Monday, March 19, 2012 12:00PM - By Damon Houx
Writer-Director Gary Ross is very choosy about the films he makes, and so when he was tapped to write and direct The Hunger Games it was hard to know what the man behind Seabiscuit and Pleasantville would do with the science fiction source material; that he hit it out of the park is all the more impressive. Ross has proven to be a smart filmmaker, and he “got” the source material. We had a chance to sit down with him and discuss The Hunger Games, check out our interview below!
Continue Reading
Monday, March 19, 2012 10:00AM - By Damon Houx
The Hunger Games involves 24 teenagers going in to a forest to try to kill each other for a murderous game show in the future. Not everyone is going to survive – and a lot of attention is focused on Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen – but Rue (Amandla Stenberg) Cato (Alexander Ludwig) and Clove (Isabelle Fuhrman) also put up a fight to be the final contestant. We had a chance to talk to the three about their roles in the wildly anticipated new film, which is an adaptation of a young adult novel of the same name. Check out what they had to say below…
Continue Reading
Friday, March 16, 2012 12:00PM - By Damon Houx
“To the Point” is a bi-monthly column about the world of film from our own Damon Houx. He may say things you don’t agree with–and that’s sort of the point.
Recently The Oatmeal did a cartoon about a guy wanting to watch Game of Thrones, and finding it impossible to do so unless he pirated a copy. Alas, this was printed a mere two weeks before the DVD and Blu-ray box set hit stores, leaving the cartoonist looking, well, like an entitled prick. It’s hard to know how long this cartoon took to draw, though that’s little excuse. Piracy is wrong, end thought, but it’s a tricky subject.
Continue Reading
Thursday, March 15, 2012 12:00PM - By Damon Houx
The very idea of a 21 Jump Street movie is absurd. Why would you remake the very 1980′s show about cops with youngish looks infiltrating high schools? It’s fitting that directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum turned the premise into a comedy–but what’s unexpected is how funny and charming it is. For those who’ve felt that Tatum has been given more roles than his talent should allow may be forced to do an about-face after this. Tatum – like the movie – is winning and hilarious.
Continue Reading
Thursday, March 15, 2012 7:58AM - By Damon Houx
Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller came from animation, but – like Frank Tashlin before them – when it comes to comedy, funny is funny. And these guys know funny. 21 Jump Street is their first big live action film – after the success of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – and it suggests they’re going to be able to what they want after it hits. It’s massively entertaining, and the duo make for a charming interview. Check it out…
Continue Reading
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 11:00AM - By Damon Houx
Brie Larson’s now at a crossroads in her career. She’s done indie films like Greenberg and Rampart, had a supporting role on The United States of Tara and had a juicy supporting turn in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. But with 21 Jump Street, she’s now in a big blockbuster comedy. Larson holds her own against Jonah Hill in what is normally a thankless role, and makes a great impression. We recently spoke to her about the new film and her other movies in general. Check it out below!
Continue Reading
Tuesday, March 13, 2012 12:00PM - By Damon Houx
Rob Riggle has been building a resume of awesome. He gets to show up, kill for a couple of minutes and make most films he’s in better by his presence. Like screenwriter Michael Bacall, this 21 Jump Street star has been keeping busy, having also just appeared in Big Miracle, The Lorax and Nature Calls, which just premiered at SXSW. We had a chance to talk about improvisation, his career, and what it means to be a working actor. Check it out…
Continue Reading
Monday, March 12, 2012 1:00PM - By Damon Houx
Few artists get to have a month like screenwriter Michael Bacall is having. He wrote the script for Project X, which is already a minor hit, as well as the screenplay for 21 Jump Street, which premieres this week. We talked to him about these two projects, his work on Edgar Wright‘s Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, and his working style. Check it out…
Continue Reading
Friday, March 9, 2012 9:28AM - By Travis Woods
Take Sergio Leone’s widescreen spaghetti western fantasias and pour them in a blender, drop in the nihilism of Peckinpah, the genre crashing of Tarantino, and the off-kilter character beats of the brothers Cohen, blend on “high,” then dump the contents across the blasted landscape of a Kiwi desert, and you’ll have something akin to Good For Nothing. The directorial debut of Weta Digital’s Animation Manager, Mike Wallis, the film never manages to reach the stellar heights of its influences (that said, what movie could?), but, with its tale of a Man With No Name with erectile dysfunction, it certainly honors/subverts them with aplomb.
Continue Reading
