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Upcoming Movies: Toy Story 3, Jonah Hex, Cyrus

Krystal Clark — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:30:29 +0000

Get ready to take a walk down memory lane with the long awaited sequel, Toy Story 3. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return as Woody and Buzz, in an all new adventure that has them escaping a daycare. If you’re more of a comic book fan than a Pixar buff, check out Josh Brolin in Jonah Hex, the DC Comics adaptation about man with a scarred face and a scarred past.

See what else is new this weekend…

Also opening, is the indie dramedy Cyrus, which stars John C. Reilly as a man who falls in love with a woman (Marisa Tomei) who has a deep-rooted and unconventional relationship with her 21 year old son (Jonah Hill). There’s also the documentary that gives an in depth look at Proposition 8 and the involvement of the Mormon church, in 8: The Mormon Proposition. And if you’re in the mood to be daring, there’s the controversial drama, The Killer Inside Me about a sheriff turned sociopath starring Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba.

Toy Story 3 | Screencrave Review | Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes
Jonah Hex| Screencrave Review | Reviews | Interviews: Josh Brolin and Megan Fox| Tickets and Showtimes
Cyrus| Screencrave Review |Reviews | Interview: John C. Reilly | Sundance Interview: Mark Duplass| Tickets and Showtimes
8: The Mormon Proposition | Screencrave Review | Reviews | Interview: Reed Cowan | Tickets and Showtimes
The Killer Inside Me | Screencrave Review | Reviews| Tickets and Showtimes
I Am Love |Reviews | Tickets and Showtimes

Trailers:

Toy Story 3:

Jonah Hex:

Cyrus:

8: The Mormon Proposition

The Killer Inside Me:

What movie do you plan on seeing this weekend?

The Killer Inside Me: Movie Review

Tom von Logue Newth — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:00:14 +0000

The latest movie from prolific but patchy Michael Winterbottom, The Killer Inside Me, is faithfully adapted from a novel by black-hearted pulp writer Jim Thompson. It features a stand-out performance by Casey Affleck as the cold-blooded psycho of the title, but with walk-outs and angry reactions at Sundance earlier this year (listen to them here), it is already the subject of some controversy for the vicious beatings meted out to its two female stars, most notably the extended pummelling of Jessica Alba’s sweet and pretty phisog.

The Players:

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writer: John Curran, based on the novel by Jim Thompson
Producers: Chris Hanley, Bradford L. Schlei, Andrew Eaton
Cinematography: Marcel Zyskind
Cast: Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Tom Bower, Elias Koteas, Ned Beatty, Simon Baker, Bill Pullman

The Plot:

Casey Affleck plays Lou Ford, deputy sheriff in a small Texas town, who may appear to be a “boy scout with a badge” but is in reality a cold-blooded psychopath. His affair with sado-masochistic prostitute Joyce Lakeland (Alba) reawakens his murderous impulses and as he kills to revenge the cover-up of his brother’s murder by the local big-wig (Beatty), and kills again to cover his own tracks, the local union boss (Koteas) gets antsy and the DA (Baker) gets suspicious.

The Good:

Casey Affleck. He’s given a great deal more to imply than actually work with, and carries the film solidly. He perfectly captures the unknowable tone of the character with a combination of apparent good-nature, fine southern manners, and sudden cruelty to the eyes and mouth, a magnetic, unpredictable presence.
Film style. This being Winterbottom, everything rattles along very comfortably, even if the jazzy opening credits are almost the best thing about the film; there’s a dismal reliance on TV-style close-ups and considerably too many montages of Affleck and Alba cavorting in golden sunlight, plus the irony of the wallpapered hillbilly bebop on the soundtrack gets old pretty quickly, and the rest of the score consists of tired, recycled string effects (low, ominous; high, anxious).

The Bad:

Deliberate lack of psychology. This was not Thompson’s strong point, but Winterbottom pares it down even further than in the book, operating under the maxim that sometimes people do things “just because”. Despite the apparent self-reflection of the title and the first-person narration, Ford ponders not at all on his penchant for killing, and notwithstanding his fondness for violent sex, it is never clear whether he is simply capable of killing dispassionately, or whether he harbours a deep-seated urge. Hereditary explanation is mostly expunged, and the details of his revenge motive remain abstract. Alba’s character is even sketchier, conveniently fond of being knocked around, switching easily from having her buttocks beaten blue to melting in Ford’s arms. That Alba is a poor actress even in her most straightforward scenes is no help.
The beatings. The outrage is basically justified. Ford’s male victims get a much quicker and easier time of it. His trickiest crime, hanging a boy in his jail cell, takes place entirely off screen, and we see nothing of the effect of his pummeling a blackmailing drunk. By contrast, Alba’s face is gloatingly shown in various stages on the way to becoming a bloody pulp, and the camera remains uncomfortably on Hudson’s grotesquely twitching body (her best bit of acting, with her dress over her face). Even if both women take it without a hint of resistance, these are still valid moments; but in the context, such a lack of equal opportunities viciousness on the part of the film-makers has the stench of misogyny, be it conscious or not.

Overall:

It’s perfectly watchable, the Alba beating aside, thanks to the slick style and Affleck’s magnetic performance, but was never going to satisfactory. The attempt to avoid psychologising in a first-person-driven film about a serial killer seems bold and admirable, but is ultimately foolhardy. Affleck makes him intriguing, but cannot rescue Ford from borderline two-dimensionality (and how come he has a beautifully furnished library in which he listens to Strauss and practices calculus?) The film is a portrait without insight, a slick entertainment no better than its over-rated source, and more dangerously than on the page, disturbingly more interested in the acts of violence themselves than in their causes and implications.

Rating: 5/10

The Killer Inside Me is released in New York on June 18 and simultaneously in Los Angeles and VOD on June 25.

Photos:

Trailer:

New The Killer Inside Me Trailer and Poster

Krystal Clark — Tue, 25 May 2010 23:52:10 +0000

The creepiness that is Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me has been released. The film that turned this year’s Sundance Film Festival on its ear (listen to the outrage) is going after general audiences so get ready. The film stars Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson, and Jessica Alba as a trio involved in sex, murder, and more murder.

The Killer Inside Me is based on the 1952 Jim Thompson novel of the same name and remains brutally faithful to the material. The story follows a small town sheriff who goes from protector of the innocent to a deranged killer in the blink of an eye. A couple of weeks ago a teaser trailer appeared online that kept the violence to a minimum but this theatrical version gives you a slight peek at how far the film really goes.

The theatrical poster:

Even though he plays a complete and deranged psycho in this movie, Casey Affleck does look intriguing. He’s got that same cold demeanor that Anthony Hopkins had in Silence of the Lambs. Those blank eyes and that slimy delivery is what makes his presence seem even more terrifying than his actions.

The Killer Inside Me is scheduled to hit theaters on June 18, 2010.

What do you think of the theatrical trailer for The Killer Inside Me? Are you interested in seeing the film?

Source: Collider, Apple

Official The Killer Inside Me Trailer

Krystal Clark — Wed, 05 May 2010 21:56:27 +0000

Out of all the films to get trashed at this year’s Sundance Film Festival The Killer Inside Me took the cake. The audience’s reaction to it was less than stellar (listen to the outrage) and at one point a woman had to be physically removed from the theater because she was shouting her disdain at the top of her lungs.

No matter how you feel about the film it’s coming out this summer and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. If you don’t want to see it, don’t watch it but if you do here’s the trailer…

The Killer Inside Me is based on the 1952 Jim Thompson novel of the same name and remains brutally faithful to the material. The story follows a small town sheriff who goes from protector of the innocent to a deranged killer in the blink of an eye. The main reason so many critics panned the movie at Sundance was because of its depiction of violence against women.

The trailer plays it safe and doesn’t show the extent of the abuse but you get the feeling that something darker is brewing beneath the surface. Take a look…

The Killer Insider Me is directed by Michael Winterbottom and debuts in theaters on June 18, 2010.

What do you think of the trailer for The Killer Inside Me?

Source: The Guardian via The Playlist

Michael Winterbottom Defends The Killer Inside Me

Krystal Clark — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:06:55 +0000

A few days ago we told you about the jaw dropping response to Michael Winterbottom‘s latest film, The Killer Inside Me. When it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival it received little fan fare and was condemned as being a misogynistic piece of crap. The director must have gotten tired of hearing all the complaints about his film because he’s released a very public statement about why he made it as violent as he did.

The Killer Inside Me is based on the 1952 Jim Thompson novel of the same name, and remained brutally faithful to the material. According to Winterbottom, he was “taken aback, to be honest,” by the outrage that was exhibited after his film’s first screening. Apparently some people got up and left early, and a woman even attacked the director stating “it was just horrible,” and “how could Sundance let something like this in?”

Over at Thompson on Hollywood, the director gave a phone interview and spoke about how shocking it is that people don’t mind violence, as long as it’s entertaining.

“The implication is that we should not be allowed to show violence against women. No one is encouraging that. There’s a lot of violence against women in the world. You can show men and women being killed, and as long as it’s entertaining, it’s ok. And if it’s brutal, we don’t want to see it.”

He went on to talk about how people at the infamous screening didn’t completely get what Casey Affleck‘s character was all about. They went in thinking he was going to be one thing and he turned out to be someone a lot darker and visceral.

“The audience didn’t understand that when they watch this shocking violence, Casey is not the hero where the audience gets off on it. It should be shocking and brutal.”

I have yet to see the film, but from what I understand the majority of the death scenes surrounding women occur on camera and in close up, while the men are either shot or killed off camera. The detail of those shots in comparison to each other are where a lot of this anger seems to be coming from. It sounds like this will be a hot topic for a while, and I’m interested seeing what will happen next.

Have you seen or heard about The Killer Inside Me? What do you think about Winterbottom’s defense?

Sundance 2010: The Crowd Turns on The Killer Inside Me – Listen Now

Mali Elfman — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:34:10 +0000

Last night after the premiere of Michael Winterbottom‘s film, The Killer Inside Me starring Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba, the director, producers and some of the actors walked out onto the stage and before anyone could ask a question an angry audience member decided to tell them “the film was so violent that she couldn’t believe it was accepted into Sundance.” Then she kept going on about how “it was just horrible.” The majority of the crowed booed her out of the room, while the director tried to move on. She wouldn’t be the last audience member to bring up the film’s violence, others asked “how do you expect something like this to sell?” “Do you support violence against women?” Scroll down if you want to hear the audio for yourself…

The Killer Inside Me was pretty violent and at times I could have done without some of the more graphic scenes, but it was not nearly as extreme as other films that have screened at festivals like Antichrist. I’m hearing equally strong reactions to Splice and 7 Days and in the end, the film is based off a book which is equally as violent. It’s more upsetting because some of the violence like in Lust, Caution is at times sexual and one could argue rape a number of times over. The violence being done towards women also has no consequences and the women seem to be okay with the way they are being treated.

BUT! And this is a big but, they are by no means depicted as sane or rational themselves. Alba’s character is a whore and deeply disturbed. Anyone who even thinks that the actions taking place in the movie are in any way acceptable needs to be locked up. This is not an example of how one should treat other people, but rather the portrait of an insane man.

For those of you who are having trouble with the audio (it’s not great) here are some of the highlights:

Angry Lady: I just don’t understand how Sundance showed this movie.

Michael Winterbottom: It’s based on a novel by Jim Thomson. I read the book and I find it very powerful. I find myself thinking about it afterwards and thinking about the picture of the world that he gave, the picture the character gave, but also the way it makes you feel about yourself and feel about other things that you feel in the world. He’s a very powerful writer and for me the story is really powerful.

I haven’t seen the version before this, but I know this was adapted once before. How do you approach material that had already been adapted?

MW: To be honest, when I read the book I didn’t know this was a film. I decided not to watch the film also. I haven’t seen the other film. The idea was to stay as close as possible to the book. A lot of the dialogue is from the book, the story is the same. It’s a very fictional world, so what I tried to do was a simple adaptation of the book as possible. The other film didn’t play a part. I haven’t seen that film.

Another question on the message of him showing so much violence:

MW: I didn’t think it was about a message. For me, when I read the book I was moved by his pictures. There’s a lot of parts in the book that are shocking, the things that he does are shocking, but I think also there’s a lot of tenderness in a way that people he destroys, the people he kills. It’s a sense of the destruction of people. The way people mess up what they have. The way people destroy the things the have. That was the emotion for me sort of what I thought out to be in the book and what made me want to make the film.

Question on what’s real and what’s not….

It’s a very fictional book. It’s a story being told by someone who is, himself, crazy. He’s trying to look back to it. By the time we get to the asylum, he is hallucinating. For me it’s the official words, not that this character is real dumb. The way he tells it, the way he sees it.

Another angry lady about violence against women…

Elias Koteas: I have a different reason for thinking this film and other films like this are important. Some of us only need entertainment, escapism. While we get off on fake vampires or comic book characters (claps). Movies like In Cold Blood, Half-Nelson, Henry Parker the Serial Killer; this movie causes you to face things the way they are. How do you feel about it. It’s how you feel about it. And where do you go with it? What made you sit here and watch it? But to make it real or really real, or maybe a fantasy that someday is having within the movie, and what is your experience about that. I think it means looking at the truth about what happens in this society and what do we want to do about it. Different way of looking at these kinds of films (claps).

MW follow-up: For me it’s not really about merit, it’s about walking can do when you go away. The way that people can destroy themselves and other people. There’s a little story in the book that’s not in the film Lou tells the story of how he met the newspaper about a father who had a child and a wife. And he falls in love with the girl and they go into the house, and the child’s killed the girlfriend, the wife, he’s killed himself. It’s a very fictional world. Why do we do sort of things that we do? Why do we destroy the things that we love?

It’s obvious that the violence will be what either makes or breaks this film. If it’s picked up, it’s likely that a studio will cut down some of the more graphic scenes before distributing it. Or they could market it as the violent film from the start and use it as a hook to get people to see it. Or maybe some mixture of both of those things. I’m not sure, but I wasn’t alone in my views of liking the movie but not necessarily all of the violence.

Here’s what the wonderful world of Twitter had to say about the film:

rizmc ..2nd film was Michael Winterbottom’s brutal + relentless THE KILLER INSIDE ME – brilliant + profoundly disturbing…some ppl kicked off!!!
THE KILLER INSIDE ME is pretty damn good. Irreversible levels of violence. Some slightly sluggish scenes. Almost as if they were rehearsal.
mcgregorcasting The Killer Inside Me. Ill from the shocking violence about 15 mins in & didn’t recover.Good performances but it’s a Winterbottom miss for me
bryceclark the killer inside me was too violent frozen was pretty good
rabiahc oscillating between shock and awe after The Killer Inside Me. Q&A started with a roar. @SundanceFest #Sundance
Paul_Gandersman Just saw THE KILLER INSIDE ME. Loved it!!! #sundance
BlackHoleDVDs @screencrave Was THE KILLER INSIDE ME a horror? Doesn’t Sundance do horror?
ChicEvents “The Killer Inside Me” is literally the most disturbing, disgusting movie ever! We left mid way through. Such a hateful movie.
jambox The Killer Inside Me is without a doubt the most despicable film you’ll see at #Sundance.

Do you want to see the movie after all of this?

The Killer Inside Me Trailer

Krystal Clark — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:02:38 +0000

A really, really long trailer has been released for The Killer Inside Me, a drama we reported on a few months back that stars Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson, Bill Pullman, and Elias Koteas. The cast sounds random, but the film is based on the popular Jim Thompson novel of the same name. The trailer is a little over 5 minutes long and gives away a lot of info regarding the overall plot, so if you’re not familiar with the story already tread carefully.

Check out the trailer…

The film is directed by Michael Winterbottom and centers on a small town sheriff (Affleck) who goes from a protector of the innocent to a deranged killer, which you can pretty much gather from watching the trailer. Now let’s talk about this footage shall we?

First off, it’s nice to once again see Casey in a dramatic leading role. He has been so underestimated, and I’m happy that his performance in Gone Baby Gone forced people to recognize his talent. With that being said, Jessica Alba and Kate Hudson? Really, those two actresses are his counterparts? Hudson is understandable because she at one point or another seemed like a promising actress, but Alba, bah! The film may come across as very disturbing to some but if it does, I recommend you read the book just for reference.

You can view the trailer over at Rope of Silicon.

What do you think of the trailer for The Killer Inside Me?

Mentalist Star Simon Baker Joins The Killer Inside Me

Krystal Clark — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:35:46 +0000

If your a fan of the CBS drama The Mentalist, you will be more than happy to hear this latest casting news. The series headliner Simon Baker has just signed on to star in the indie film, The Killer Inside Me. According to IGN, the film will be directed by Michael Winterbottom and is currently in production in New Mexico, but will be moving to Oklahoma for the remainder of the shoot.

The Killer Inside Me is about a small town sheriff (Casey Affleck) who goes from a protector of the innocent to a deranged killer. Other members of the cast include Kate Hudson who will star as a school teacher, and Affleck’s love interest. Jessica Alba will portray a prostitute (I won’t go there) and Baker will star as an attorney. The film is making up for some lost time due to it’s delayed shooting schedule. The initial funding for the 13 million dollar project fell through in January when filming was supposed to begin. Yet, fortunately they found a new investor in the form of Hero Entertainment and now everything is moving along as planned.

I love Simon Baker. He’s been around for years, and is a pretty good actor. How many people actually know that he’s from Australia? Not many, because he’s so good at hiding that accent! Thanks to his show he’s starting to get some overdue recognition, which I think is well deserved. Hopefully, more character driven projects will come his way and he can showcase more of his skills on the big screen.

What do you think about Baker joining the cast of the indie drama The Killer Inside Me? What do you think of the other actors involved?

Round Up: Ralph Fiennes, Street Fighter:The Legend of Chun Li, The Killer Inside Me

Krystal Clark — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:00:53 +0000

Here are some of the top stories you may have missed over the weekend…..

Ralph Fiennes is gearing up to make his directorial debut with Coriolanus. Fiennes will pull double duty as director and star of the film, which is based off of the Shakespearean play of the same name. Coriolanus is about a “proud but contemptuous soldier Coriolanus spurred on by his mother to run for the Roman Senate, which ultimately leads to his downfall.” [First Showing]
Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty, Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Elias Koteas haved all signed on to star in the psychological thriller, The Killer Inside Me. The film is based off of the novel by Jim Thompson, and will be directed by Michael Winterbottom. [Screen Daily]
Get a sneak peak of Taboo from the hip hop group the Black Eyes Peas as he makes his feature film debut. The rapper will star as Vega in this months Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. [First Showing]

Walk the Line director, James Mangold is working on an untitled legal thriller. “The script is based on the true story of a pair of New Orleans lawyer brothers who took on a multinational oil company and its heavyweight legal teams to rep the rights of the families of an oil rig that sank in a typhoon.” [Coming Soon]
View a photo of the Fallen, the title character from this summer’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Yes, it is in action figure form, but it gives us our first real peak at what the film’s villain will look like. [ScreenRant]

ScreenCrave.com » The Killer Inside Me

Upcoming Movies: Toy Story 3, Jonah Hex, Cyrus

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The Killer Inside Me: Movie Review

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