After last Friday's "cheese stands alone" release of "Couples Retreat," we're back this Friday with a range of options for moviegoers of all shapes and sizes. The big one of course is director Spike Jonze' adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are." I can't really say that it's a kids movie, but anyone who holds their childhood memories of the book close will feel some strong nostalgia for Jonze' interpretation. It's weird and beautiful and oddly aimless; this is as perfect a pairing of director and source as there's ever been.
Next up is director F. Gary Gray's thriller "Law Abiding Citizen," starring Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx. Butler plays a family man whose life is torn away from him after his wife and kids are murdered. Ten years after the tragic incident, the widow seeks revenge on the assistant district attorney (Foxx) who allowed the killers to go free. All from the confines of a jail cell. Did I mention that Butler's character is an inventor by trade? Read more...
Tags Black Dynamite, F. Gary Gray, gerard butler, Jamie Foxx, law abiding citizen, Michael Jai White, new york i love you, penn badgley, spike jonze, The Stepfather, where the wild things are
He played a villainous vampire in “Twilight” and has won Best Fight at the MTV Movie Awards two years running -- so, it’s safe to say we all know that Cam Gigandet is a really good bad boy. Currently, the in-demand star is hard at work on “Easy A,” a comedic spin on “The Scarlet Letter” that has him setting aside the vampire attire and instead cloaking himself in mortality and school clothes.
“The whole idea is that people [develop] their personas in high school,” Gigandet explained about the film, which stars Emma Stone as a modern-day Hester Prynne, the “Scarlet” outcast forced to wear a red “A” to mark her shame. “Whether that’s true or not, you never know until afterwards. I’m one of those characters who you think is one person, where he turns out to not be.” Read more...
Earlier this year, Emma Stone decided to emulate Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne (you know, "The Scarlet Letter") for an "Easy A." She was quickly joined by Amanda Bynes, but with the film set to begin shooting in a few days, she'll need additional people to help and shame her towards a bad reputation. Variety has the list of who those people will be: Cam Gigandet, Lisa Kudrow, Alyson Michalka, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci, Penn Badgley, Malcolm McDowell and Daniel Bird.
The plot has changed a little since it was last in the trades. Initially, Stone was going to play a student who faked being promiscuous in order to gain attention. Now she's a student who is ostracized thanks to a false rumor of her behaving badly with the guys, and she decides to use the rumor mill to her advantage. She pits puritanical students and teachers against their liberal, free-lovin' counterparts. Hilarity and life lessons ensue. Read more...