Friday The 13th [Movie Preview/Teaser]

Changeling - Interviews with Angelina Jolie & Clint Eastwood

Description:
Some images aspire to be something beyond just images. They seek to become objects of veneration: icons. Angelina Jolie, as she appears in Clint Eastwood's Changeling, is more than a mere actress or an over-publicized movie star: She's an icon of suffering. Zinedine Zidane, at least in Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's portrait, is not simply a star athlete or even the world's greatest soccer player: He is projected as 21st-Century Man.

Jolie doesn't perform in Changeling; she resolutely presents herself to the audience for admiration. The main attraction in Eastwood's two-fisted snake-pit weepie is the spectacle of Jolie's steely self-possessed suffering. As she lost her husband to Islamic terrorists in A Mighty Heart, Our Lady of Humanitarian Narcissism here endures another dreadful fate: losing her child to a mob of knaves, know-nothings, and psychos, even as she's persecuted by the entire state institutional apparatus of California.

Based on a forgotten tabloid saga that illuminates a particularly lurid Los Angeles guilty secret and might have appealed equally to neo-noirist James Ellroy or cultural historian Mike Davis, Changeling is set in a late-'20s L.A. that Eastwood has lovingly repopulated with the streetcars and Model T's of his own childhood. Jolie's Christine Collins is a single mom and phone-company supervisor. One afternoon, her nine-year-old son vanishes from their modest bungalow; five months later, the LAPD announces with all due hoopla that the boy has been found. A reunion is staged, reporters are invited, and although dazed Christine immediately realizes that the cops are handing her another kid, she's told to take him home on a "trial basis—he has nowhere else to go."

The Collins mystery is predicated at least in part on the historical Christine's extreme suggestibility. Why did she accept this strange boy as her own? But this is subsumed in a greater mystery: Who could possibly compel Angelina Jolie to do anything she didn't want to do? Despite ample physical evidence that the child is not hers, as well as assistance from a teacher, a dentist, and a self-regarding radio preacher (John Malkovich), Christine is browbeaten by the police, bullied by the press, and finally committed to a local bedlam seemingly filled with people whose mental illness consisted in pissing off the cops.

There's no denying Changeling's moldy grandeur. The movie is Eastwood's version of a silent-era melodrama (and given the anachronistic psycho-babble, it might better have been one). Who doesn't want to like Changeling? Clint Eastwood too is an icon. He succeeded John Wayne as America's greatest cowboy and, billed as America's greatest living director, glared out from the cover of last month's Sight & Sound, a craggy object of uncritical devotion. It's been many years (and many mediocre films) since the near-successive appearance of Bird, White Hunter, Black Heart, and Unforgiven established Eastwood's directorial reputation. Where the existential war film Letters From Iwo Jima attested to his viability, Changeling signals only his ambition.

Eastwood's latest is an effort to be bracketed with Chinatown or L.A. Confidential in mythologizing the secret history of Los Angeles. But burdened by a convoluted script and an ensemble-proof leading lady, the director fails to illuminate a particular corrupt system. Meanwhile, this static, sluggish movie grows ever darker—even as it encompasses murder, pederasty, captivity, intimations of the Manson family, multiple courtroom scenes, and a death-row confrontation. For her part, Jolie reverts to her goth-girl origins—her mask of tragedy suggesting a skull costumed for Halloween in a cloche hat and ghoulishly kissable wax red lips.

Jolie is most convincing in her demand for recognition—and Eastwood is glad to oblige. Late in the movie, Christine confidently predicts that It Happened One Night will be the surprise Oscar winner of 1934. Soon after, she strikes a pose identified with Stella Dallas, the motherhood tearjerker for which Barbara Stanwyck received her first nomination in 1937. Image trumps performance. One needn't be clairvoyant to know that somewhere in Hollywood, someone is imagining her acceptance speech.

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Meagan Good -- Saw V

Actress Meagan Good arrives at the premiere of Lionsgate’s ‘Saw V’ at the Mann’s Chinese 6 Theaters on Tuesday in Los Angeles, California. She co-stars in the upcoming movie.

I really like all the Saw movies, but with the beautiful Meagan Good co-starring in this sequel I will be first in line!

World Movies: 'Frost/Nixon'

Description:
The stars of political drama 'Frost/Nixon' talk about the film's retelling of the post-Watergate interviews between David Frost and former president Richard Nixon. (Oct. 22)

Journey to the Center of the Earth on Blu-ray, DVD on 10/28/08!

Comedian Rudy Ray Moore dies

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Rudy Ray Moore, a raunchy 1970s comedian who played the title role of a flashy pimp in the movie Dolemite and influenced a generation of rappers, has died. He was 81.
Moore died Sunday evening at an Akron nursing home from complications of diabetes, said his brother, Gerald Moore.

Services will be held in Akron and Spokane, Wash., where his mother and other family members live, he said.

Rudy Ray Moore was part of the heyday of black "party records." His stage personality featured blunt sex routines but, unlike contemporaries Redd Foxx and Richard Pryor, he never crossed over to mainstream white audiences.

The Washington Post said in a 1992 profile that Moore was "an astounding renderer of 'toasts,' — elaborately boastful, profane and scatological tales of life in the old-style urban subculture of pimps, prostitutes, gamblers and badmen. His husky, down-home voice is ideal for it."

Moore said he developed the style, later a feature of rap music, by listening to men sitting outside joints "drinking beer and lying and talking (expletive)."

Moore played the fast-talking pimp and title character in the 1975 film Dolemite. In later years Moore collaborated with 2 Live Crew, Big Daddy Kane and Snoop Dogg.

Moore's other acting credits during the Blaxploitation era of black action films included The Human Tornado in 1976 and Disco Godfather in 1979.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The Strangers on Blu Ray and DVD today!!!

Purchase Here

The Incredible Hulk in Stores Now

Purchase Here

Zac Efron & Corbin Bleu lead an ensemble cast in, HSM3

Description:
Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique
Coleman return to the roles they created in the international smash hit High School Musical
and the record-breaking High School Musical 2, that catapulted them to the center of the
worldwide HSM phenomenon.
One of the untold stories of the High School Musical franchise is how talented the cast
really is, says Barsocchini. Yes, theyve all become teen idols. But theyre good young
actors. Our principal cast has molded those characters into something that kids love. Thats the
secret.
Ortega adds, The chemistry the kids have with each other elevates it and makes it
something more than just telling a fun story. They are the most generous lot you could ever
hope to work with. They really come to work with the right things on their minds.
11
SENIORS STORY
Everyones favorite high school sweethearts Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez—played by
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens—still front the troupe.
Im very excited for High School Musical 3 to be on the big screen, says Efron. This
is what weve been waiting for, what weve been working towards, and it feels great because
I feel like we earned it. Were just regular kids that made High School Musical and now its
progressing.
Efron has grown up with his character. Troy is a lot of different things, he says. Hes a
very average kid going through high school, dealing with everyday choices. But the fun thing
about him is that hes got these hidden talents. So Troys got a lot to balance: his basketball
career, his newfound love of singing, and then of course, Gabriella. Whatll happen to them
after high school? You dont know. Its like typical high school drama that we get to sing
about.
According to writer Peter Barsocchini, the Troy Bolton character was inspired by the great
Pittsburgh Steelers football player Lynn Swan. Barsocchini went to high school with Swan;
they played on the same basketball team. One day we were riding on a bus to a game and he
said You know, Id really like to try ballet, says Barsocchini. Theres the character. Theres
so much pressure on kids to be cool that its tough to do something different.
Adds co-producer Don Schain, One of the big lessons from the first movie is to break
stereotypes. The power forward wants to be a pastry chef. The star basketball player wants to
be a thespian. The message to children is that you can be whatever you want to be.
Troy Bolton has always planned to go to the local university with his best friend Chad,
explains Borden. Now, because of his relationship with Gabriella and his relationship with
the stage, he has some choices to make.

Weekly Round Up: 10/21/08

As we ease ourselves into the holiday season, it’s almost as though someone has finally opened up the new-release valve a teeny bit. This week sees the release of Fable II and Midnight Club: Los Angeles, as well as Wii Music. Don’t be completely fooled by the long list of new releases, though. As tasty as they might be, it looks like PlayStation 3 and PC owners are getting a heaping helping of reheated leftovers.

Games
RETAIL GAMES
Fable II (Xbox 360)
Far Cry 2 (PC)
Dead Space (PC)
Bully: Scholarship Edition (PC)
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (Xbox 360)
Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Xbox 360)
Star Ocean: First Departure (PSP)
Midnight Club: LA Remix (PSP)
Rock Band 2 (PS3)
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)
NBA 2K9 (PC)
BioShock (PS3)
Naruto: Clash of Ninja Revolution 2 (Wii)
Wii Music (Wii)
Eternal Sonata (PS3)

DOWNLOADABLE GAMES
PlayStation 3

Xbox 360
Portal: Still Alive

Wii
Tetris Party

DLC
PlayStation 3
Rock Band—Nirvana Pack. Songs include "Breed," "Lounge Act," "On a Plain," "Polly," "Something in the Way," "Stay Away," and "Territorial Pissings." Tracks are available for $1.99 individually or as a set for $10.99.

Xbox 360
Rock Band—Nirvana Pack. Songs include "Breed," "Lounge Act," "On a Plain," "Polly," "Something in the Way," "Stay Away," and "Territorial Pissings." Tracks are available for 160 Microsoft Points individually or as a set for 880 Microsoft Points.

Movies
THEATRICAL
Saw V
Synecdoche, New York
Passengers
Pride and Glory

DVD
The Incredible Hulk
The Strangers
A Threevening with Kevin Smith

BLURAY
The Incredible Hulk
The Strangers
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Payne Beats Bush at Box Office

Description:
A 'W' took top honors at the weekend box office, but it was Mark Wahlberg's 'Max Payne,' not the Oliver Stone movie about the U.S. president. (Oct. 20)

What Just Happened = C+

Two nail-biting, back-stabbing, roller-coaster weeks in the world of a middle-aged Hollywood producer as he tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job. Ben is besieged by people who want him all to be sorts of things -- a money maker, an ego buster, a bad news breaker, an artistic champion, a loyal husband, an all-knowing father, not to mention sexy, youthful and tuned-in -- everything except for the one thing he and all the preposterously behaved people he's surrounded by really are: bumbling human beings just trying to survive by any means necessary.

Genres: Comedy and Adaptation

Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (limited)

MPAA Rating: R for language, some violent images, sexual content and some drug material.

Distributors: Magnolia Pictures

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Robert De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, John Turturro
Directed by:
Barry Levinson
Produced by:
Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban, Eric Kopeloff

Morning Light = B+

Fifteen young sailors and six months of intense training... one chance at the brass ring. This exciting true-life documentary tells the inspiring story of a group of intrepid and determined young men and women, on the cusp of adulthood, as they embark on life's first great adventure. Racing a high-performance 52-foot sloop in the Transpac, the most revered of open-ocean sailing competitions, the crew of MORNING LIGHT matches wits and skills in a dramatic 2,300-mile showdown against top professionals. From their earliest training sessions in Hawaii conducted by world-class teachers through their test of endurance on the high seas, they form an unbreakable bond in the process of becoming singular team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Genres: Action/Adventure, Documentary and Sports

Running Time: 1 hr. 45 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (wide)

MPAA Rating: PG for language and some rude dialogue.

Distributors: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution


Cast and Credits
Starring:
Patrick Warburton
Directed by:
Mark Monroe
Produced by:
Roy E. Disney, Morgan Sackett, Roy E. Disney

Filth and Wisdom = C

Andriy Krystiyan, or A K for short, has come to England from the Ukraine. A K is a philosopher (at least that's what he claims to be), a poet, and an authority on all aspects of life. At the same time, he is following his grand plan to become an international star. Global stardom is how A K describes the goal that he and his band Gogol Bordello are pursuing with their particular brand of boisterous gypsy punk. For the time being, however, he makes ends meet by performing role play in women's clothing for straightmarried men. A K shares a flat with two young women named Juliette and Holly. Juliette dreams of being a kind of Florence Nightingale of the developing world. She is currently working behind the counter at the local drug store run by Sardeep, the Indian chemist. Holly is a trained ballerina. Her big dream is todance with the Royal Ballet. So far she hasn't been able to earn a single penny with her dancing, and continues to 'polish' her skills as a pole dancer at Beechman's Exotic Gentleman's Club.

Genres: Art/Foreign and Comedy

Running Time: 1 hr. 24 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (limited)

Distributors: IFC Films

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Eugene Hutz, Vicky McClure, Richard E. Grant, Stephen Graham, Shobu Kapoor
Directed by:
Madonna
Produced by:
Madonna , Nicola Doring, Angela Becker

W. = B-

W. takes viewers through Bush's eventful life -- his struggles and triumphs, how he found both his wife and his faith, and of course the critical days leading up to Bush's decision to invade Iraq.

Genres: Biopic and Politics/Religion

Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (wide)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images.

Distributors: Lionsgate

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Banks, James Cromwell, Ellen Burstyn, Thandie Newton
Directed by:
Oliver Stone
Produced by:
Elliot Ferwerda, Albert Yeung, Matthew Street

Changeling - A closer look inside. (Jolie, Eastwood)

Changeling' revisits a crime that riveted L.A.
The Walter Collins case would end up becoming the O.J. Simpson drama of its day.
By Rachel Abramowitz


ONE OF the most notorious crimes of Jazz Age Los Angeles began quietly enough with a lost boy.

But the Walter Collins case would end up becoming the O.J. Simpson drama of its day, a horrifying crime that inspired a media frenzy and captivated the Southland. What started as the real-life tale of a missing child would eventually take on a much larger significance in the then-burgeoning city. Though the details may have faded into the miasma of time, its commentary on corruption and abuse of authority, on female empowerment and on the ultimate price of justice, continues to echo throughout the canyons of L.A.'s collective memory.

In the middle of it all was Christine Collins, Walter's mother, a victim turned unlikely heroine.

On March 10, 1928, Collins gave 9-year-old Walter a dime to see a movie. Collins, who lived in a middle-class Mount Washington neighborhood, was an anomaly for an era when women were still considered to suffer from the vapors. A handsome woman with prominent features, she was a single mom whose ex-husband sat in jail for helping to run a speak-easy. She was also a professional woman who worked at the telephone company and apparently prided herself on maintaining a nonemotional, businesslike manner when dealing with men in authority.

Walter disappeared that day, a fact that was chronicled in the Los Angeles Times several days later. Within weeks, the police (with the press watching) were conducting a massive manhunt and dragging Lincoln Park lake for Walter's body. Tips poured in, with people claiming to have seen the boy in a Glendale gas station, sitting in a back seat of a car, wrapped in newspaper -- and even as far away as San Francisco. The boy's father, Walter J.S. Collins, floated the theory that some of his former inmates kidnapped his son, perhaps out of revenge.

In August, the LAPD delivered a boy to Christine Collins, her putative son who'd been found in Illinois. It was an apparent coup for the Los Angeles Police Department, which had routinely suffered bad press and whose chief, James Davis, was famous (now infamous) for having created only two years before a 50-man "gun squad" to go after the city's criminal element with the express command to bring in the purported crooks "dead, not alive."

Upon seeing the proffered child, Collins, according to a press account from that time, immediately stated, "I do not think that is my son." But, pressured by the LAPD, she took the boy home. Three weeks later, she returned the child to the LAPD, armed with dental records of her actual son, and statements from people who knew Walter. Collins unwittingly initiated what would become a veritable media storm, which ended with a court fight that lasted a decade, and a new state law, but never definitively resolved -- at least for Collins -- what happened to Walter.

Now her story is being told in the new Clint Eastwood film, " Changeling," which opens Friday. (It follows the true story, so if you're worried about plot spoilers, think twice before reading further.) The title comes from European folklore; a "changeling" was the offspring of a fairy or troll secretly swapped for a human child. The film stars Angelina Jolie as Collins and John Malkovich as the Rev. Gustav Briegleb, a pastor with a radio pulpit who took up Collins' cause.

The Collins story was literally unearthed out of city and court archives by journalist turned screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski, who had been tipped off by a former source to transcripts from a City Council hearing about the Collins case. Straczynski, who wrote for The Times and Herald Examiner, was an unlikely choice to be Collins' unofficial historian, given that his main credits were for the sci-fi TV show "Babylon 5." But he quickly became fascinated by her story and spent a year trawling through newspapers and records, piecing together an elaborate tapestry.


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The Secret Life of Bees = B-

Set in South Carolina in 1964, the tale of Lily Owens, a 14-year-old girl who is haunted by the memory of her late mother. To escape her lonely life and troubled relationship with her father, Lily flees with Rosaleen, her caregiver and only friend, to a South Carolina town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by the intelligent and independent Boatwright sisters, Lily finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping, honey and the Black

Genres: Drama and Adaptation

Running Time: 1 hr. 50 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (limited)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material and some violence.

Distributors: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Sophie Okonedo, Alicia Keys
Directed by:
Gina Prince-Bythewood
Produced by:
Jada Pinkett-Smith, Lauren Shuler Donner, Joe Pichirallo

Sex Drive = C+

Eighteen year old Ian finally gets the opportunity to lose his virginity when a woman he meets on-line offers to have sex with him if he drives to Knoxville to meet her. Accompanied by friends Lance and Felicia, whom Ian has a thing for, but she in turn has a thing for Lance, take off on a road trip in Ian's brother, Rex's beloved 1969 GTO -- without permission of course.

Genres: Comedy

Running Time: 1 hr. 48 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (wide)

MPAA Rating: R for strong crude and sexual content, nudity, language, some drug and alcohol use--all involving teens.

Distributors: Summit Entertainment, LLC

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, James Marsden, Charlie McDermott
Directed by:
Sean Anders
Produced by:
Michael Nelson, Bob Levy (II), Leslie Morgenstein
See Full Cast and Credits

Max Payne = C-

Max Payne is a maverick cop--a mythic anti-hero--determined to track down those responsible for the brutal murders of his family and partner. Hell-bent on revenge, his obsessive investigation takes him on a nightmare journey into a dark underworld. As the mystery deepens, Max is forced to battle enemies beyond the natural world and face an unthinkable betrayal.

Genres: Action/Adventure and Adaptation

Running Time: 1 hr. 39 min.

Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (wide)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence including intense shooting sequences, drug content, some sexuality and brief strong language.

Distributors: 20th Century Fox Distribution

Cast and Credits
Starring:
Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Mark Wahlberg, Jamie Hector (II)
Directed by:
John Moore
Produced by:
Karen J. Lauder, Rick Yorn, Tom Karnowski

'Max Payne,' 'Chihuahua,' 'Bees' out-poll 'W'

Movie-goers elected a "W," but it was Mark Wahlberg, not George W. Bush.

Wahlberg's action flick "Max Payne" debuted with $18 million to outdo Oliver Stone's film biography of George W. Bush, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Stone's "W." actually ran fourth, opening with $10.6 million to finish behind the family comedy "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" (No. 2 with $11.2 million) and the chick flick "The Secret Life of Bees" (No. 3 with $11.1 million).

"For me, an Oliver Stone film about George Bush doesn't necessarily scream big box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "A film like this is very tough to gauge, but this is exactly what I thought it would do."

Lionsgate's "W.," starring Josh Brolin as Bush, came in well behind the $18.7 million debut of Stone's last movie, 2006's Sept. 11 saga "World Trade Center." That movie opened in nearly 3,000 theaters, about 900 more than "W.," however.

Playing in 2,030 cinemas, "W." averaged a solid but unremarkable $5,197 a theater, compared with a $6,334 average for "World Trade Center." "W." was shot on a modest budget of $25 million....

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Max Payne," $18 million.

2. "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," $11.2 million.

3. "The Secret Life of Bees," $11.1 million.

4. "W.," $10.6 million.

5. "Eagle Eye," $7.3 million.

6. "Body of Lies," $6.9 million.

7. "Quarantine," $6.3 million.

8. "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist," $3.9 million.

9. "Sex Drive," $3.6 million.

10. "Nights in Rodanthe," $2.7 million.

Via: www.yahoo.com