling sound to bring the infamous mountain to life. Unfortunately, the script can’t keep pace, as it sidesteps the shortcomings of its characters in order to preserve an emotional denouement. It’s worth an afternoon at the IMAX theater to take in the sights, but don’t expect any new insight into this harrowing ordeal.
In 1996, eight climbers comprising two expedition groups died after being overtaken by a vicious storm atop Mt. Everest. One group, Adventure Consultants, was led by the amiable Kiwi, Rob Hall (Jason Clarke), while the other was helmed by the hard-living American,...
- 9/17/2015
- by J.R. Kinnard
- SoundOnSight
© 2015 Ctmg, Inc. All rights reserved.
Principal photography has commenced on Inferno, the new film in Columbia Pictures’ Robert Langdon series, which has taken in more than $1.2 billion worldwide to date. The film is slated for release on October 14, 2016.
In the film, Academy Award winner Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon. He is joined by an international cast of actors, including Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, and Sidse Babett Knudsen.
The film is directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The screenplay is by David Koepp, based on the book by Dan Brown. The project’s executive producers are David Householter, Dan Brown, Anna Culp, and William M. Connor.
Inferno continues the Harvard symbologist’s adventures on screen: when Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks, a doctor he hopes will help...
Principal photography has commenced on Inferno, the new film in Columbia Pictures’ Robert Langdon series, which has taken in more than $1.2 billion worldwide to date. The film is slated for release on October 14, 2016.
In the film, Academy Award winner Tom Hanks reprises his role as Robert Langdon. He is joined by an international cast of actors, including Felicity Jones, Irrfan Khan, Omar Sy, Ben Foster, and Sidse Babett Knudsen.
The film is directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. The screenplay is by David Koepp, based on the book by Dan Brown. The project’s executive producers are David Householter, Dan Brown, Anna Culp, and William M. Connor.
Inferno continues the Harvard symbologist’s adventures on screen: when Robert Langdon wakes up in an Italian hospital with amnesia, he teams up with Sienna Brooks, a doctor he hopes will help...
- 5/12/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Sony Pictures announced today that it has scheduled the Will Smith drama Concussion for a Christmas Day release. The film is opening at a prime time, not only because of the holiday movie season but also just as the NFL will be preparing for the playoffs. Concussion follows Dr. Bennet Omalu, the forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of football-related brain trauma in a pro player and fought to bring awareness to the public. In his search for the truth, Omalu, a total outsider to pro football, takes on the sports industry’s status quo. His studies on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (Cte), prompted the NFL to take brain-related injuries seriously. Cte was cited in the suicides of former NFL stars Junior Seau and Dave Duerson. Deadline announced Smith’s attachment to the film back in June.
Written and directed by Peter Landesman (Parkland), Concussion is based on the GQ...
Written and directed by Peter Landesman (Parkland), Concussion is based on the GQ...
- 1/28/2015
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline
Production has started on the thrilling mountain climbing drama Everest. We have our first look at the film featuring Jason Clarke at the head of a team of climbers. The movie is being directed by Baltasar Kormákur (Contraband), and the cast also includes Josh Brolin, John Hawkes, and Jake Gyllenhaal. The movie tells the true story of two groups of climbers who attempted to climb the world’s highest mountain during an insane snowstorm.
It will be released in IMAX 3D on February 27th, 2015, and here's the full press release with all of the details on the story. This seems like it will be a pretty intense film.
Universal Pictures, Walden Media and Cross Creek Pictures, announce the start of principal photography on the Working Title Films production of Everest. Universal Pictures will release Everest in North American theaters in 3D and IMAX 3D on February 27, 2015.
Inspired by the incredible...
It will be released in IMAX 3D on February 27th, 2015, and here's the full press release with all of the details on the story. This seems like it will be a pretty intense film.
Universal Pictures, Walden Media and Cross Creek Pictures, announce the start of principal photography on the Working Title Films production of Everest. Universal Pictures will release Everest in North American theaters in 3D and IMAX 3D on February 27, 2015.
Inspired by the incredible...
- 2/13/2014
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Universal Pictures, Walden Media and Cross Creek Pictures, announce the start of principal photography on the Working Title Films production of Everest. Universal Pictures will release Everest in North American theaters in 3D and IMAX 3D on February 27, 2015.
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.
The epic adventure stars Jason Clarke (The Great Gatsby, Zero Dark Thirty), Josh Brolin (True Grit, No Country for Old Men), John Hawkes (Lincoln, Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Jake Gyllenhaal(Source Code, Brokeback Mountain). They are joined by Martin Henderson (The Ring...
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, Everest documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.
The epic adventure stars Jason Clarke (The Great Gatsby, Zero Dark Thirty), Josh Brolin (True Grit, No Country for Old Men), John Hawkes (Lincoln, Martha Marcy May Marlene) and Jake Gyllenhaal(Source Code, Brokeback Mountain). They are joined by Martin Henderson (The Ring...
- 2/13/2014
- by Press Release (Universal Pictures)
- Dark Horizons
Universal Pictures have released the first image and press release from their new movie Everest which has a stonking cast and is set for erlease in IMAX 3D 27th February 2015. Jason Clarke, Josh Brolin, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Hawkes all star in the movie helmed by Baltasar Kormákur which has begun principle photography in Nepal.
The full press release is below and here’s the image which you can click to enlarge. The movie is set to shoot right here at Pinewood Studios, Rome and Nepal.
More on it as we get it. Wrap up warm people!
Universal City, CA & London- 12th February 2014 – Universal Pictures, Walden Media and Cross Creek Pictures, announce the start of principal photography on the Working Title Films production of Everest. Universal Pictures will release Everest in North American theatres in 3D and IMAX 3D on 27th February 2015.
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous...
The full press release is below and here’s the image which you can click to enlarge. The movie is set to shoot right here at Pinewood Studios, Rome and Nepal.
More on it as we get it. Wrap up warm people!
Universal City, CA & London- 12th February 2014 – Universal Pictures, Walden Media and Cross Creek Pictures, announce the start of principal photography on the Working Title Films production of Everest. Universal Pictures will release Everest in North American theatres in 3D and IMAX 3D on 27th February 2015.
Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous...
- 2/12/2014
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
In the latest video in our Craft Truck series, Sal Totino, who was the cinematographer on features like Frost/Nixon, Cinderella Man and The Da Vinci Code, advocates knowing the rules but only in order to break them. Using an apt metaphor of cooking, he says that one could follow a recipe step-by-step or break away and “put a little bit of your soul into it.” Nothing is guaranteed, as Totino cautions, especially not when straying from convention, but you have to know where the edge is — and sometimes fall off — to learn your limits. Watch the full interview here.
- 12/12/2013
- by Nadia Ismail
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In the latest video in our Craft Truck series, Sal Totino, who was the cinematographer on features like Frost/Nixon, Cinderella Man and The Da Vinci Code, advocates knowing the rules but only in order to break them. Using an apt metaphor of cooking, he says that one could follow a recipe step-by-step or break away and “put a little bit of your soul into it.” Nothing is guaranteed, as Totino cautions, especially not when straying from convention, but you have to know where the edge is — and sometimes fall off — to learn your limits. Watch the full interview here.
- 12/12/2013
- by Nadia Ismail
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
A character-driven drama is not something many would assume to place in writer Alex Kurtzman‘s wheelhouse. Kurtzman and his writing partner, Roberto Orci, usually churn out rather artificial, set piece-driven, basic-minded blockbusters. As fun as many of them are - The Island, Stark Trek and Mission: Impossible III - there’s a lack of humanity in nearly all of them. It’s refreshing, then, that Kurtzman’s foray into directing, the not-so-subtlely titled People Like Us, contains much of the humanity missing in many of his previous works.
When Sam’s (Chris Pine) distant father dies, he discovers the other life and family another life his father abandoned. In debt and at the risk of losing his job, Sam is asked to deliver $100,000 to the sister he never knew, a barmaid and mother named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks). As he starts to get to know his sister, Sam isn’t...
When Sam’s (Chris Pine) distant father dies, he discovers the other life and family another life his father abandoned. In debt and at the risk of losing his job, Sam is asked to deliver $100,000 to the sister he never knew, a barmaid and mother named Frankie (Elizabeth Banks). As he starts to get to know his sister, Sam isn’t...
- 6/29/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Release Date: May 15
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman, Dan Brown (novel)
Cinematographer: Salvatore Totino
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård
Studio/Run Time: Sony Pictures, 138 mins.
Having it both ways in a film that’s more thrilling than thoughtful
Everyone's favorite symbologist Robert Langdon is back in Angels & Demons, the sequel to the inane Da Vinci Code. With a new haircut and graying temples Tom Hanks looks even more like an insurance agent, but don't let his unassuming nature fool you. He's more active and focused this time, and with an impulsive, attractive physicist at his side—one who can read Latin, perform CPR, and explain antimatter to laymen—no wild goose could best him in a chase. And these wild geese want very much to be chased.
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: David Koepp and Akiva Goldsman, Dan Brown (novel)
Cinematographer: Salvatore Totino
Starring: Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård
Studio/Run Time: Sony Pictures, 138 mins.
Having it both ways in a film that’s more thrilling than thoughtful
Everyone's favorite symbologist Robert Langdon is back in Angels & Demons, the sequel to the inane Da Vinci Code. With a new haircut and graying temples Tom Hanks looks even more like an insurance agent, but don't let his unassuming nature fool you. He's more active and focused this time, and with an impulsive, attractive physicist at his side—one who can read Latin, perform CPR, and explain antimatter to laymen—no wild goose could best him in a chase. And these wild geese want very much to be chased.
- 5/15/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
.Angels & Demons. is much better in scope and style than its predecessor, the unholy but super-successful .The Da Vinci Code.. Yet, for all its action-filled suspense, the sequel failed to reach cinematic heaven.
Based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown, Tom Hanks returns to the role of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. Once again, he finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing to advance their goals.
This time, the antagonist is a secret society known as the Illuminati. It.s a centuries-old underground organization and one of the oldest enemies of the Catholic Church. When the Illuminati threaten the existence of the Church, the Vatican calls on Langdon for help.
The Vatican is under attack at its most vulnerable moment. The Pope is dead, and the Church is going through conclave, the time when Cardinals elect their new Holy Father. Among the Cardinals are the preferiti,...
Based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown, Tom Hanks returns to the role of Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon. Once again, he finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing to advance their goals.
This time, the antagonist is a secret society known as the Illuminati. It.s a centuries-old underground organization and one of the oldest enemies of the Catholic Church. When the Illuminati threaten the existence of the Church, the Vatican calls on Langdon for help.
The Vatican is under attack at its most vulnerable moment. The Pope is dead, and the Church is going through conclave, the time when Cardinals elect their new Holy Father. Among the Cardinals are the preferiti,...
- 5/13/2009
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
I'm going to buck the trend I created with my Multiple Choice Reviews and just do this one (and tomorrow's for Revolutionary Road) straight-forward. I don't see the point when every aspect of Frost/Nixon is excellent, from Ron Howard's direction to Salvatore Totino's cinematography to Peter Morgan's stirring screenplay. Upon ...
- 1/6/2009
- by Josh Radde
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
2 Days in Paris Release Date: Dec. 5 (limited)
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Peter Morgan
Cinematographer: Salvatore Totino
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen
Studio/Run Time: Universal Studios, 122 mins.
There’s a pivotal moment in Frost/Nixon when ex-president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) drunkenly calls talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) on a night preceding their final interview, unwittingly inspiring Frost to go into battle mode and more rigorously prepare for the biggest assignment of his career. It makes for wonderful drama, and is possibly the most engrossing scene in the film. The only problem is that it never happened. Brilliant lie that it is, it provides the film with a climactic punctuation that might otherwise have been missing.
Director: Ron Howard
Writer: Peter Morgan
Cinematographer: Salvatore Totino
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen
Studio/Run Time: Universal Studios, 122 mins.
There’s a pivotal moment in Frost/Nixon when ex-president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) drunkenly calls talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) on a night preceding their final interview, unwittingly inspiring Frost to go into battle mode and more rigorously prepare for the biggest assignment of his career. It makes for wonderful drama, and is possibly the most engrossing scene in the film. The only problem is that it never happened. Brilliant lie that it is, it provides the film with a climactic punctuation that might otherwise have been missing.
- 12/5/2008
- Pastemagazine.com
CANNES -- For those who hate Dan Brown's best-selling symbology thriller "The Da Vinci Code", the eagerly awaited and much-hyped movie version beautifully exposes all its flaws and nightmares of logic. For those who love the book's page-turning intensity, the movie version heightens Brown's mischievous interweaving of genre action, historical facts and utter fictions. In other words, for those who bear witness to the film "The Da Vinci Code", what you see depends on what you believe. Kinda like religion itself.
Strictly as a movie and ignoring the current swirl of controversy no amount of studio money could ever buy, the Ron Howard-directed film features one of Tom Hanks' more remote, even wooden performances in a role that admittedly demands all the wrong sorts of things from a thriller protagonist; an only slightly more animated performance from his French co-star, Audrey Tautou; and polished Hollywood production values where camera cranes sweep viewers up to God-like points of view and famous locations and deliciously sinister interiors heighten tension where the movie threatens to turn into a historical treatise. The movie really only catches fire after an hour, when Ian McKellen hobbles on the scene as the story's Sphinx-like Sir Leigh Teabing. Here is the one actor having fun with his role and playing a character rather than a piece to a puzzle.
True believers and those who want to understand what all the fuss is about will jam cinemas worldwide in the coming weeks in sufficient numbers so as to fulfill probably even the most optimistic projections of Sony execs.
But the movie is so drenched in dialogue musing over arcane mythological and historical lore and scenes grow so static that even camera movement can't disguise the dramatic inertia. Such sins could cut into those rosy projections.
For those who vacationed on Mars for the past few years, "The Da Vinci Code" is the second of Brown's thrillers starring Harvard professor of iconography and religious art Robert Langdon (Hanks). The books seek to put contemporary ticking bombs into dusty historical disputes. In this one, the murder of a highly respected curator in the Louvre in Paris, where Langdon fortuitously happens to be while on a speaking engagement, embroils the professor in a race against time to locate nothing less than the Holy Grail.
His companion is police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Tautou), and his seeming nemesis is bulldog police captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno, largely wasted), who for no plausible reason believes Langdon to be the killer. But other potential villains loom: Jet-setting Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina), from the ultraconservative Opus Dei branch of Catholicism, and Silas, an albino-monk assassin (Paul Bettany).
The plot is driven not by its characters but by solutions to puzzles, the breaking of codes, interpreting covert references in works of art and a dazzling display of historical knowledge, all of which works terrifically in the novel but puts the brakes to all screen action. Hanks' character is far too reactive and contemplative for a movie action hero, and the cliched nature of those drifting in and out of his orbit hits home with jolting simplicity.
Screen adapter Akiva Goldsman has definitely punched up Brown's third act. He has actually improved on the novel -- at least for those who buy in to the historical controversy that Jesus left behind a royal French bloodline -- by giving the story a broader, more fulfilling payoff than the novel. If one doesn't buy into that controversy, then the story becomes just that much more forced and corrupt. (The final revelation produced a few titters in the first press audience to see the film.)
Howard and Goldsman can't do much, though, with mostly colorless characters designed around idiosyncrasies and weird scholarly talents -- sort of academic X-Men -- rather than flesh-and-blood personalities. No chemistry exists between the hero and heroine, and motivation remains a troubling sore point. Why does the innocent professor flee? Why is Sophie so eager to help? Why is anyone doing what he does when so many characters and subplots turn into red herrings?
One questionable "cinematic" addition to the film are flashbacks to ancient biblical and medieval historical tableaus in the Holy Land and Europe that illustrate Prof. Langdon's continuous lectures on religious history. These look as if some prankster spliced scenes from last year's "Kingdom of Heaven" into the film as a bad joke.
Howard proves a smart choice as a director because his middlebrow tastes inspire him to go for broad strokes and forget making any real sense of these logic-busters. But why did he allow such a solid, attractive cast to turn in such stiff, unappealing performances? Salvatore Totino's glistening cinematography, Allan Cameron's assured production design and Hans Zimmer's driving score are definitely pluses. Yet "Da Vinci" never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.
THE DA VINCI CODE
Columbia Pictures
Imagine Entertainment
Credits: Director: Ron Howard; Screenwriter: Akiva Goldsman; Based on the novel by: Dan Brown; Producers: Brian Grazer, John Calley; Executive producers: Todd Hallowell, Dan Brown; Director of photography: Salvatore Totino; Production designer: Allan Cameron; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costumes: Daniel Orlandi; Editors: Dan Hanley, Mike Hill. Cast: Robert Langdon: Tom Hanks; Sophie Neveu: Audrey Tautou; Sir Leigh Teabing: Ian McKellen; Captain Fache: Jean Reno; Silas: Paul Bettany; Bishop Aringarosa: Alfred Molina; Vernet: Jurgen Prochnow; Remy Jean: Jean-Yves Berteloot.
MPAA rating PG-13, running time 147 minutes.
Strictly as a movie and ignoring the current swirl of controversy no amount of studio money could ever buy, the Ron Howard-directed film features one of Tom Hanks' more remote, even wooden performances in a role that admittedly demands all the wrong sorts of things from a thriller protagonist; an only slightly more animated performance from his French co-star, Audrey Tautou; and polished Hollywood production values where camera cranes sweep viewers up to God-like points of view and famous locations and deliciously sinister interiors heighten tension where the movie threatens to turn into a historical treatise. The movie really only catches fire after an hour, when Ian McKellen hobbles on the scene as the story's Sphinx-like Sir Leigh Teabing. Here is the one actor having fun with his role and playing a character rather than a piece to a puzzle.
True believers and those who want to understand what all the fuss is about will jam cinemas worldwide in the coming weeks in sufficient numbers so as to fulfill probably even the most optimistic projections of Sony execs.
But the movie is so drenched in dialogue musing over arcane mythological and historical lore and scenes grow so static that even camera movement can't disguise the dramatic inertia. Such sins could cut into those rosy projections.
For those who vacationed on Mars for the past few years, "The Da Vinci Code" is the second of Brown's thrillers starring Harvard professor of iconography and religious art Robert Langdon (Hanks). The books seek to put contemporary ticking bombs into dusty historical disputes. In this one, the murder of a highly respected curator in the Louvre in Paris, where Langdon fortuitously happens to be while on a speaking engagement, embroils the professor in a race against time to locate nothing less than the Holy Grail.
His companion is police cryptologist Sophie Neveu (Tautou), and his seeming nemesis is bulldog police captain Bezu Fache (Jean Reno, largely wasted), who for no plausible reason believes Langdon to be the killer. But other potential villains loom: Jet-setting Bishop Aringarosa (Alfred Molina), from the ultraconservative Opus Dei branch of Catholicism, and Silas, an albino-monk assassin (Paul Bettany).
The plot is driven not by its characters but by solutions to puzzles, the breaking of codes, interpreting covert references in works of art and a dazzling display of historical knowledge, all of which works terrifically in the novel but puts the brakes to all screen action. Hanks' character is far too reactive and contemplative for a movie action hero, and the cliched nature of those drifting in and out of his orbit hits home with jolting simplicity.
Screen adapter Akiva Goldsman has definitely punched up Brown's third act. He has actually improved on the novel -- at least for those who buy in to the historical controversy that Jesus left behind a royal French bloodline -- by giving the story a broader, more fulfilling payoff than the novel. If one doesn't buy into that controversy, then the story becomes just that much more forced and corrupt. (The final revelation produced a few titters in the first press audience to see the film.)
Howard and Goldsman can't do much, though, with mostly colorless characters designed around idiosyncrasies and weird scholarly talents -- sort of academic X-Men -- rather than flesh-and-blood personalities. No chemistry exists between the hero and heroine, and motivation remains a troubling sore point. Why does the innocent professor flee? Why is Sophie so eager to help? Why is anyone doing what he does when so many characters and subplots turn into red herrings?
One questionable "cinematic" addition to the film are flashbacks to ancient biblical and medieval historical tableaus in the Holy Land and Europe that illustrate Prof. Langdon's continuous lectures on religious history. These look as if some prankster spliced scenes from last year's "Kingdom of Heaven" into the film as a bad joke.
Howard proves a smart choice as a director because his middlebrow tastes inspire him to go for broad strokes and forget making any real sense of these logic-busters. But why did he allow such a solid, attractive cast to turn in such stiff, unappealing performances? Salvatore Totino's glistening cinematography, Allan Cameron's assured production design and Hans Zimmer's driving score are definitely pluses. Yet "Da Vinci" never rises to the level of a guilty pleasure. Too much guilt. Not enough pleasure.
THE DA VINCI CODE
Columbia Pictures
Imagine Entertainment
Credits: Director: Ron Howard; Screenwriter: Akiva Goldsman; Based on the novel by: Dan Brown; Producers: Brian Grazer, John Calley; Executive producers: Todd Hallowell, Dan Brown; Director of photography: Salvatore Totino; Production designer: Allan Cameron; Music: Hans Zimmer; Costumes: Daniel Orlandi; Editors: Dan Hanley, Mike Hill. Cast: Robert Langdon: Tom Hanks; Sophie Neveu: Audrey Tautou; Sir Leigh Teabing: Ian McKellen; Captain Fache: Jean Reno; Silas: Paul Bettany; Bishop Aringarosa: Alfred Molina; Vernet: Jurgen Prochnow; Remy Jean: Jean-Yves Berteloot.
MPAA rating PG-13, running time 147 minutes.
- 5/17/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In boxing lore, there have been few comeback stories as inspirational as the precipitous fall and equally dramatic ascension of Depression-era fighter James J. Braddock.
Appropriately dubbed the Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon, Braddock and his change of fortune provided a shred of hope for the hard-knock lives and times of his fellow working-class Americans.
Reuniting with his A Beautiful Mind star, Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts.
It's certainly the first studio release of the year that could rightfully lay claim to any early Oscar buzz. The picture not only boasts a winning ensemble, with equally terrific performances from on-a-roll Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger, but it also is a technical knockout, steeped in period atmosphere that practically reeks of authenticity.
But while it doesn't flinch from the lower-key, darker recesses of the era, it still manages to hit the necessary, audience-grabbing posts. Even with all those traditionally male-skewing boxing sequences, there's also a strong emphasis on home and family that will ensure Cinderella Man is an equal-opportunity draw, in turn giving Universal a Seabiscuit-sized happily ever after at the boxoffice.
The screenplay, credited to Cliff Hollingsworth and A Beautiful Mind's Akiva Goldsman, picks up on Crowe's Braddock in the throes of a promising career. The New Jersey-based Bulldog of Bergen, known for a healthy tenacious streak and a formidable right hand, was on his way to the big time when a badly broken right hand and a consequential defeat at the hands of light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a downward spiral.
Of course, the fact that his bad-luck streak happens to coincide with the stock-market crash of 1929 only exacerbates matters, and Braddock soon finds himself unable to make ends meet for wife Mae (Zellweger) and his three kids.
Drowning in debt and facing the prospect of a New Jersey winter without heat in their drab basement apartment, Braddock is not above begging when his old, indefatigable manager Joe Gould (Giamatti) shows up offering him a one-shot chance at redemption.
Deemed too old and too hungry to step back in the ring, Braddock surprises the skeptics, and himself for that matter, by knocking out his rising-star opponent with the help of a newly discovered hook developed logging all those hours of dock work.
Soon, Braddock finds himself back on track and carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of struggling average Joes on his shoulders. But an impending face-off against world heavyweight champ Max Baer, who already has killed two men in the ring, raises the stakes considerably for Braddock and his family.
Always a stickler for period detail, Howard outdoes himself here. Working with production designer Wynn Thomas and costume designer Daniel Orlandi, he evokes the time and place right down to the faces of the smallest bit players.
When the power is cut in Jim and Mae's flat in the dead of winter, Salvatore Totino's ever-probing camera captures each stifled breath, and thanks to the meticulously re-created surroundings (using Toronto's empty Maple Leaf Gardens as a credible substitute for the old Madison Square Garden Bowl), you almost can catch a whiff of the smoke and sweat and desperation.
But the picture's greatest effect is Crowe. With his head cocked to one side almost in anticipation of the blows that will come his way both in and out of the ring, he makes Braddock an introspective everyman who might be down but never is completely out for the count.
Giamatti, who just keeps getting better, brings a never-say-die urgency to the role of Braddock's scrappy manager, while Zellweger takes what could have been a thankless role and gives it her own indelible imprint.
There's also good work from Bruce McGill as a cigar-chomping boxing promoter, Paddy Considine as a co-worker of Braddock's who doesn't fare quite so well and Craig Bierko as a taunting Baer.
Putting the finishing touches on this thoroughly satisfying production is Thomas Newman's elegant score, which, like everything else here, never strains for cheap sentiment.
Cinderella Man
Universal
Universal Pictures, Miramax Films and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Parkway Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriters: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman
Story: Cliff Hollingsworth
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall
Executive producer: Todd Hallowell
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editors: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi
Music: Thomas Newman
Cast:
Jim Braddock: Russell Crowe
Mae Braddock: Renee Zellweger
Joe Gould: Paul Giamatti
Max Baer: Craig Bierko
Mike Wilson: Paddy Considine
Jimmy Johnston: Bruce McGill
Ford Bond: David Huband
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 144 minutes...
Appropriately dubbed the Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon, Braddock and his change of fortune provided a shred of hope for the hard-knock lives and times of his fellow working-class Americans.
Reuniting with his A Beautiful Mind star, Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts.
It's certainly the first studio release of the year that could rightfully lay claim to any early Oscar buzz. The picture not only boasts a winning ensemble, with equally terrific performances from on-a-roll Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger, but it also is a technical knockout, steeped in period atmosphere that practically reeks of authenticity.
But while it doesn't flinch from the lower-key, darker recesses of the era, it still manages to hit the necessary, audience-grabbing posts. Even with all those traditionally male-skewing boxing sequences, there's also a strong emphasis on home and family that will ensure Cinderella Man is an equal-opportunity draw, in turn giving Universal a Seabiscuit-sized happily ever after at the boxoffice.
The screenplay, credited to Cliff Hollingsworth and A Beautiful Mind's Akiva Goldsman, picks up on Crowe's Braddock in the throes of a promising career. The New Jersey-based Bulldog of Bergen, known for a healthy tenacious streak and a formidable right hand, was on his way to the big time when a badly broken right hand and a consequential defeat at the hands of light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a downward spiral.
Of course, the fact that his bad-luck streak happens to coincide with the stock-market crash of 1929 only exacerbates matters, and Braddock soon finds himself unable to make ends meet for wife Mae (Zellweger) and his three kids.
Drowning in debt and facing the prospect of a New Jersey winter without heat in their drab basement apartment, Braddock is not above begging when his old, indefatigable manager Joe Gould (Giamatti) shows up offering him a one-shot chance at redemption.
Deemed too old and too hungry to step back in the ring, Braddock surprises the skeptics, and himself for that matter, by knocking out his rising-star opponent with the help of a newly discovered hook developed logging all those hours of dock work.
Soon, Braddock finds himself back on track and carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of struggling average Joes on his shoulders. But an impending face-off against world heavyweight champ Max Baer, who already has killed two men in the ring, raises the stakes considerably for Braddock and his family.
Always a stickler for period detail, Howard outdoes himself here. Working with production designer Wynn Thomas and costume designer Daniel Orlandi, he evokes the time and place right down to the faces of the smallest bit players.
When the power is cut in Jim and Mae's flat in the dead of winter, Salvatore Totino's ever-probing camera captures each stifled breath, and thanks to the meticulously re-created surroundings (using Toronto's empty Maple Leaf Gardens as a credible substitute for the old Madison Square Garden Bowl), you almost can catch a whiff of the smoke and sweat and desperation.
But the picture's greatest effect is Crowe. With his head cocked to one side almost in anticipation of the blows that will come his way both in and out of the ring, he makes Braddock an introspective everyman who might be down but never is completely out for the count.
Giamatti, who just keeps getting better, brings a never-say-die urgency to the role of Braddock's scrappy manager, while Zellweger takes what could have been a thankless role and gives it her own indelible imprint.
There's also good work from Bruce McGill as a cigar-chomping boxing promoter, Paddy Considine as a co-worker of Braddock's who doesn't fare quite so well and Craig Bierko as a taunting Baer.
Putting the finishing touches on this thoroughly satisfying production is Thomas Newman's elegant score, which, like everything else here, never strains for cheap sentiment.
Cinderella Man
Universal
Universal Pictures, Miramax Films and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Parkway Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriters: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman
Story: Cliff Hollingsworth
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall
Executive producer: Todd Hallowell
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editors: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi
Music: Thomas Newman
Cast:
Jim Braddock: Russell Crowe
Mae Braddock: Renee Zellweger
Joe Gould: Paul Giamatti
Max Baer: Craig Bierko
Mike Wilson: Paddy Considine
Jimmy Johnston: Bruce McGill
Ford Bond: David Huband
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 144 minutes...
- 6/21/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In boxing lore, there have been few comeback stories as inspirational as the precipitous fall and equally dramatic ascension of Depression-era fighter James J. Braddock.
Appropriately dubbed the Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon, Braddock and his change of fortune provided a shred of hope for the hard-knock lives and times of his fellow working-class Americans.
Reuniting with his A Beautiful Mind star, Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts.
It's certainly the first studio release of the year that could rightfully lay claim to any early Oscar buzz. The picture not only boasts a winning ensemble, with equally terrific performances from on-a-roll Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger, but it also is a technical knockout, steeped in period atmosphere that practically reeks of authenticity.
But while it doesn't flinch from the lower-key, darker recesses of the era, it still manages to hit the necessary, audience-grabbing posts. Even with all those traditionally male-skewing boxing sequences, there's also a strong emphasis on home and family that will ensure Cinderella Man is an equal-opportunity draw, in turn giving Universal a Seabiscuit-sized happily ever after at the boxoffice.
The screenplay, credited to Cliff Hollingsworth and A Beautiful Mind's Akiva Goldsman, picks up on Crowe's Braddock in the throes of a promising career. The New Jersey-based Bulldog of Bergen, known for a healthy tenacious streak and a formidable right hand, was on his way to the big time when a badly broken right hand and a consequential defeat at the hands of light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a downward spiral.
Of course, the fact that his bad-luck streak happens to coincide with the stock-market crash of 1929 only exacerbates matters, and Braddock soon finds himself unable to make ends meet for wife Mae (Zellweger) and his three kids.
Drowning in debt and facing the prospect of a New Jersey winter without heat in their drab basement apartment, Braddock is not above begging when his old, indefatigable manager Joe Gould (Giamatti) shows up offering him a one-shot chance at redemption.
Deemed too old and too hungry to step back in the ring, Braddock surprises the skeptics, and himself for that matter, by knocking out his rising-star opponent with the help of a newly discovered hook developed logging all those hours of dock work.
Soon, Braddock finds himself back on track and carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of struggling average Joes on his shoulders. But an impending face-off against world heavyweight champ Max Baer, who already has killed two men in the ring, raises the stakes considerably for Braddock and his family.
Always a stickler for period detail, Howard outdoes himself here. Working with production designer Wynn Thomas and costume designer Daniel Orlandi, he evokes the time and place right down to the faces of the smallest bit players.
When the power is cut in Jim and Mae's flat in the dead of winter, Salvatore Totino's ever-probing camera captures each stifled breath, and thanks to the meticulously re-created surroundings (using Toronto's empty Maple Leaf Gardens as a credible substitute for the old Madison Square Garden Bowl), you almost can catch a whiff of the smoke and sweat and desperation.
But the picture's greatest effect is Crowe. With his head cocked to one side almost in anticipation of the blows that will come his way both in and out of the ring, he makes Braddock an introspective everyman who might be down but never is completely out for the count.
Giamatti, who just keeps getting better, brings a never-say-die urgency to the role of Braddock's scrappy manager, while Zellweger takes what could have been a thankless role and gives it her own indelible imprint.
There's also good work from Bruce McGill as a cigar-chomping boxing promoter, Paddy Considine as a co-worker of Braddock's who doesn't fare quite so well and Craig Bierko as a taunting Baer.
Putting the finishing touches on this thoroughly satisfying production is Thomas Newman's elegant score, which, like everything else here, never strains for cheap sentiment.
Cinderella Man
Universal
Universal Pictures, Miramax Films and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Parkway Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriters: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman
Story: Cliff Hollingsworth
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall
Executive producer: Todd Hallowell
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editors: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi
Music: Thomas Newman
Cast:
Jim Braddock: Russell Crowe
Mae Braddock: Renee Zellweger
Joe Gould: Paul Giamatti
Max Baer: Craig Bierko
Mike Wilson: Paddy Considine
Jimmy Johnston: Bruce McGill
Ford Bond: David Huband
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 144 minutes...
Appropriately dubbed the Cinderella Man by Damon Runyon, Braddock and his change of fortune provided a shred of hope for the hard-knock lives and times of his fellow working-class Americans.
Reuniting with his A Beautiful Mind star, Ron Howard and Russell Crowe bring the Braddock story to vivid life in a superbly acted, beautifully shot, highly engaging drama that ranks as one of Howard's best efforts.
It's certainly the first studio release of the year that could rightfully lay claim to any early Oscar buzz. The picture not only boasts a winning ensemble, with equally terrific performances from on-a-roll Paul Giamatti and Renee Zellweger, but it also is a technical knockout, steeped in period atmosphere that practically reeks of authenticity.
But while it doesn't flinch from the lower-key, darker recesses of the era, it still manages to hit the necessary, audience-grabbing posts. Even with all those traditionally male-skewing boxing sequences, there's also a strong emphasis on home and family that will ensure Cinderella Man is an equal-opportunity draw, in turn giving Universal a Seabiscuit-sized happily ever after at the boxoffice.
The screenplay, credited to Cliff Hollingsworth and A Beautiful Mind's Akiva Goldsman, picks up on Crowe's Braddock in the throes of a promising career. The New Jersey-based Bulldog of Bergen, known for a healthy tenacious streak and a formidable right hand, was on his way to the big time when a badly broken right hand and a consequential defeat at the hands of light heavyweight champ Tommy Loughran sent his career into a downward spiral.
Of course, the fact that his bad-luck streak happens to coincide with the stock-market crash of 1929 only exacerbates matters, and Braddock soon finds himself unable to make ends meet for wife Mae (Zellweger) and his three kids.
Drowning in debt and facing the prospect of a New Jersey winter without heat in their drab basement apartment, Braddock is not above begging when his old, indefatigable manager Joe Gould (Giamatti) shows up offering him a one-shot chance at redemption.
Deemed too old and too hungry to step back in the ring, Braddock surprises the skeptics, and himself for that matter, by knocking out his rising-star opponent with the help of a newly discovered hook developed logging all those hours of dock work.
Soon, Braddock finds himself back on track and carrying the hopes and dreams of millions of struggling average Joes on his shoulders. But an impending face-off against world heavyweight champ Max Baer, who already has killed two men in the ring, raises the stakes considerably for Braddock and his family.
Always a stickler for period detail, Howard outdoes himself here. Working with production designer Wynn Thomas and costume designer Daniel Orlandi, he evokes the time and place right down to the faces of the smallest bit players.
When the power is cut in Jim and Mae's flat in the dead of winter, Salvatore Totino's ever-probing camera captures each stifled breath, and thanks to the meticulously re-created surroundings (using Toronto's empty Maple Leaf Gardens as a credible substitute for the old Madison Square Garden Bowl), you almost can catch a whiff of the smoke and sweat and desperation.
But the picture's greatest effect is Crowe. With his head cocked to one side almost in anticipation of the blows that will come his way both in and out of the ring, he makes Braddock an introspective everyman who might be down but never is completely out for the count.
Giamatti, who just keeps getting better, brings a never-say-die urgency to the role of Braddock's scrappy manager, while Zellweger takes what could have been a thankless role and gives it her own indelible imprint.
There's also good work from Bruce McGill as a cigar-chomping boxing promoter, Paddy Considine as a co-worker of Braddock's who doesn't fare quite so well and Craig Bierko as a taunting Baer.
Putting the finishing touches on this thoroughly satisfying production is Thomas Newman's elegant score, which, like everything else here, never strains for cheap sentiment.
Cinderella Man
Universal
Universal Pictures, Miramax Films and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Parkway Prods.
Credits:
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriters: Cliff Hollingsworth, Akiva Goldsman
Story: Cliff Hollingsworth
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Penny Marshall
Executive producer: Todd Hallowell
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Production designer: Wynn Thomas
Editors: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Costume designer: Daniel Orlandi
Music: Thomas Newman
Cast:
Jim Braddock: Russell Crowe
Mae Braddock: Renee Zellweger
Joe Gould: Paul Giamatti
Max Baer: Craig Bierko
Mike Wilson: Paddy Considine
Jimmy Johnston: Bruce McGill
Ford Bond: David Huband
MPAA rating PG-13
Running time -- 144 minutes...
- 6/16/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Something's missing in "The Missing".
Director Ron Howard's follow-up to his Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind" after he parted ways with "The Alamo", this murky, thriller-tinged Western has the terrain down cold -- from the wide-open spaces to the rocky vistas -- but beneath all the requisite genre trappings there's a vast, empty gulch where the affecting dramatic element should have been found.
Based on the novel "The Last Ride" by Thomas Eidson and adapted by Ken Kaufman ("Space Cowboys"), this story of a frontier doctor who is reluctantly reunited with her estranged father after her teenage daughter is abducted by a treacherous Apache more than slightly recalls the 1956 John Ford classic "The Searchers", but the derivative aspect isn't the major culprit.
Even with the ever-reliable Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones on hand, the picture seldom feels like anything more than a ride through a Western town set -- it's all rickety facade and scaffolding.
Although Columbia Pictures' marketing has wisely been playing up the thriller element in its TV ads and Howard's name carries some well-deserved weight, "The Missing" still looks to be a tricky sell, especially if it can't bank on year-end critic kudos.
Set in the untamed American Southwest circa 1885, the film wastes no time in establishing its unsettling tone as local healer Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchett) extracts an old woman's rotting tooth.
Soon after, a grisly, long-haired stranger called Jones (Jones) rides into her family's homestead seeking treatment. It turns out the visitor is none other than Maggie's father, who had abandoned her and her mother 20 years earlier to go and live among the Apaches.
The resentful Maggie wants to see neither hide nor ponytailed hair of him, but the two must become allies when her daughter Lilly Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by the psychotic Pesh-Chidin (Eric Schweig), a spell-casting brujo, or male witch, who snatches teenage girls and sells them into Mexican slavery.
Of course, the ensuing trek to rescue Lilly -- in which they're accompanied by her younger sister, Dot (Jenna Boyd) -- is really about things like tolerance and reconciliation, and not just between father and daughter.
Wanting to have its politically correct cake and eat it too, Kaufman's annoyingly black-and-white script, with its borderline cartoonish characterizations, seems to be saying all Indians aren't bad ... but some are really, really bad.
Handed those sorts of archetypes, Blanchett and particularly Jones do what layering they can, but their characters haven't been given enough complexity to keep the viewer involved. With even less to work with, the supporting cast (which also includes Val Kilmer in a cameo as an Army lieutenant) are saddled with whatever version of good or evil they've been assigned.
Having always wanted to do a Western, Howard makes sure to get everything in, right down to the flaming arrows. And while he and cinematographer Salvatore Totino take full advantage of their New Mexico locations, very little of it carries any emotional weight despite the constant tug of composer James Horner's "Titanic"-sized score.
In the end, while Blanchett's Maggie comes back with what she was looking for, as well as something that she didn't know she had lost, the film emerges disappointingly empty-handed.
The Missing
Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Daniel Ostroff Prods. A Ron Howard film
Credits:
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriter: Ken Kaufman
Based on the novel "The Last Ride" by: Thomas Eidson
Producers: Brian Grazer, Daniel Ostroff, Ron Howard
Executive producers: Todd Hallowell, Steve Crystal
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Art director: Guy Barnes
Editors: Dan Hanley, Mike Hill
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Music: James Horner
Cast:
Samuel Jones: Tommy Lee Jones
Maggie Gilkeson: Cate Blanchett
Lilly: Evan Rachel Wood
Dot: Jenna Boyd
Pesh-Chidin: Eric Schweig
Brake Baldwin: Aaron Eckhart
Kayitah: Jay Tavare
Honesco: Simon Baker
Emiliano: Sergio Calderon
Lt. Jim Ducharme: Val Kilmer
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time -- 130 minutes...
Director Ron Howard's follow-up to his Oscar-winning "A Beautiful Mind" after he parted ways with "The Alamo", this murky, thriller-tinged Western has the terrain down cold -- from the wide-open spaces to the rocky vistas -- but beneath all the requisite genre trappings there's a vast, empty gulch where the affecting dramatic element should have been found.
Based on the novel "The Last Ride" by Thomas Eidson and adapted by Ken Kaufman ("Space Cowboys"), this story of a frontier doctor who is reluctantly reunited with her estranged father after her teenage daughter is abducted by a treacherous Apache more than slightly recalls the 1956 John Ford classic "The Searchers", but the derivative aspect isn't the major culprit.
Even with the ever-reliable Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones on hand, the picture seldom feels like anything more than a ride through a Western town set -- it's all rickety facade and scaffolding.
Although Columbia Pictures' marketing has wisely been playing up the thriller element in its TV ads and Howard's name carries some well-deserved weight, "The Missing" still looks to be a tricky sell, especially if it can't bank on year-end critic kudos.
Set in the untamed American Southwest circa 1885, the film wastes no time in establishing its unsettling tone as local healer Maggie Gilkeson (Blanchett) extracts an old woman's rotting tooth.
Soon after, a grisly, long-haired stranger called Jones (Jones) rides into her family's homestead seeking treatment. It turns out the visitor is none other than Maggie's father, who had abandoned her and her mother 20 years earlier to go and live among the Apaches.
The resentful Maggie wants to see neither hide nor ponytailed hair of him, but the two must become allies when her daughter Lilly Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by the psychotic Pesh-Chidin (Eric Schweig), a spell-casting brujo, or male witch, who snatches teenage girls and sells them into Mexican slavery.
Of course, the ensuing trek to rescue Lilly -- in which they're accompanied by her younger sister, Dot (Jenna Boyd) -- is really about things like tolerance and reconciliation, and not just between father and daughter.
Wanting to have its politically correct cake and eat it too, Kaufman's annoyingly black-and-white script, with its borderline cartoonish characterizations, seems to be saying all Indians aren't bad ... but some are really, really bad.
Handed those sorts of archetypes, Blanchett and particularly Jones do what layering they can, but their characters haven't been given enough complexity to keep the viewer involved. With even less to work with, the supporting cast (which also includes Val Kilmer in a cameo as an Army lieutenant) are saddled with whatever version of good or evil they've been assigned.
Having always wanted to do a Western, Howard makes sure to get everything in, right down to the flaming arrows. And while he and cinematographer Salvatore Totino take full advantage of their New Mexico locations, very little of it carries any emotional weight despite the constant tug of composer James Horner's "Titanic"-sized score.
In the end, while Blanchett's Maggie comes back with what she was looking for, as well as something that she didn't know she had lost, the film emerges disappointingly empty-handed.
The Missing
Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios and Imagine Entertainment present a Brian Grazer production in association with Daniel Ostroff Prods. A Ron Howard film
Credits:
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriter: Ken Kaufman
Based on the novel "The Last Ride" by: Thomas Eidson
Producers: Brian Grazer, Daniel Ostroff, Ron Howard
Executive producers: Todd Hallowell, Steve Crystal
Director of photography: Salvatore Totino
Art director: Guy Barnes
Editors: Dan Hanley, Mike Hill
Costume designer: Julie Weiss
Music: James Horner
Cast:
Samuel Jones: Tommy Lee Jones
Maggie Gilkeson: Cate Blanchett
Lilly: Evan Rachel Wood
Dot: Jenna Boyd
Pesh-Chidin: Eric Schweig
Brake Baldwin: Aaron Eckhart
Kayitah: Jay Tavare
Honesco: Simon Baker
Emiliano: Sergio Calderon
Lt. Jim Ducharme: Val Kilmer
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time -- 130 minutes...
- 12/8/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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