Red Carpet: London Premiere of Titanic 3D

Kate Winslet, looking predictably ravishing, joined her former director James Cameron as well as former co-stars like Billy Zane and Francis Fisher on the red carpet for the London premiere of Titanic 3D at the Robert Albert Hall a few days ago. The billion-dollar grossing film will hit 3D theaters stateside next week.

Also making an appearance on the red carpet is none other than recently announced brand new Doctor Who companion Jenna-Louise Coleman. Her hot companion of course is Richard Madden who plays Robb Stark in HBO's Game of Thrones which has its second season premiere tomorrow night. All I can say is, they do make one handsome pair for geeks of all gender and orientation to obsess over.

A few more red carpet pictures after the jump...

Looking Forward To...

Bully
Release: March 30, 2012
Distributor: Weinstein Company
Directors: Lee Hirsch and Alicia Dwyer

This film is being released as Unrated, because the draconian MPAA slapped it with an R-rating and the Weinstein Company refused to alter the film in any way to cater to the MPAA's inane and increasingly outdated classification system. But Canadians get it.

Box Office: Spectacular Opening for Hunger Games

BOOM! What was that? Oh that was a canon to signify how much The Hunger Games slayed the box office this past weekend. How much exactly? Well, it made $152.5 million, good for third place behind the final Harry Potter film ($169.2 million) and The Dark Knight ($158.4). While that is impressive enough, it also became the highest debut ever for a non-sequel besting last year's Alice in Wonderland by a lot. The Hunger Games is also the only non-sequel in the top 10 list of all-time openings (and only one of five in the top 25).

As part of its mega-blockbuster weekend take, it broke a couple more records for non-sequels taking in nearly $20 million for its midnight showing and $67.3 million for its opening day. The latter tally was only $100K above The Dark Knight's opening day. Suffice it to say, it was also Lionsgate's top grosser of all time already beating Fahrenheit 9/11 ($119.2 million) in just its first three days. Internationally, the film wasn't as big netting only $59.3 million in a handful of territories. Its worldwide take of $211.8 million is good for 21st place. For our part, my friends and I shelled out $70 on its opening day and may just see the film again down the line.


As I predicted last week, it was a great weekend for Josh Hutcherson who has two films book-ending the top 10 with Journey 2 getting tenth place and just shy of the $100 million milestone. Last week's boy wonder Canning Tatum saw his film fall to 2nd place this week raking in $20.4 million for a total tally of $70.2 million. This year's top grossing film (at least for a couple more days), The Lorax fell to third with a total gross of $177.4 million. Domestic bomb John Carter stalled in 4th place dipping 63% from last weekend so far recouping just 1/4th of its reported budget. Finally, little-known abortion film October Baby debut in the top 10 in limited theaters while the Indonesian film The Raid: Redemption notched the second best per theater average out of all films with its solid $214K gross in just 14 theaters.

TV Report: Week of 3/18

So everyone is watching the season premiere of Mad Men right now right? If not, why aren't you? In any case, another busy Sunday night of TV and so yet another TV report from moi...


Walking Dead Finale

It's been an interesting season in that nothing much happened. Part of this is because they were pretty much stuck on the farm all season give or take a trip to the woods to find a missing girl or to town for some zombie action. They had a great opportunity to delve into the characters though and they did do this to some, but not all. With that said, the finale was mostly action oriented especially the first half as a horde of zombies invaded the farm. It was refreshingly chaotic and insane (though the fact that they all can shoot like a pro was a bit hilarious). When they all got back together again and regrouped, I liked that the group seemed just a tad more desperate and beaten to the point that Rick basically turned into Shane in those last few minutes giving the character a much needed boost. They're all going to need it for whatever nightmare that awaits them next season. Is that a prison off in the distance? Also that hooded figure who saved Laurie? Best reveal ever.

Good Wife Knocks It Out Again

There were so many good things about last week's episode that I won't even talk about the dependably great back and forth scheming and manipulation between Alicia and Louis Canning. Diane taking charge of her love life was a highlight, but also her stand off with Alicia (and the rest of the firm) over Alicia's bonus. Alicia finding the courage to do this in the first place showed great development for the character. In addition, her brief, but affective scenes with Cary and Kalinda in the episode made my heart aflutter. First, it was lovely seeing Cary and Alicia in the same scene again just shooting the breeze. But of course Kalinda and Alicia resolving to somehow making their situation work made me a very happy boy. Earlier in the episode when Kalinda offered Alicia a beer, I screamed so loudly into the TV it was hilarious. Maybe soon.

Sitcoms Eschews Comedy for Heart

I'm not saying that How I Met Your Mother, Cougar Town, and Community weren't funny this week, but that wasn't the focus of them this week. The relationship between certain characters were more the focus like Ted and Robin navigating their even more complicated relationship on Mother to Troy and Abed's relationship getting tested in Community. In Cougar Town, everyone had to deal with Grayson having a daughter and the Travis/Laurie relationship hit a curious turning point. I don't need my comedies to be wall-to-wall laughs when they can deliver character moments such as these.

Good News, Bad News for Smash

Fans of this show got good news this week when the show was renewed for a second season. Of course good news didn't happen to the show's characters as the workshop for their musical were met with negative reviews. I'm more mixed on the show in general. I do love that Derek was particularly snarky, but not mean in the episode and getting to see and listen to the musical numbers again from earlier this season was a particularly good treat. And what can I say about the appearance of Bernadette fucking Peters as Ivy's mother? Brilliant. But all of that good is marred by a lot of bad like Karen's oh shucks dilemma of whether to pursue her "hot" music career or to stick with her job as a chorus player in the musical or Julia's lame story with Michael Swift or anything to do with her son who can't act. But nothing is lamer than Anjelica Huston yet again being wasted with Ellis, a hot bartender, and dealing with plumbing problems. Seriously? Seriously?

Fringe Is Back With A Little Love Story

Unlike Smash, this show is looking less likely to see another season renewal. There's still some hope, but the ratings this week were not good. With that said, it certainly was an emotional episode especially for Olivia who had to make the heartbreaking decision to keep the "new" memories she's getting of her old life with Peter versus her "old" memories. It's not that confusing when played out on TV! Her scene with Nina at the end there drove me to tears only for the final scene with her and Peter to make me smile. I'm just so happy they're both finally reunited though I'm sure there are plenty of complications remaining. For one, Peter's world being this world as revealed by the Observer doesn't exactly explain it all. And no, "love" is not an acceptable answer. What does this also mean regarding the other universe and their memories of Peter? How come Walter hasn't gotten his memories back like Olivia? And what about poor loveless Lincoln?

Miscellaneous Thoughts

A bit of a disappointing episode of Happy Endings this week that was only saved by its end tag with Jane and Brad being all gangsta... I forget what happened on Once Upon a Time this week because the beginning with Red turning into a wolf was just so kick-ass... Touch had its second episode and I'm not sure it's exactly for me but I'll give it a couple more episodes... Awake continues to do good job despite no one watching... I quite liked Dermot Mulroney in New Girl... And finally, I've just caught up on Shameless and now all I want to do is hug Fiona.

Scattered Thoughts on The Hunger Games

I don't know how to review or talk about The Hunger Games. There's too many variables at play. I read the books just last year and loved them even though with my admittedly terrible memory who knows if that actually means anything. It's also one of the films this year I was most anticipating especially with the cast they've assembled so there are those expectations as well. I think what's best is for me to do an old-fashioned bullet-point reaction list to anything and everything I can remember, positive, negative and everything in the between. I'm going to put these after the jump because there will obviously be spoilers, but if you just want to know if I think you should see the film then YES SEE THE FILM. Also read the book, but I am curious to see what those who haven't read the book thought about the film.

New Companion for the Doctor

I've only been a Doctor Who fan since 2005 but in that time there have been three different actors playing the Doctor and amongst them they've had numerous companions to accompany them on their adventures. Those adventures will end for the most recent companions Amy and Rory Pond played by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill (pictured above). They will return for a few episodes when the new season starts up sometime in the fall, but their story will end then, apparently in "heartbreaking" fashion. Sigh. Matt Smith will remain as the Doctor until the show's 50th Anniversary next year and perhaps even beyond, but he will have a new companion who will make her first appearance in this year's Christmas special as announced yesterday.

All that means is that fandom will have a good nine months to preemptively judge and/or obsess over her without seeing a second of her performance on Doctor Who. So, who is she? Well she's Jenna-Louise Coleman, a 25 year old British actress whose other credits include stints on Emmerdale and Waterloo Road. She's also in Julian Fellowes Titanic miniseries airing later this year so we'll all get a chance to see her on screen before she hops into the TARDIS. I'm actually not at all worried since I've pretty much loved every single actor who have been companion with Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman, Catherine Tate, along with Gillan and Darvill, having all done fantastic jobs. So I'm sure Coleman will fit right in. It helps that she seems totally adorable and excited about the part.

I do hope there's some sort of twist to her character though. A mid-20s white girl was probably the safest thing they could've done, but it's a proven formula for this long-running show, which is why I'm hoping the character details will be a bit more interesting. Already showrunner Steven Moffat says that how she will meet the Doctor "isn't your usual boy meets girl" and that it will be "one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters" which gives me a bit hope. Maybe she's an alien. Or another Time Lord. Or connected to him in some other crazy way. One of my favorite theories floating in the internet right now is that she's somehow been living in the TARDIS all this time. It's a stretch, but it's definitely a fun idea! Argh! Look at me obsessing already.

Looking Forward To...

The Hunger Games
Release: March 23, 2012
Distributor: Lionsgate
Director: Gary Ross
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Banks, Stanley Tucci, Woody Harrelson, Toby Jones, Wes Bentley, Liam Hemsworth, Donald Sutherland, Amandla Stenberg, and Lenny Kravitz

The hawk was struck...

This post is part of Nathaniel's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" series in which the participants must post a single image from a movie he or she deems as the "best shot" for any particular reason.


In honor of Matthew Broderick's birthday, I got to watch Ladyhawke last night for this "Best Shot" series which oddly enough only marks the third live-action film I've seen of Broderick's. In any case, this particular fantasy film felt a bit dated with its trippy transformation sequences and its notorious pop rock operatic score. Many people gives its score grief and rightly so, but as distracting and off-putting as it may be, I still applaud the filmmakers for thinking outside the box. In fact, it all reminded me a bit of the great score of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera which, perhaps not too coincidentally, came out right around the same time.

If you think about it a bit more, with its Italian set pieces and tragic love story of a man and a women forever entwined but never being together, Ladyhawke really does recall some sort of majestic opera complete with a curse, a wolf hunter, and of course a prima donna. That latter honor goes to the glorious Michelle Pfeiffer who we first see as a mysterious figure cloaked in black. Broderick's character, Phillipe Gaston, makes sure to remember and note that her voice was "the dulcet tones of an angel." For me, imagining the movie as an opera helped to make some of its more dated elements feel okay in retrospect.

The shot above is probably my second favorite shot in the film. It just looks like a painting and all of the brown tones and textures highlighted are so pleasing to the eye, not to mention Pfeiffer's beauty itself. My favorite shot of the film comes a bit before the aforementioned scene. It's at a pivotal point where Phillipe is just connecting the dots regarding this mysterious woman upon discovering her naked... in bed... with an arrow piercing her shoulders:


This shot, which also showcases the lovely vulnerability and captivating beauty of Pfeiffer, is just so luscious with all of the fur surrounding her and yet she's looking straight at him as if to say SO WHAT? Of course she does look away a bit just as Philippe asks her, in one of the film's greatest scene, if she's flesh or if she's spirit. She looks at him, though not as directly, and replies as only a diva can "I am sorrow."

Birthday Boy: Matthew Broderick

Today is Matthew Broderick's 50th birthday which is frankly ridiculous since I still picture him as that young troublemaker who took a day off from school to hang out with his friends. And though that film celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, it's still so very much part of the public's consciousness as evident by Broderick himself spoofing the film in a car commercial at this year's Superbowl.

Other than Ferris Bueller's Day Off, I've only seen two of his films, Ladyhawke (which I just saw last night) and Election where he co-starred with two winsome blondes Michelle Pfeiffer and Reese Witherspoon respectively. Of course, he also did voice work on The Lion King. He also has done quite a few things on Broadway and is married to none other than Sarah Jessica Parker. But it really is quite intriguing how little I've seen of his work and yet think of him fondly as an actor because of that one iconic role he did forever ago. Life moves pretty fast...

Newsweek Goes Back in Time

Put this under things that are quite nifty. In honor of the return of Mad Men, Newsweek has transformed its magazine to exact 1965 design from the cover above to the ads retrofitted inside. Again... nifty. But really I'm just glad to have the show back. It's been way too long.