Jay C. Schulzs Blog

Archive for April, 2010

Box Office

1.  How to Train Your Dragon             15 million (178 mil)
2. The Back Up Plan                                      12.2 million (1^st week)
3. Date Night                                                  10.6 million (63.5 mil)
4. The Losers                                                 9.61 million (1^st week)
5. Kick Ass                                                    9.5 million (34.9 mil)

 News

•  Alien prequel directed by Ridley Scott will be set 30 years in the past from the original.
• MIB 3 in on.  Barry Sonnefeld, director of MIB 1 & 2, has confirmed that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones have signed up.
• Brett Eisner, son of Michael Eisner, will direct the remake of Escape from New York. 

 Review

 The Lovely Bones (PG-13, 135 min)

Director:  Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings Trilogy)

Actors:  Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Saoirse Ronan, Michael Imperioli

Summary:  Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is the 13 year old daughter of Jack and Abigail (Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz) growing up in the early 70s.   She is going through the normal teen angst falling in love with a boy in school.   She is murdered by her creepy neighbor (played by Stanley Tucci) and is then stuck between heaven and earth.  She struggles with her desire for vengeance and her need for herself and her family to move on.

Review:  Director Peter Jackson may have been a bit out of his element here.  His movies (LOR Trilogy and King Kong) specialize in amazing special effects and that is no different here.  The special effects were simply amazing but this is a very human story and Jackson seems to struggle a bit with this element.    The material is based on a book and is very sensitive. In fact, Jackson removed the sexual assault and murder aspect in order to get a PG-13 rating.  I think this film could have been much better if they left that material in and given us the entire impact.  Ronan does a fantastic job as Susie.  This is her second big film (Atonement) and she really has the ability to grab the screen.  Wahlberg and Weisz just seem to drift through the film and that may have been the product of their roles.  Sarandon was quirky and, at times, annoying which draws away from the film.  Tucci was very, very good and I can see why he was nominated for an Academy Award.  

Rating:  3 stars (4 stars special effects, 3 stars acting, 2 stars story)

 The Box (PG-13, 115 min)

Director:  Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko)

Actors:  James Marsden, Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella

Summary:  Marsden and Diaz play a married couple in the mid 70s.  Marsden works for NASA as an optics inventor who dreams of being an astronaut.  Diaz is a private school teacher who lost the toes on her right foot in a freak accident as a child. A small wooden box arrives on their doorstep one morning.   A mysterious man named Stewart, Langella, arrives later in the day to offer the couple a deal – push the button on the box and they will be granted one million dollars.  However, it will kill someone they don’t know.

Review:    Directory Kelly is a cult hero for his 2001 Donnie Darko.  This movie is thought provoking but falls short of his original film.    The acting is fine (Langella is extremely creepy) and the tempo of the film is adequate.  The film contains a very deep level of conspiracy that is never really answered.  I believe Kelly is trying to convey that our actions all have consequences and that, in the end, we pay for them in some way.  This was an entertaining but flawed movie.

Rating:  2.5 stars

An Education (PG-13, 100 min)

Director:  Lone Scherfig (Danish director), Screenplay by Nick Hornsby

Cast:  Carey Mulligan, Alfred Molina, Peter Sarsgaard

Summary:   In 1961 suburban London, Jenny (Mulligan) is a precocious 16 year old who is planning to go to Oxford to study Latin.  Jenny falls for David (Sarsgaard), a charming older man who is not whom he seems to be. 

Review:  This is a fairly standard story of a young woman falling for an older man but with some amazing acting.  Molina is very good as Jenny’s father who balances all choices based on a cost analysis.  Saarsgaard, who is from Belleville, IL is one of the few US actors who can do a good British accent.  He oozes charm.  The star of the show, however, is Mulligan who was wonderful.   She absolutely dominates the screen from the moment the movie begins playing a character that is much older than her years.  It is clear why she was nominated for an academy award and that she will have a long, successful career in Hollywood.   

Rating:  3.5 stars

 How to Train Your Dragon (PG, 98 min)

Director:  Dean DeBlois, Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch)

Cast:  Gerald Butler, Craig Ferguson, American Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig, Jay Baruchel

Summary:  Hicup (Baruchel) is a hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons.   His father is Stoick (Butler) who is leader of the Viking clan.  While his father is away hunting for the dragon nest, Hicup becomes the unlikely owner of a dragon and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

Review: ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ is from Dreamwork/SKG and it’s their best film in some time.  This is the second project together for directors DeBois and Sanders.  In 2002, the directed the Disney movie ‘Lilo & Stitch’.   The film is available in 3D but I did not see it in that format and it did not take away from my experience.  The action sequences were good, the dialogue was