SCREAM 4

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

In movie theatres April 15, 2011. Distributed by Dimension Films. Genres: Sequel, Thriller, Suspense, Horror. Scream 4 sees the return of the three main characters, along with a group of new stars. 
http://www.scream-4.com/

STORYLINE

SIDNEY PRESCOTT has been living the last few years of her life in relative silence. Now a guidance counselor for Woodsboro High School, her alma mater, she finally lives her life out of the media spotlight. But with the discovery of a murdered student, Sidney Prescott’s world will once again be ripped apart by the reemergence of Ghost Face.
http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_13883.html


TRAILER

ABOVE THE LINE

Stars:  Neve Campbell
           Courteney Cox
           David Arquette

Producer: Michael Weinstein 

Director: Wes Craven

Writer:  Kevin Williamson

BUZZ

It was phenomenal! What can I say. This outshines the 3rd one easily. Definitely the bloodiest of all of them, but I feel like they’ll edit some of it down. An unrated DVD would be nice to have though. All the acting was superb. Not one flaw. The opening scene was hilarious and brutal. Definitely a lot of great Williamson writing. The characters all felt very genuine. Gale was back to her bitchy self, and had a bunch of great one-liners. The ending was insanity. Easily the best of all the series, in my opinion, anyways. The crowd experience was great, and everybody was totally into it. Cannot WAIT to see this in theaters come April. Hopefully they don’t change anything. Loved it loved it loved it.”
http://www.slashfilm.com/early-buzz-scream-4/

INFORAMA COMMENT

Please, somebody stab me!--Nope--done in Scream 1.  Ok, shoot me and stab me!--Nope--done in Scream 2. Well, how about shoot, stab and bludgeon me to death!--Nope-- that was Scream 3.  Let me ask you, is there really a plot for Scream 4?

If you are looking for a social metaphor for the sequence of the three movies, it is this:  Everyone connected to Woodsboro, California has serious mental problems. Nutballs all! For this college town there apparently is a total intellectual vacuum.  After years and years and agonizingly long years of repeated gruesome psycho murders in their small college community, how could the town, much less the college survive?  What degrees would be conferred? Mortuary discipline with emphasis on post mortem reconstruction from all that mayhem. There were so many town officials being killed off so often, who is left to run the town after a decade of murders? So many co-eds are killed that the college would have to offer, forgive the pun, cut rates in tuition to entice potential victims to the school and it's deadly courses and extracurricular activities.

You would think the plot would at least have an EPA representative in the film searching for a toxic waste dump. Why else would so many townspeople be turning into such savage killers in such a quaint town? Or why so many of the villagers are just too stupid not to move elsewhere?

The family dynamics in all the Scream movies have a brother, a mother, a sister, second cousins twice removed all involved with a passion in gruesome murders what would have made the Marquis de Sade proud--Yawn--boring.  Can't help not going back to the school where much of the violence takes place. Can you imagine the literature classes where yet another villain pens the lie:  How do I kill thee...  Let me count the ways...

Sorry to the fans of the series, but Scream 4 is going to be very predictable.  Someone with (again forgive the pun) an ax to grind, searches out the heroine in order to kill her for a perceived slight.  Woe be to anyone helping the heroine!

Hopefully the three main characters will be offed, so the writers and producers can search for fresh material to write and film.  I'm happy for everyone who made money on the first three films.  But a fourth in the series would be like watching Rocky XXXVIII.  How much drivel does Hollywood expect audiences to take?  Although I grant that long time fans are sure to see this latest installment, I still maintain that it will not have legs. We'll scream....see.

DUMBSTRUCK

PRESS RELEASE

In Movie Theaters: March 25, 2011. Distributed by: Truly Indie.  MPAA Rating:  PG.  Genre: Documentary. A look at the Vent Haven Convention, which bills itself as the ventriloquism capital of the world.

STORYLINE

DUMSTRUCK takes us to the Vent Haven ConVENTion in Ft. Mitchell, KY—Ventriloquism Capital of the World—where Goffman discovers five extraordinary, real-life characters straight out of a Christopher Guest film. The ventriloquists’ career paths vary from one of bare subsistence to the meteoric rise of Terry Fator, who goes from struggling performer to million-dollar Vegas headliner during the making of the film.
“Goffman has made an artful film about the struggles and triumphs of unique brand of performers. He pulls you into their unusual, sort of absurd world and shows you an unexpectedly entertaining and touchingly human story,” said Kelly Sanders of Truly Indie. “We are delighted to help bring this film to a wider audience.”
Dumbstruck will begin its five-city debut with a premiere in front of Terry Fator’s home audience in Dallas on 3.26.2011, before expanding into New York, Los Angeles and other select markets.
http://www.dumbstruckthemovie.com/ventriloquist-documentary

TRAILER

ABOVE THE LINE

Stars:  Bob Ashman, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3267266/
          Maria Ashman, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3267743/
          Willie Brown, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3268155/
          Barry Burdette, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3267372/

Producer:  Lindsay Goffman, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3579841/

Director: Mark Goffman, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0324611/


BUZZ

What works great in this documentary is how the film makers found people at different stages in the same hobby/career.  There is the 13-year old kid just starting out juxtaposed with the seasoned professional working on his first big Vegas act.  There's the former beauty queen (who did a ventriloquist act for the talent portions) looking to move beyond small-time gigs and land a job on a cruise ship, which is a very lofty goal considering the very small amount of job slots available.  And that is compared to the guy who has a sweet crusie ship gig, as well as other awesome paid jobs like flying out to Japan to teach a class, and has himself a nice ventriloquist career, but has to possibly pay for it all with his 25-year marriage, which is hurting due to his extensive amount of time "on the road"),  can't really be on the road if he's on cruise ships all the time).  And then there is the ventriloquist with no real professional aspirations outside of putting on little shows for kids and elderly folk and bringing a little bit of joy into other people's lives.
http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-orlando/florida-film-festival-2010-movie-review-dumbstruck

INFORAMA COMMENT

Whoa, back up!  Now and again something unusual appears on the radar screen that warrants another look.  So it is with Dumbstruck.  Its atypical subject certainly piques your interest about real people in roles playing themselves.

Vent Haven is a yearly convention of ventriloquists gathered from around the country.  I suspect these conventioneers range from the spectacularly talented to the dreadfully pathetic wannabe.  The film is supposed to follow five of the better hopefuls and takes occasional glances at a variety of others, an approach of the good, the bad and the ugly.

In all probability, the biggest fans of this film are likely to be mental health professionals, psychiatrists, sociologists and psychologists. They can dissect and analyze to their hearts content the limitless variety of characters, jokes and the performers themselves.

The current film teaser shows only three of the main performers who could not be more different.  First is an unusually tall, spinsterish fifty something lady.  She may not be much to look at, but her unscripted remarks are thoughtful and insightful.  She tells an unseen interviewer that being a technically proficient ventriloquist is the easiest part, anyone can do that.  But when she says you have to be funny to be successful, she is dead on target.

The second main performer is a former beauty queen who has an affinity for ventriloquism.  The third performer shown in the teaser is a precocious 10 year old who has performed since he was 5 years old.

Our psychological buffs will have a field day trying to discover why a particular puppet is developed by the performer. Those who have watched puppeteer ventriloquist Jeff Dunham perform realize the diverse range of alter egos Dunham has developed. There is the crotchety old man, a jalapeno pepper on a stick, a dead talking skeleton of a Muslim suicide bomber and a whimsical purple, wisecracking puppet.

Through these fanciful puppets, the ventriloquists may voice feelings and thoughts many would find offensive.  But the audiences who laugh at these tasteless but funny lines seem to find a way to vent by laughing.  The often tasteless jokes are the words of the puppet, not the puppeteer ventriloquist. The evidence shows that the audiences will forgive and praise the ventriloquist with approval and laughter. Too bad society can't laugh at itself instead of almost always trying to be politically correct, outraged and unhappy.  These ventriloquists and their humor can help lift us out of the collective dumps everyone seems to be in these days.

Little Girl buries Goldfish

PAUL

PRESS RELEASE

In theatres:  March 18, 2011.  Distributed by:  Universal Pictures.  MPAA Rating: R.
Genres: Adventure Comedy.  http://paulthemovie.co.uk/

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost ("Hot Fuzz," "Shaun of the Dead") reunite for the comedy adventure "Paul" as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America's UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-traveling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town -- a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Collings (Frost). Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes.

TRAILER

ABOVE THE LINE

Stars:  Simon Pegg, http://www.peggster.net/
           Nick Frost, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296545/
           Seth Rogen, http://sethrogenonline.net/

Producers: Liza Chasin, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153877/
                  Robert Graf, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0333747/

Director: Greg Mottola, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Mottola

Writers: Nick Frost, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296545/
              Simon Pegg, http://www.peggster.net/

BUZZ

With great gags, lots of clever little moments and a winning, almost-human story at the center to leaven the big action sequences, the film should please devoted fans of the genre with its savvy attention to detail. But also it should appeal to those who generally can take or the leave the genre, which it treats with cheerful disrespect. Box-office riches lie in wait, as it is exactly the kind of film that fans will want to see more than once. http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/02/08/paul-movie-reviews-simon-pegg-nick-frost/

INFORAMA COMMENT

Writers and directors of sci-fi alien flicks seem to hopscotch between four squares for their general story lines.  Two from the human aspect and two from the alien aspect.

On the alien side, there is the cast-a-way friendly ET type who simply wants to be anywhere but on their planet.  The plot revolves around the friendly, compassionate and more importantly, non flesh eating traveler who is stranded on this planet. 

The second theme is the otherworld traveler who has specifically targeted the earth and unfortunately is very apt to be the flesh eating type. The earth becomes a martial arts playground for this malevolent variety of alien.

Now the human side.  One theme is the Odyssey saga.  The persevering, long patient type who endures the impossible and then some.  And like Odysseus, defeats the monsters not by sheer strength, but by cunning and wit.  And finally, there is the childlike, inept, sad sack human with the big heart who attempts to shield this injured or lost alien from a nefarious governmental agency that wants to dissect the alien for some mysterious reason.

This last category seems to be the thrust of Paul.  Two hapless friends take a road trip to enliven their humdrum lives.  The object of their trip: the notorious Area 51. There they encounter an alien who has the body of Gollum of Hobbit fame and the quick wit of Robin Williams. These area 51 films always remind me of times spent as a kid looking up at the night sky for any tell tale signs of UFOs darting by.  I used binoculars and actually saw some pretty strange movements from objects that did not seem to be planes.  I never did find out what it was that I saw, but these alien films always bring those sightings to mind.

In the trailer, the lines are witty and double edged.  Without being sanctimonious, the writers present some scenes with funny but interesting observations of the seeming difference between human and alien.  After inadvertently hitting and killing a bird with a car, Paul, the alien protagonist, performs an ET Heimlich Maneuver and resurrects the bird. His earthling friends are instantly elated, then horrified when Paul eats the live bird.  A bewildered Paul asks in return why would he eat a dead bird.

The unspoken paradox is that both alien and human eat fowl.  It's just that Paul's vision of Chick-fil-a or KFC is the polar opposite of ours.  And the crowning irony-we humans enjoy eating raw (live) oysters.  No upscale restaurant would be caught without oysters on the menu. 

One of the things I am looking forward to in the film is the surprise cameos that I have heard about on other websites. "Perhaps the nicest points are the 'look who it is!' cameos littered throughout the film, with one or two surprising appearances before the climactic scenes." says James Luxford at http://www.muveez.com/reviews/1076/review-paul-starring-simon-pegg-nick-frost-jason-bateman. I agree that cameos are the bomb because my experience of utter enjoyment when I see them confirms it!

All this is done with a deep vein of humor. It looks like it may give us a good belly laugh.  Some of the jokes are well thought out and truly hilarious.  A few contain bathroom humor that some moviegoers will find sophomoric and offensive: Paul mooning in a car and presenting a pressed ham. My guess is that the movie will be an instant hit with men, less so with women but adored by kids.

COWBOYS AND ALIENS

PRESS RELEASE

Opens July 29, 2011. Universal Studios.  Genre: Action, Thriller.  Official website: http://www.cowboysandaliensmovie.com/.

1875. New Mexico Territory. A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution.  The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist.  What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford).  It's a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.  Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he's been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents-townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors-all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survivial.

TRAILER

 

ABOVE THE LINE

Stars: Harrison Ford, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Ford
          Daniel Craig, http://www.dedicatedtodaniel.com/
          Olivia Wilde, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Wilde

Producers: Ron Howard, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000165/
                  Brian Grazer, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004976/

Executive Producer: Steven Spielberg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg
 

Director:  John Favreau, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Favreau

Writers:   Alex Kurtzman, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Kurtzman
                Roberto Orci, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Orci

                Damon Lindelof, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Lindelof

BUZZ

So, the first trailer for Jon Favreau’s COWBOYS AND ALIENS finally premiered.  And it…looks…AWESOME. If you’re a die hard sci-fi geek like me, you’ve already seen the killer poster with Daniel Craig sporting his alien wrist gizmo and doing the Iron Man shrug. That poster sets the tone for the trailer. After a blur of Bond-style fist cuffs we find Craig in a small town getting a drink where we learn that he is wanted for, “Arson, assault, mayhem, and hijacking.” You know a guy’s hard-core when he’s wanted for “mayhem”.

Anyway, he ends up in jail and we get our first glimpse of Harrison Ford as the devious Col. Woodrow Dolarhyde. It’s not often when we get to see Ford play the villain, but always a treat. When he grunts his lines with that smirk it’s almost enough to send shivers of joy down one’s spine. Then “they” show up. What are they? “Is it demons?” One boys asks. Nope. Aliens.

So the final verdict? Epic. Rather than taking the concept and turning it into a comedy, or even lighthearted action flick, it seems like the folks behind this are actually going for a hard core action film. For the time being, it looks awesome. I mean, what’s not to like? It’s Cowboys and Aliens.
http://www.9e3k.com/scifi/trailer-review-cowboys-and-aliens/

INFORAMA COMMENT
 

Here's the thing: we always hope for a truly engrossing film.  Whether it is action, drama, historical, biographical, musical, western or sci-fi, our appetite for original and quality films is insatiable.  Perhaps we, society, are collectively looking for escape.  And considering the state of the world affairs as of late, that escape is desperately needed.

The latest project of Brian Glaser and Ron Howard is Cowboys and Aliens. The title is certainly something that grabs your attention.  And Harrison Ford is still a major draw to any film fan.  It is always a pleasure to watch someone like Ford play his role like a great violinist brings life to a Stradivarius.

One of the oldest staples of filmdom is the Oater, commonly called a Western.  And the menacing alien visitor movies also have been in the yearly repertoire of films.  But the amalgamation of Western and other world aliens leaves an uncertain taste.

Is the film audience being treated or scammed into watching the film?  The odd combination causes a sense of bewilderment.  Imagine someone touting a film with an unlikely title of Aliens vs. Predator, The Musical, replete with a touching duet between these notorious film villains on a mound of dismembered and dying humans.  The taste just isn't right.

So what about Cowboys and Aliens?  At its core, this sounds like a sci-fi David vs. Goliath. Primitive humans on horseback battle aliens flying around in nifty spacecraft armed with futuristic  weapons. How can the aliens possibly lose?  Likewise, how can the humans possibly win?  Daniel Craig and his Dick Tracy watch appear to be the Deus Ex Machina needed to save humanity.  And since humanity has survived to the twenty first century one can conclude that the strategy must have worked in the eighteen seventy something or other.

The trailers for this film are clever.  We see space craft, but no aliens.  Are the critters flying around blasting cacti in the dessert one eyed, tentacled beasts or kissing cousins of Daniel Craig furiously engaged in a space age Hatfield vs. McCoy feud?

Even B movies now produce a wide variety of special effects.  But if Ron Howard and Brian Glaser expect to dazzle with just pyrotechnics and CGI this film could be a major disappointment.  The disparity between reality and imagination may be too wide a gap for this attempt at welding a Western to a malevolent E.T.  Ron Howard states, "There's a conversation now with fans and it starts a long time before the movie is even finished.  The frightening thing for me is if somehow the wrong story gets out there and your film is misunderstood in some way... you need to shape the message, really. "

I hope this film will succeed and not be a case where an attempt at originality is confused with the bizarre.  Will this movie ape those pathetically strange fashion shows where an absolutely tasteless and bizarre arrangement of colorful cloth is presented as Haute Couture? Can this be the next Close Encounters of the Third Kind?  Or will everyone be asking where are the emperor's clothes?  I guess we'll all have to plunk down $10 bucks to find out.

 

Best Film of the Year

The Bear by Jean-Jacques Annaud