Larry Ratliff

Come 'Hell' or high wanderer

Alison Lohman climbs into her enemy's wet grave in "Drag Me to Hell."/Universal Pictures

It's a rare weekend for new mainstream movie releases.  In fact, it's one that could force couples with divergent movie tastes to split up for a couple of hours as they enter the local multiplex.

I don't remember another recent opening day when two vastly different major movie players warranted equal attention. 

Horror fans, and those who adore filmmaker Sam Raimi's (the "Spider-Man" trilogy) work will no doubt be headed straight to the wildly entertaining, shocking and delightfully (at times) cheesy "Drag Me to Hell."

Head over to the Movie Reviews page or click here for the full "Drag Me to Hell" review.

Kevin (bird), Russell, dog Dug and Carl Fredricksen share a grand adventure in "Up."/Disney/Pixar

Families and kids, on the other hand, will line up for "Up," the spirited, but often bittersweet and sad tale of an elderly lonely widower and an over-zealous 8-year-old neighbor who raise the roof, so to speak, and fly off to South America for a grand adventure.

Click here for the "Up" review or navigate over to the Movie Reviews page.

There are choices for those who prefer less mainstream and more eclectic cinema as well.  "Sugar," co-directed and co-written by the screenwriting team of "Half Nelson," follows the plight of Dominican baseball pitcher Miguel "Sugar" Santos as he struggles to catch fire in the U.S. minor leagues.

Click here for the "Sugar" review, or find it listed on the Movie Reviews page.

Also, Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo team up for "The Brothers Bloom," a quirky con man (and con woman) comic-drama.  Click here for the full review, or check it out on the Movie Reviews page.

And, in some cities, look for "Anvil! The Story of Anvil."   The documentary about the Canadian metal band is rolling out slowly.  It opens in limited release today.

(Photos:  Alison Lohman climbs into her enemy's wet grave in "Drag Me to Hell."/Universal Pictures and Kevin (bird), Russell, dog Dug and Carl Fredricksen share a grand adventure in "Up."/Disney/Pixar)

Texas' non-stimulas film incentive package

Censorship is a sneaky little devil.  It sometimes arrives as something else; perhaps even something that, on the surface at least, appears to be a positive step forward.

CENSORSHIP is the first word that popped into my mind when I heard about the so-called "content clause" in the Texas film-incentive legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Perry in June, 2007.

At the time, the state's highest ranking politico proclaimed:

“Today I am proud to sign a $22 million film incentive bill that will help reverse the export of Texas filmmaking talent, that will bring jobs and economic activity to our cities, and that will make the diverse and beautiful images of Texas more prominent in motion pictures,” the official release from the guv's office proclaimed.

But there's this pesky little phrase lurking under the heading Ineligible Projects:

"The State of Texas is also not required to make payments to projects that include inappropriate content or content that portrays Texas or Texans in a negative fashion."

That brings us to the battle brewing over "Waco," a future film production focusing on the assault by federal agents on the Branch Davidian compound in April 1993.  Rupert Wainwright wants to make a film about that fateful day in modern Texas history.

But Texas Film Commissioner Bob Hudgins has vetoed the project, according to published reports.  The Hollywood Reporter has posted an excellent article on its Web site digging into the "Waco" vs. Texas stand-off. 

I'm wondering something else:  If the "inappropriate content" clause was around in 1971, would that have prevented Peter Bogdanovich from shooting his Oscar-nominated "The Last Picture Show" in Archer City?

Even though it was set in fictional Anarene, TX in the 1950s, surely showing bored teens learning some very tough facts of life and love "portrayed Texans in a negative fashion."

And how about James L. Brooks' Best Picture Academy Award winner "Terms of Endearment," which was shot in the Houston area in the early '80s? 

I mean, of all things, a former astronaut (Jack Nicholson) driving his sports car and Shirley MacLaine right into the Texas Gulf.  Surely that wouldn't be allowed under the Texas "film incentive."

And don't get me started about "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" of 1985, which shot for a few days in San Antonio. 

Unless there really is a basement in the Alamo (where the bad guys supposedly hid Pee-wee Herman's bicycle), there's only one conclusion film and artistic freedom lovers can reach:

Austin, we have a problem.  

  

Slum kids dilemma dogs 'Slumdog' director

 

Oscar-winning British filmmaker Danny Boyle is one of my favorite people to interview.

"Slumdog Millionaire" scored big at the Academy Awards in February, picking up golden statuettes for Best Picture and Director, not to mention a half-dozen others.

When I last spoke to Boyle near the end of 2008, he talked about Mumbai, where he shot the India-based tale of love and survival among the shanties and ruins, and called it a vibrant place "teeming with life."

Two of the film's young actors, 9-year-old Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, have since lost their shanty homes.  Boyle returned to Mumbai Wednesday to meet with the two impoverished child stars.

According to an Associated Press story, "the father of one of the children stormed out of the meeting, saying they have been forgotten since the movie won eight Oscars."

 "'We've been trying for a long time to move them into legal accommodation,'" director Danny Boyle told reporters at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences on the outskirts of Mumbai, where he and producer Christian Colson met the children and their families," the AP article says.

According to one of the fathers, Boyle has not done enough.

Click here to read the entire article.

(Photo:  Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, left, and Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail run through the slums of Mumbai in "Slumdog Millionaire."/Ishika Mohan/Fox Searchlight)

And many Moore; Mike takes on the economy

I first met Michael Moore in Dallas in early 1990.  He had a different kind of movie to promote.  "Roger & Me" was a based-on-fact documentary about General Motors pulling out of Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan.

It was funny and poignant and hard-hitting and as clever as anything I had seen in years.  Looking back now, it bode of larger-scale GM doomsday to come.  

"Roger & Me" also became what I call a "carload" movie. It wasn't enough to merely recommend a groundbreaking film like that.  It was different enough and important enough and entertaining enough to actually gather up relatives and friends and escort them into the theater personally, which I did.

Moore, at least meeting a film journalist, was timid back then.  He had strong opinions when asked, but no torch-carrying agenda other than to just allow his significant slice of cinema to speak for itself.

That has changed, of course.  He's no longer shy and afraid of his own spotlight, for one thing.  After taking on gun violence in this country and winning a Best Documentary Academy Award for "Bowling for Columbine" (2002), the second Bush administration with "Fahrenheit 9/11" in 2004 and U.S. health care shortcomings with "Sicko" (2007), Mighty Mike is about to tackle ills of the economy.

According to an item posted on the Hollywood Reporter Web site, Moore's still-untitled documentary about the collapse of the world economy will light up U.S. theaters on Oct. 2.

"That's almost a year to the day that Congress passed the first U.S. economic stimulus package, (Overture and Paramount Vantage) officials noted.

"The companies also provided more details about the film, announced at last year's Festival de Cannes. The pic will examine the 'root causes of the economic meltdown,' they said, as well as the 'corporate and political shenanigans' that resulted in the financial crisis," the Hollywood Reporter post says.

(Photo:  Michael Moore, who's overcome his shyness, on the poster of "Sicko."/The Weinstein Company)

Star spangled banter

 

First, a little serious business.

The last Monday in May has been set aside as Memorial Day to honor members of the United States armed forces who have died to protect this great country of ours.

So a moment of silence to honor those brave men and women -- fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters -- who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may live in freedom.

And, while we're at it, those who served but didn't die as well.  My hat's off to all of you.

There are dozens of patriotic movies, of course.  A couple of my favorites are "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "The Best Years of Our Lives."  Both are classics and neither have fantasy characters based on comic books or high-tech time travelers sent to destroy ("Terminator Salvation") or save ("Star Trek") the human race.

The Web site Premiere.com has found a unique way to look at patriotic films.  They've put together a list of eight patriotic movies that Hollywood outsourced.  That's right, outsourced.

Among them, surprisingly to some, I'm sure, are"Top Gun," "The Patriot" and "Black Hawk Down."

"'Australia' was written, directed and starred, well, Australians. Logical, right? But here in America we tend to outsource freedom by hiring foreigners to tell our American tales. So, it is with fake moral outrage we wag our fingers at the most unpatriotic patriotic movies," the Premiere.com article says.

Click here to see if your favorite patriotic movie is on the list.

(Photo:  Tom Cruise feels the need for speed in "Top Gun."/Paramount Home Video)

 

Inanimate objects battle at the box office

 

The somewhat anticipated sequel "Night at the Museum:  Battle of the Smithsonian" battles it out with "Terminator Salvation" for box office dominance over the long Memorial Day Weekend.  They aren't the only new movie choices this weekend, though.

Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson return for the follow-up to the 2006 hit "Night at the Museum" and, thankfully, Oscar nominee Amy Adams ("Doubt") joins the party to portray perky Amelia Earhart.

For the review, click here or venture over to the Movie Reviews page.

"Terminator Salvation," the fourth sci-fi action thriller in the franchise that launched in 1984, stars Christian Bale (a k a Batman) as rebel resistance leader John Connor and up-and-comer Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright.  Worthington plays a "reborn" convicted murderer caught in the middle in the war between man and the machines. 

Click here for the "Terminator Salvation" review, or go to the Movie Reviews page link.

This weekend's other releases include "Dance Flick," a wobbly comedy spoof with more shock laughs than fun.  It's from the Wayans family.  Click here for the review.

In San Antonio, "American Violet"opens exclusively at the Santikos Rialto Bar & Grill Theater.  A somber, sobering based-on-truth drama, It's about a wrongly accused Texas black women fighting back against the powerful and racist local district attorney.  Click here for the review.

And, in some markets there's "Shall We Kiss?"   In French with subtitles, it's an offbeat romantic comic-drama written and directed by Emmanuel Mouret.  Find the review here, or go to the Movie Reviews page.

(Photo:  Ben Stiller plays former museum night guard Larry Daley, a doer, not a thinker in "Night at the Museum:  Battle of the Smithsonian."/Twentieth Century Fox) 

TGI ...Thur: 'Terminator' time arrives early

 

Remember when movies used to open on Friday?

I do, but barely.

Just as the "summer movie season" sneaks a week or two back toward winter every year now, it seems, major movie releases just can't wait until Friday anymore.

"Star Trek" blasted off on Thursday to get a jump on the weekend last week.  Now it's "Terminator Salvation" that's out of the movie house blocks a full day before the Memorial Day weekend arrives.

"Terminator Salvation," the fourth sci-fi action thriller in the franchise that launched in 1984, stars Christian Bale (yes, Batman) as rebel resistance leader John Connor and up-and-comer Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, a "reborn" convicted murderer caught in the middle in the war between man and machines. 

Click here for the review, or go to the Movie Reviews page link.

Another highly anticipated sequel, "Night at the Museum:  Battle of the Smithsonian," stars Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson once again and adds Oscar nominee Amy Adams ("Doubt") to the mix as a very perky Amelia Earhart.  It opens a tick after midnight all over the place.  Check local movie listings.

Once the initial Thursday wave subsides, this weekend's other releases include:

The Wayans clan comedy spoof "Dance Flick."

"American Violet," opening exclusively at the Santikos Rialto Bar & Grill Theatre in San Antonio, is the based-on-truth drama about a wrongly charged Texas black women fighting back against the local powerful and racist district attorney, and:

"Shall We Kiss?" -- A romantic-comedy from France written and directed by Emmanuel Mouret.  

(Photo:  Christian Bale, as John Connor, gets the drop on a T-600 terminator in "Terminator Salvation."/Warner Bros.)

Pattinson breaks 'Breaking Dawn' news

Back in November, when I sat down with "Twilight" co-star Robert Pattinson in a Dallas hotel suite, the British actor was about to face hundreds of screaming fans (mostly teenage girls) at a shopping mall. 

Many of them had stood in line in the rain all night to get a glimpse, or, if things went really well, to even touch the soon-to-be marquee idol who would portray vampire Edward Cullen in the movie version of Stephenie Meyer's popular novels.

At the time, I called Pattinson a rock star without a guitar.  He offered:

"I never got the whole vampire thing.  I watched a few movies.  I really liked 'Nosferatu.'"

Well, it appears young Mr. Pattinson has gotten into the whole "vampire thing" more than just a little bit. 

He showed up at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France on Tuesday and confirmed there will be a fourth installment in the hot ticket vampire franchise.  It'll be based on Meyer's "Breaking Dawn," according to an item posted on the Hollywood Reporter Website.

"Pattinson told The Hollywood Reporter that he is committed to starring in the final outing to date but doesn't know when backers Summit Entertainment will begin production because of the actor's jam-packed shooting schedule," the Web post says.

Committing to No. 4 in the franchise is a pretty gutsy move since only "Twilight," the first vampire romancer, has hit screens so far.  No. 2,"New Moon," is set for release this November.

(Photo:  Kristen Stewart, left, tries to figure out the hypnotic animal attraction of Robert Pattinson in last year's "Twilight."/Summit Entertainment)  

Two very different guys on missions impossible

 

If you're looking for new DVD arrivals today (Tuesday, May 19), you'll find two very different movie actors on vastly different missions freshly planted on video store shelves.

In the mood for wacky comedy?  Then "Paul Blart:  Mall Cop" should be your first grab off the New Arrival shelves.

Looking back, I didn't fully appreciate the inspired buffoonery Kevin James has going on as a nice-guy mall security guard fighting off a gang of mall rat thieves.

It wasn't until later when I saw Seth Rogen in the utterly awful "Observe and Report," an unfunny variation on the same theme, that I realized that "Paul Blart" wasn't so bad after all.  (My full movie review)

Something else entirely bothered me about "Valkyrie," the "We must kill Hitler" World War II dramatic-thriller starring Tom Cruise.  At least it did going in.

I couldn't get past that eye-patch.  In short samples -- the trailer running on TV and even an expanded one in theaters -- it looked a little put-on to me.

Take it from me, that's not a problem in the actual movie, which is quite gripping most of the time. 

Cruise portrays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, a German patriot determined to remove Hitler from power before the German dictator completely ruins the country Stauffenberg loves. 

Also debuting today:

"My Bloody Valentine" -- A gory re-imagining of the 1981 holiday-themed horror flick.  It should hold scream and gore fans until "Drag Me to Hell" opens in theaters May 29.

(Photos:  Kevin James having a little trouble dealing with a reluctant mall "speeder" in "Paul Blart:  Mall Cop"/Sony Pictures/and Tom Cruise as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in "Valkyrie."/MGM Home Entertainment)

 

You must sort of remember this ...

Ah, those famous movie lines.  How we love to remember the classics like "If you build it, they will come" from "Field of Dreams" or "Frankly, Scarlett, I don't give a damn," the signature line from the classic "Gone With the Wind."

Well, forget those phrases.  They were never spoken.  At least not like that. 

The Yahoo! Movies Web site has a playful -- and slightly tricky -- little post this morning they're calling the "Top Ten Lasting Movie (Mis)Quotes."

It's fun, but a bit misleading.  Some of the phrases they're showcasing as bogus on the big screen are just a word or so off from the actual verbiage.  It's fun, though.

Oh well, we'll always have Paris.

They did say that it "Casablanca," right?

(Photo:  Dooley Wilson's Sam, left, and Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine talk about life, love and playing it again in "Casablanca"/Warner Bros.)