'The Town'

The Town is like Oceans Eleven mixed with the sights and sounds of The Departed… (or better, like Oceans Eleven recast and set in Boston—the dialogue from Oceans Eleven and the accents from The Departed). It also has some of the most badass robbery masks you’ve seen since Point Break (1991).

(Photoshop pic with Ben and Jeremy’s heads on the Oceans scene with Boston skyline in the background)

And Blake Lively MUST have sent this SNL reel in for her audition tape so she could say 20 lines in the movie:

Secretariat

Advance screening of Disney's Secretariat in Norris Cinema Theater on Thursday 9/16 for Maltin's CTCS 466.

Overall Grade: C

• Story: Just develops way too slowly and fails to maintain interest... and the dialogue is too often corny and overdramatic.
  
  
• Acting: Diane Lane is probably perfect in the role of Penny Chenery, but brings nothing new to the table. Malkovich, too, plays a very "John Malkovich" character-- albeit French--who's at least much more fun to watch on screen. Maybe Disney's move was to increase the stock of AJ Michalka (as the daughter--and artist behind the film's credit song!), but she's laughably awful.
  
  
• Cinematography: The color and lighting is great, and the horse-racing sequences are beautiful (and original-- e.g. the slow-mo and track shots).
  
  
• Sound: Nothing much to speak of... the music during the final race at the Preakness is memorable.
  

"All good things are wild, and free"

Hey USC-- Keep an eye out for Uni swag and prizes promoting their new releases on campus.

Universal Pictures | USC on Facebook

Na'vi is the 21st Century Klingon

James Cameron's Avatar really is an enormous project-- you've undoubtedly heard about the reported $300 mil. production budget, which is indeed the largest for any movie in the history of film. But when it hits theaters on Dec. 18th, I think that movie-goers are really going to witness how large-scope Cameron and 2oth Century Fox have made Avatar to be.

The LA Times reported that Cameron, who wrote and directed the film, sought the help of a linguistics specialist and USC professor, Paul R. Frommer, to create an entire language-- with proper phonology, syntax, and lexicon--for the Na'vi tribe that will be used by the characters in the story (Frommer is also now credited on IMDB as "alien language creator"). Considering the four years the language took for completion, the time devoted to such detail highlights the notion that Avatar intends to be something much bigger than a movie. The world that Cameron created is clearly something he's endeavored to represent substantial depth and complexity. Even the camera work done for the flick is hyped to be an integral part of the most sensational and realistic 3D film ever to be shown. Could this be the sci-fi movie that rocks a generation like Lucas' Star Wars did back in the 70s?

It's all impressive, and I have a feeling that it won't be long until we start seeing repeats of this guy... who thought it would be meaningful to raise his child to speak fluent Klingon (the popular original language created in Star Trek).

What a Skxawng.

And with the magic of marketing, they disappear!

US Promo Poster:


UK Promo Poster: