Vatican beatifies Blues Brothers ... well almost

Jim Belushi (L) and Dan Aykroyd perform as The Blues Brothers during the 2008 MusiCares Person of the Year dinner and concert in honor of Aretha Franklin in Los Angeles Feb 8, 2008.

Jake and Elwood, the loveable if hapless characters played by John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in the classic 1980 film The Blues Brothers, have finally gotten Vatican recognition for their �Mission from God�.

To mark this week�s 30th anniversary of the film, which became a cult classic and spawned a fashion of wearing black hats and dark sunglasses to parties, the Vatican newspaper dedicated a full page and no fewer than five articles to it.



One of the articles says there is �no lack of evidence� that The Blues Brothers can be considered �a Catholic film�.

It notes that Jake�s release from prison and the commitment by him and Elwood to put their blues revival band back together to raise money to save an orphanage from forced closure has parallels with the Biblical story of the prodigal son.

Jake and Elwood � who say they are on a �mission from God� to raise the money to pay a back tax bill for the orphanage � and the band members, are symbols of �redemption obtained with sacrifice�.

The newspaper also notes that the film is sprinkled with Catholic and moral references such as the nun Sister Mary Stigmata, who they call �The Penguin�.

Elwood even passes up a chance for a one-night stand with a woman played by Twiggy in order to fulfil the mission, it says.

�This is a memorable film, and, judging by the facts, a Catholic one,� the newspaper said.

Anne Hathaway Talks about Alice in Wonderland

Anne Hathaway talks about working with Tim Burton, using a green screen, and eating fried crickets... Alice in Wonderland is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray.




















What did you make of the platinum blonde look and shimmering white gown you have in the film?

I think the look of my character really fits into Tim Burton�s canon, when you look at a lot of his heroines. A lot of them have pale hair and shadowed eyes and dark lips. I think this is the more extreme version of it. She is the White Queen so obviously the color of her hair is informed by that. What I was struck by when I saw the film was that the hair and make-up actually matched what I was trying to do with the character � which was to play her as someone who was good but with a tiny bit of darkness in her. I thought that came out in the lips and the nails. I was so happy that I did not recognize myself.

Where did the vegan/punk rocker description of the White Queen come from?

That came from the script actually. When she says it is against her vows to harm any living creature, well I am a geek - and I had a lot of time on my hands, obviously � so I made up a whole back story about how she maybe liked meat but it made her sick and how maybe her parents saw her sister start to display violent tendencies and so they got her to make a vow that she would never harm another living creature. So she had repressed her aggression and hadn�t explored it. So that is where the punk rock and vegan thing came in.

Were you a fan of the books?

I loved the books. I didn�t read them till I was at college. I was really struck by Alice�s emotions and the way she felt overwhelmed by the world around her. Also I was so entertained by the world of the books. When I was doing my research for the film I read a lot of essays on the books. One of the things that someone pointed out was that Wonderland is a place of extreme emotions. People [in Wonderland] have emotional reactions to things � often angry reactions. I remember when I read the book that my hormones were raging and I felt a connection to it. I had been planning on reading the books for some time because when I was in Fifth Grade a teacher had us memorize the Jabberwocky poem. So when Johnny was reciting that in the film I was saying it along with him.

What was it like to work with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton?

Johnny, Tim and Helena are all like this awesome rock band and I felt like I was invited to play back-up on their album. And then they would say�here�s a solo�and be like, oh really!, Thank you! Tim has a joy to him and a commitment to his own aesthetic that I respect so deeply. I felt so privileged to be around and I was so inspired by that. When you work with Tim Burton everybody not only tries as hard as they can, they also bring their most creative selves and everyone does what they can to make it as special as his vision. So one of the biggest differences about working with Tim is how much he inspires people. On this film Tim pointed me in the direction that he wanted me to go in and then he basically said to do what I wanted to do with it. I had been very nervous about working with Tim because I had admired him from the first time I saw Beetlejuice and I didn�t want to disappoint him. I wanted to fit into Wonderland, which was a mad, imaginative wonderful world. Also I was very nervous about working on green screen, which I had not done before. So I worked out all the details before I got on the set and Tim was totally open to everything. He is not a director who says �no� very often. He likes to play, he likes to explore. Even if he might disagree with you or if he doesn�t understand where you want to go, he will give you the opportunity to try. For instance my character having a weak stomach was a happy accident. He made an entire arc in the movie about that and I was so happy with that. I don�t know him very well but he is very easy to get along with. He is very interesting, very funny and he is a rule breaker.


You have gone from Princess [in The Princess Diaries] to Queen, but not the usual type of Queen. Are you drawn to roles that subvert expectation?

I try to bring an unconventional approach to all my roles. It is not necessarily to defy expectation but it is more to ask what would I expect in reading this and how can I mess with the rhythm of this character?

What about preparation?

I have been very lucky. I have worked with wonderful directors who love actors and who are creative. On this film I only worked for two weeks and I had six weeks to prep the character. That is just the ratio that I like. I love long prep and rehearsal periods.


It is said that you are very choosy with your roles?

I have never thought about it that way. My choices are character driven. I want to play characters that interest me in films that are directed by film makers that I respect.

Do you think that after Rachel Getting Married and your Oscar nomination that people saw you in a different light?

People that I really respect have come up to me and said that they did not think that I had that in me. That is a very nice feeling but I wasn�t out to prove anything with that role. But that happened without me trying and it was nice. I started when I was so young and my goal has always been career longevity and so I always planned to take my time with everything and explore things. I am not sure that I could have played a character like Kym [in Rachel Getting Married] before I did. I had a lot of growing to do and I still have a lot of growing to do. So I just hope to work with people who are going to help me grow.


How important for you is it to mix things up by doing Indy movies and big budget productions?

I have been told it is very important. But it is just that I don�t like repeating myself. I like to change it up a lot. So I have explored as many options and genres and types of films as are available to me.

A bonus must be that this film has the quirkiness that Tim Burton brings?

If Tim had asked me to do Blade Runner � The Musical I would have done that. Actually that is a great idea, I would want to see that AND be in it! But actually the fact that Tim was doing Alice made it even more exciting for me. And that it was a return to Disney was wonderful. But it was really more that I was motivated by Tim and also I fell in love with the White Queen. From the moment I saw her in the script she sparkled to me. I was really drawn to it. I have always had strong feelings about which role I was drawn to. And it has always been the role in the script that I have been asked to consider. I have been very lucky because not every actor is given the option of auditioning for a different role.


Tim says he had Nigella Lawson in mind as a model for the White Queen. Do you have things like that in mind?

Unless you are playing a real life person it will be inspired by other things. For the White Queen there were a lot of different sources. I was looking at silent films with Greta Garbo and looking at the way she moves and I looked at Debbie Harry for the glam, punk rock element. And Tim had mentioned Nigella and she helped in the cooking scene because of her ease in the kitchen and the way Nigella is very sensual with food. I wanted the White Queen to have that.

Do you cook?

I�m trying. I am new to it. One in five things is very good and everything else is nice effort. I am working on the basics right now and trying to find my go-to chilli recipe. The other day I roasted a chicken that I have got to say was awesome. But I used a lot of butter and it�s not hard to make chicken taste good when you use a lot of butter. I am not a very imaginative cook, I follow recipes, but I really do enjoy it. That and baking. I used to be a vegetarian but obviously I am not a very committed vegetarian when you roast chicken. My favorite recipe is the Waverley Inn�s Chicken Pot Pie. That is a restaurant in the West Village of New York where they make a Chicken Pot Pie that is the most delicious comfort food ever! I found the recipe and I have made it a few times and it is really fun. I like time consuming cooking projects when I spend all Sunday in the kitchen making a big meal. I like Sunday and I invite people over for brunch and then it turns into dinner.


You are not an adventurous cook but are you an adventurous eater?

I have eaten Fried Crickets. It was fine. They were very greasy and dense. They were crunchy but I did not think they were nice. But I was happy that I had done it. The one thing that I absolutely cannot eat � it turns me off � is tripe! I cannot eat any type of intestine. A friend has come back from Bhutan and they showed me pictures of something they ate and it was the grilled guts of some animal and it was not appealing. I get a little nauseous thinking about it. So I am not that adventurous. The Travel Channel would never give me my own show.

So how was the green screen experience in Alice In Wonderland?

There was a huge room that was just green. If I had had to work on it longer I might have got freaked out but it was just two weeks. Tim knew what he was doing and most of the cast had worked on green screen before, so I just watched what everyone else was doing and pretended I knew what was happening. I felt that way at the world premiere when we met Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall. What do you do? Is it ma�am as in jam?


What do you think of Blu-ray?

It�s great. Honestly I am not really technical so my dad could answer that question better. My parents have Blu-ray and I love watching things at their place. Whenever we pop something in my dad just sits there and for the first five minutes of the movie goes��Oh, Blu-ray! Gosh this is great!� And I�ll say that�s great dad but I don�t know what�s going on in the plot.

The Karate Kid - Hit $56 million in the cinemas. Will Smith son's kick a blockbuster.

Will Smith's son is a movie star in the making. His new film Karate Kid brought in a whopping $56 million. See what other flicks made big bucks... Glam's got the box office beat.



1 � The Karate Kid: $56 M

2 � The A-Team: $26 M

3 � Shrek Forever After: $15.8 M

4 � Get Him to the Green: $10.1 M

5 � Killers: $8.2 M

6 � Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: $6.6 M

7 � Marmaduke: $6.0 M

8 � Sex and the City 2: $5.5 M

9 � Iron Man 2: $4.6 M

10 � Splice: $2.9 M

Filming Has Started on Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides.

Production has commenced on location in Hawaii, the United Kingdom and Los Angeles on Walt Disney Pictures� and Jerry Bruckheimer Films� sweeping comedy adventure Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, directed by Rob Marshall, the fourth entry in the blockbuster franchise which has already reaped $2.7 billion in worldwide box office from the previous three films, and the first to be filmed and presented in Disney Digital 3D.




Johnny Depp returns to his iconic, Academy Award-nominated role of Captain Jack Sparrow, newly joined by Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz, Ian McShane and newcomers Astrid Berges-Frisbey and Sam Claflin. Also rejoining Johnny Depp and Captain Jack are Academy Award-winner and three-time nominee Geoffrey Rushand Kevin R. McNally. The film is slated to open May 20, 2011.

Romance, comedy dead on arrival in "Killers"

How do you explain being an assassin to your wife?

An action comedy that nearly renders the term an oxymoron, "Killers" is devoid of suspense and laughs. Doing no favors for stars Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher or the audience, this tired attempt to blend romantic comedy with thrills makes one long for the days when films like "Charade" showed how it could be done. Lionsgate released the film Friday without screening it earlier for the press.



The gorgeous Heigl is improbably cast as Jen, a miserable, recently dumped young woman who resorts to traveling with her parents (Tom Selleck, Catherine O'Hara) for a vacation in the French Riviera. Immediately upon settling in Nice, she meets the shirtless, hunky Spencer (Kutcher, who with his torso revealed at every opportunity is the real sex object in the movie), and a quick courtship ensues, with Jen unaware that her wooer is not the corporate consultant he claims to be but rather a professional killer working for an unnamed agency.

Cut to three years later, with the now married couple settled into a quiet suburban life and Spencer apparently having given up his former profession. That is, until his 30th birthday, when suddenly he becomes the target of numerous assassination attempts. Predictable chaos ensues, with the couple bickering about their marital situation even while violently grappling with a series of bad guys (and gals) whose surprising identities are supposed to be shocking.

The film, reportedly Lionsgate's most expensive production to date, is elaborate in its European location shooting and copious amount of choreographed mayhem. It's too bad that such effort wasn't expended on the script, which contains nary a single amusing line of dialogue. Instead, the film's idea of humor is to make a running gag of Jen's alcoholic mother's downing drinks at every opportunity.

Despite his impressive physique, the boyish Kutcher is less than convincing in macho mode, and Heigl (on a cinematic downhill streak since "Knocked Up") is reduced to dithering reaction shots. Even comic veteran O'Hara is unable to wrest laughs from the lame material, though Selleck manages to retain his dignity because of his stolid underplaying.

"Marmaduke" bounds onscreen for breezy, bland outing

A scene from �Marmaduke,�

It's hard to believe that many of this millennium's kids still read "Marmaduke," but the comic strip has been going strong since the early 1950s. It's even harder to believe that Fox made a feature film based on a single-panel comic in an era where expensive fanboy fare such as "Watchmen" or "Elektra" sometimes flames out.



There's no denying the Southern California setting makes for breezy, if bland, summertime fare, and children undoubtedly will be amused. Unlike the boundless energy of its title character, though, this looks to be a modest performer at the box office. It opens Friday (June 4).

Another curiosity is why producer John Davis, director Tom Dey and screenwriters Tim Rasmussen and Vince Di Meglio changed strip creator Brad Anderson's Great Dane into a wisecracker who now talks to his numerous four-legged co-stars and occasionally to the camera.

Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson) narrates this sitcom story, a tale full of predictable comic pratfalls and equally predictable heartwarming life lessons. About the only connection to the single-panel strip is that the dog belongs to Phil Winslow (Lee Pace) and his wife (Judy Greer). Near the outset, Phil moves the family (teen daughter, son and younger daughter) from Kansas to Orange County, California, with pets Marmaduke and Carlos, a Russian Blue cat (George Lopez), in tow.

Marketing executive Phil has an eccentric, dog-loving new boss, Don Twombly (an uncomfortably cast William H. Macy), who takes meetings while strolling barefoot in a lavish dog park. It's here that Marmaduke bonds with several other mutts. And it's also here that they're taunted by high-class pedigrees led by bullying Bosco (Kiefer Sutherland). The film's basic puppy love triangle involves best pal Mazie (Emma Stone) and the more upper-crust Jezebel (Fergie).

The filmmakers use computer effects in unsurprising fashion, though kids surely will like the impromptu surfing contest with Marmaduke hanging ten and doing aerial acrobatics. The voice cast goes mostly for laughs, mouthing every dog pun and cliche ever recorded.

None of the human actors other than Pace gets much screen time. His casting (whether by design or not) evokes Dean Jones' Great Dane owner in Walt Disney's 1966 comedy "The Ugly Dachshund," right down to the character's clean-cut '60s look.

A snippet of another Disney dog story, 1957's "Old Yeller," can be glimpsed as well. It's always risky to remind viewers blatantly of better movies from years past. But one thing "Marmaduke" does have in common with the earlier Disney titles is a blessed scarcity of crass bodily-function gags that often pass as family comedy.

Should there be another Sex in the City 3 ?

I was a little late catching up to Sex and the City 2 (late for a critic, that is � we tend to see things early), and by the time I wandered into a half-empty theater on Memorial Day, I was all but certain that I was going to be sitting down to watch this franchise jump the sapphire tiara. I�d read Lisa�s funny and elegant pan, and she, of course, wasn�t alone: This is one of those cases in which the nation�s critics spoke more or less with one voice � and what they said amounted to a big collective snarky raspberry. If you believed the reviews, then the whole Sex and the City kingdom, in a word, was over. Embarrassingly past its prime. These ladies were stuck in the late �90s, and maybe they should have stayed there. The movie was Abu Dhabi doo-doo!



So when I tell you that I actually liked Sex and the City 2, please do me two favors. One, don�t ridicule me mercilessly (�Anyone who thinks this is a good movie simply isn�t qualified to be a critic, blah blah blah��). And two, don�t say that I liked it merely because everyone else didn�t � that I�m so transparent and that I just had to be different, had to be an attention-getting maverick. Disagree with me, if you will, but do accept that I honestly dug Sex and the City 2.

Why? Two very quick reasons: I thought that the scenes with Carrie and Big had a nice, convincing, and � yes � subtle domestic flow to them. The couple weren�t fighting over that much: whether to go out on the town at night or to stay home, whether to have a giant TV in the bedroom so that they could cuddle up and watch old Hollywood romantic comedies (an activity that Big, significantly, seemed to prize a lot more than the post-black-and-white Carrie). To me, though, the relative quietude of the disagreement is exactly what made it believable; it captured how minor arguments between couples can reflect larger emotional divides, how rifts in pleasure can turn out to be rifts in values. Beyond that, I thought that the Abu Dhabi sequence, although 20 minutes too long (that, clearly, is where the film should have been liposuctioned), was funnier, more resonant, and more sustained than the Mexico sequence in the first movie.

But look: I�m not here to re-review Sex and the City 2. The critics have spoken � and, looking at the modest-to-mediocre box office grosses, so have audiences. I�m interested in what you think. It has been clear for over a week that the hatred for this movie is deep and wide and loud. So what I want to know is: Is there also any love? Is Sex and the City 2 anyone�s guilty pleasure, or is it simply my proud (if slightly goofy) pleasure?

And what about that next sequel, anyway? I have no doubt that going into this movie, Michael Patrick King, the witty and gifted modern-day screwball artisan who wrote and directed both films, believed that he had a winner on his hands. That, in fact, is where I think he made his biggest mistake: In SATC2, he sets up the Carrie/Big relationship so that the unconscious flaw in Carrie�s life is that, though she�s now married, she wants to go on acting single forever. What she�s avoiding, in a word (and this is right there in the movie � it�s not something I�m super- imposing on it), is the prospect of having children. And that�s what the movie should have at least pointed to by the end. King, however, obviously thought that he could save all of that Carrie-having-a-baby stuff for the next movie. He tried to stretch the franchise out like taffy. He may have stretched it until it broke.

I, for one, however, will go on the record and say: I am not tired of these ladies. I totally enjoyed Sex and the City 2 because I still relished the chance to bask in their quickness and silliness, their valor and confusion, their passion, their presence. I want to see what happens to them next�if there is a next.

So do you think there should be? Despite the official quasi-debacle of Sex and the City 2, who votes for having a Sex and the City 3? And what would you want to see happen in it? At the risk of sounding a little too much like Carrie Bradshaw: What happens when a blockbuster franchise�gets busted before it�s over?

 

Movie review: 'Ondine'

Alicja Bachleda and Colin Farrell star in "Ondine."
Reality and Irish mythology get tangled up in Neil Jordan's spare, dreamlike new film. It's both magical and frustrating.

You know it's an Irish fairytale when the mists swirl and the sea churns around the harsh beauty of the Emerald Isle. You know it's a Neil Jordan Irish fairytale when at the center of all that harsh beauty is a working-class family broken apart by alcoholism.

That is "Ondine," starring Colin Farrell as Syracuse, a local fisherman with a grudge-holding, heavy-drinking ex-wife and a spirited daughter on dialysis. Syracuse is long past having dreams when he snares a beautiful woman in his nets and reality and Irish mythology soon tangle in ways both magical and frustrating. It can sometimes feel as if the director is the one lost at sea.

Nevertheless, there is much to recommend "Ondine," Jordan's love letter to Castletownbere, the fishing village on Ireland's southern coast where he lives and where the film was shot; and the notion that no matter how bruised and battered by life, love is still possible, still the answer.



It's a small film, and there's a spare, dreamlike quality that's a departure for a writer-director who tends toward densely detailed stories stuffed with moral complications, "The Crying Game," "Mona Lisa" and " Michael Collins" among them. Sometimes, the simplicity of the story confounds him, with young Annie (Alison Barry) saddled with a wheelchair, a failing kidney and most of the exposition of the story � too much to ask of a child.

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The mysterious woman at the heart of this tale is Ondine, Alicja Bachleda of "Trade," who's perfectly cast as an ethereal creature that may be a selkie � in the way of mermaids, they are seals able to transform into seductively gorgeous humans when the circumstances are right. There are, as might be expected, all sorts of strings attached involving seven tears, sealskins and long-term commitments.

All Syracuse knows is that Ondine is running from something, that her haunting songs increase his daily catch and that she seems to be falling in love with him. Annie is more interested in a selkie's wish-granting powers, while Syracuse's ex, Maura (Dervla Kirwan), is more concerned with where she's sleeping.

Jordan uses the push and pull between real life and legend to explore ideas of social ills, retribution, justice, family bonds and miracles in an age in which it seems there are none. For the filmmaker, optimism and a happy ending are not things he gives away easily, if ever, and there are any number of difficulties he's thrown in along the way, with Ondine's shadowy past rising up right alongside Syracuse's to rough things up.

The filmmaker creates a world so real that you can feel the chill of the water, smell the sweat in the bar. There is so much beauty too, with Jordan clearly ecstatic to be kicking around his hometown, where he uses its weathered nooks and crannies as a gritty contrast to the wild coast and bucolic fields of wildflowers and green as he moves between reality and myth. Director of photography Christopher Doyle follows closely along, capturing both in ways that keep the film's heart beating and that will no doubt boost the region's tourism as well.

At times, the narrative flows beautifully, particularly in the growing connection between Syracuse and Ondine, the slow reveal of who they really are, the delicious tension in their tentativeness. Farrell exposes much with those dark eyes and wary hesitations. It's hard not to wish more filmmakers would tap into that quieter, more vulnerable side.

At other times, the road is rocky when the story speeds up to take care of business, with the end a mad dash to tie up loose ends. Still, there is enough saving grace on these craggy shores to let the mists and the legends roll in and envelop you for a while.

'Eclipse' Scene: Check Out A Sneak Peek Before MTV Movie Awards!

Last month, when we told you Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner would be on hand at the MTV Movie Awards to present a never-before-seen clip from "Eclipse," fans went wild trying to guess just what footage they'd get. Would it be the part where Edward Cullen proposes to Bella Swan? That much-hyped tent scene that co-star Elizabeth Reaser called a "chaste three-way"?



Well, the full clip won't be unleashed until the Movie Awards this Sunday, but it's just cruel to make you wait that long to find out what you'll be getting on show night. So we pushed and we pulled, we twisted arms and engaged in activities that might be illegal in some countries � and voil�: a teaser clip of the "Eclipse" scene to come.

As you can see by hitting play on the embedded video, the scene features Edward, Bella and Jacob in a parking lot. A bit of this footage cropped up in the trailer that dropped in April, but the full clip promises to show much more than anyone has yet seen.

In the teaser, a concerned-looking Jacob approaches Edward and Bella. "Look, I'm here to warn you," he tells him. "If your kind come on our land again ... "

"You should leave now," Edward responds.

As Twilighters know, the three of them are about to be pulled into an epic confrontation with the nefarious vampire Victoria and her band of newborn bloodsuckers. At the moment, though, both these men who love Bella are still butting heads.

Tune in Sunday night to check out the full clip during the Movie Awards. Pattinson, Stewart and Lautner will be introducing the scene live and in person. What's more, co-star Chaske Spencer will be MTV International's official red-carpet correspondent, reporting live from the scene outside the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California, where some of Hollywood's biggest names will be stopping by to chat.

And then, of course, there will be the awards themselves. "New Moon" is up in five categories: Best Movie, Best Female Performance (Stewart), Best Male Performance (Pattinson and Lautner), Best Kiss (Stewart and Pattinson) and Global Superstar (Stewart, Pattinson and Lautner). Fan voting in all these categories is now under way at MovieAwards.MTV.com and will stay open through Saturday. Head over to make sure your favorite stars and movies triumph on the big night.



In THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob � knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

Review: 'Splice' scientists cook up DNA monster

Science fiction. Starring Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody. Directed by Vincenzo Natali. (R. 110 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
It's easy enough to stick with "Splice" for about half of the way. It stars Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody as a team of genetic engineers - you know, like Dr. Frankenstein - and something in their personal dynamic is arresting. Subtly but unmistakably, she is the stronger partner, the one truly gifted and the one most likely to turn out to be off her rocker.



"Splice" capitalizes on Polley's forceful personality, her intelligence and her prickliness, qualities already in evidence when she was a teenager. From her earliest days onscreen, Polley has definitely had something, but she's had precious few chances to show it. This movie doesn't even qualify as a real chance, because it eventually caves in on itself. But at least Polley makes out better than Oscar winner Brody, who spends his time here acting weak and dumbfounded.

Director Vincenzo Natali, who co-wrote the screenplay, was apparently intent on offering "Splice" as a moral investigation into the issue of genetic engineering. Yet, for all its surface seriousness, "Splice" is a regulation monster movie. So however somber it gets, it's never truly thought-provoking, and however outrageous it gets, it's still always 20 minutes behind the audience. It's just too dumb to be serious and too slow to be entertaining.

It does, however, manage to be disgusting, which could have been interesting in a creepy sort of way had the movie wed the ugliness to an overall mood. Here it's just gross: The ambitious doctors create the first genetically concocted life-forms, two blobs the size of badgers. Then Elsa (Polley) gets more ambitious. She takes the blob DNA and combines it with ... human DNA. And the result is some horrible thing that starts out looking like a chicken with a baby's head and then grows into some terrifying bald girl (Delphine Chaneac) with pretty eyes and ghastly birdlike legs.

From here, we more or less know where "Splice" is going, which means that the filmmaker had only two sensible options: He could do the obvious but do it immediately, so as to arrive at some fascinating aftermath the audience doesn't expect. Or he could upend audience expectation and take the story in a complete other direction.

Alas, he does neither. Instead, he over-invests in the story of Elsa and Clive (Brody) and tries to make us care about the psychological dynamic between them and this monster-girl they've created. The strategy fails, as Elsa becomes repellent and Clive becomes, first, a cipher and ultimately, an amazing idiot.

The cave-in becomes complete at the point that we understand why Clive is such a washout - if the filmmaker made him any stronger, Clive would be able to advance the action, but this filmmaker has nowhere for the action to go. He has no new idea.

To his credit, director Natali does include two of the most disgusting sex scenes this side of David Cronenberg, and that's something. But poor Sarah Polley. I thought it couldn't get worse than having sex with the monster in "Beowulf & Grendel," but apparently it can get worse, much worse. Funny how some perfectly nice women just have awful luck with men.
Advisory: This film contains sexual situations, gruesome sights and violence.

James Franco to star in "Rise of the Apes"

James Franco has his damn dirty paws on the lead role in "Rise of the Apes," a prequel to the "Planet of the Apes" franchise.

The Fox feature focuses on a scientist (Franco) who has been testing a cure for Alzheimer's on apes. The test subject named Caesar starts to evolve rapidly, and the scientist takes him home and protects him from cruel doctors.



The story is designed to be show the modern-day event that set in motion the eventual dominance of apes over humans seen the classic 1960s and '70s movies. It is unclear how much of the movie will focus on the ape inciting an ape revolution, but given that Peter Jackson's WETA effects house is on board, the monkey play could be significant.

The apes will not be actors in costumes but rather rendered digitally to be photo-realistic by New Zealand-based WETA, employing certain of the groundbreaking technologies developed for "Avatar."

The movie will shoot this summer in British Columbia. Rupert Wyatt is on board to direct.

Franco's credits include the "Spider-Man" films and "Milk."

Movie review: 'Shrek Forever After' aims for

 
The last installment of the "Shrek" franchise finds the green ogre (voice of Mike Myers) in a world in which he has never been born thanks to villainous Rumpelstiltskin

The Shrek we meet at the start of "Shrek Forever After" is a shell of an ogre: mean and green on the outside, but all mellow yellow inside. Married life and fatherhood have made him soft, and no longer scary. Gone are the angry mobs who used to chase him with pitchforks, replaced by some obnoxious brat at his triplets' birthday party, who keeps demanding, "Do the roar!" as if Shrek were just another celebrity with a worn-out catchphrase.



Can this be the monster that we know and love, or is he merely going through the motions, catering to the clamoring crowds that want to see him do what he's always done, one more time?

The same thing might be asked of the movie, the fourth and supposedly final chapter in the animated series. Has "Shrek Forever After" still got it, or is it just a crass attempt to cash in on a now-tired franchise?

Believe it or not, there's life in the old boy yet. After a disappointing third outing, this "Shrek" brings the cycle of fairy-tale-themed films to a fine finish.

The premise itself will sound familiar. Not from earlier Shrek movies, but from the 1946 "It's a Wonderful Life." In an attempt to get back some of his mojo, if only for a day, Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) finds himself in the position of George Bailey, in a world in which he has never been born.

That's because he makes a magical deal with Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn). Shrek gets 24 hours to live the life he used to have, before fame and family came along. In return, Rumpelstiltskin gets to take a day from Shrek's life.

Our hero should have read the fine print more carefully. Rumpelstiltskin picks the day Shrek was born, meaning that, while Shrek now finds himself in a world unencumbered by diapers and responsibility, it's also a world in which all the good he's done has had no effect. He wasn't there to rescue his wife, Fiona (Cameron Diaz), from her tower prison. Rumpelstiltskin is now king, and his kingdom is a police state, run by witches who hunt down ogres and toss them in jail. Fiona is the Amazonian leader of the ogre resistance movement.

Fortunately, there's an escape clause: If he and Fiona share one "true love's kiss," Shrek gets his old life back. All he has to do is make Fiona fall in love with him -- all over again. If he doesn't, he'll evaporate come sunrise.

That much is reminiscent of the first two movies, which also revolved around the power of a transformative kiss. But there's enough here that's clever and new -- and at times very funny -- to keep things from feeling stale.

Many beloved old characters return, only much transformed. Gingy the gingerbread man (Conrad Vernon) is now a scarred professional gladiator, fighting animal crackers in an arena for sport. Donkey (Eddie Murphy) is a mangy beast of burden, pulling the paddy wagon into which Shrek is thrown after he's captured. Most hilariously, Puss (Antonio Banderas) can no longer fit into his boots, having put on well more than a few pounds as Fiona's pampered pet.

Among the new characters, Rumpelstiltskin makes for a perfect villain. Vain, insecure and ridiculous in an assortment of constantly changing wigs, he's a pleasure to boo and hiss at.

The Pied Piper also makes an indelible debut, without ever uttering a word. Hired by Rumpelstiltskin to round up ogres, he carries a high-tech flute with him -- it has settings for rats, witches, ogres, etc. -- that makes dancers out of whatever and whomever he wants, to consistently amusing effect. If you liked the episode of "Glee" where the football team shakes it, improbably, to Beyonc�'s "Single Ladies," you'll love the sight of hulking, line-dancing ogres.

Have we heard some of this before? Sure. But as with the best fairy tales -- the ones that bear repeating again and again -- the delight in "Shrek Forever After" is not in the tale itself, but in the telling.

*** PG. At area theaters. Contains slapsticky action and bathroom humor. 98 minutes.

LeBeouf: Indiana Sequel Criticism feel role and movie was not done properly

Critics were relatively kind about the Shia LeBeouf �Indiana� sequel performance, but panned the �Kingdom of the Crystal Skull� as a whole. Now, the young Transformers star is talking to the press about his disappointment with the movie, and placing the blame on himself, the movie writers, and director Steven Spielberg. Check out the full story, with pictures and video below!



Shia talked to reporters at the Cannes international film festival over the weekend. He said that his own performance was questionable at times during the filming.

Specifically, LeBeouf�s �Indiana� sequel performance suffered during the tree-swinging scenes.

�You get to monkey-swinging and things like that and you can blame it on the writer and you can blame it on Steven. The actor�s job is to make it come alive and make it work, and I couldn�t do it. So that�s my fault. Simple.�

He said he even spoke with Harrison Ford, and found that he too was underwhelmed.

�We had major discussions. He wasn�t happy with it either. Look, the movie could have been updated. There was a reason it wasn�t universally accepted.�

Is he worried about mouthing off about a legendary director? Apparently not.

�I�ll probably get a call, but he needs to hear this. I love him,� the young actor said. �He�s done so much great work that there�s no need for him to feel vulnerable about one film. But when you drop the ball, you drop the ball.�

Shia said that his real worry is about his upcoming Wall Street movie.

�I feel like I dropped the ball on the legacy that people loved. If I was going to do it twice, my career was over. So this was fight-or-flight for me.�

He said that clearing the air about the �Crystal Skull� would re-establish his credibility with the audience.

�I think the audience is pretty intelligent. I think they know when you�ve made � . And I think if you don�t acknowledge it, then why do they trust you the next time you�re promoting a movie.�

What did you think of LeBeouf�s �Indiana� sequel performance? Do you like his candid approach to his previous movies? Let me know in the comment section!

Also, check out the pictures and video below!

The Most Successful Movie Franchise of All Time

The most successful movie franchise of all time is no longer James Bond, it's now the "Harry Potter" series, which recently edged out James Bond.

According to Box Office Mojo, the first six adaptations of J.K. Rowling's beloved books have earned a staggering $5.4 billion worldwide.

The 22 films considered part of the official Bond canon have earned an estimated $5 billion globally.

Still, Bond is certainly Hollywood's greatest franchise in terms of endurance and longevity. Since the first Bond adventure, "Dr. No" in 1962, it has thrived for 48 years, although the 23rd Bond picture is reportedly on hold for now.

Bond may need to stick around awhile to have any chance of overtaking Potter.

"Star Wars" movies have earned $4.2 billion, coming third.**

No happy ending for Jack Bauer on '24' finale, but he does survive for potential movie

Jack Bauer's run on the TV series '24' has reached an end, but rest assured, fans may reunite with him (played by Kiefer Sutherland) in an upcoming movie.

Jack Bauer isn't going to live happily ever after.

Fans of Fox's "24" probably weren't expecting that anyway, given the torture and death that Kiefer Sutherland's Bauer has witnessed and dealt in the show's explosive eight-year run, which wraps with a two-hour finale on May 24.



But Howard Gordon, executive producer, made it official in a conference call during which he also defended this season's unpopular Dana Walsh character and the even more unpopular decision to kill off Annie Wersching's Renee Walker, the woman with whom Jack finally seemed to have a shot at putting his demons to rest.

Instead, her death shook the demons awake and sent them into adrenalin overdrive, which Gordon says was precisely the point.

"Renee's death motivated Jack to the final confrontation," said Gordon. "It took him to a place he's never been before."

Gordon naturally isn't specifying exactly where else there might be, beyond saying the final showdown will involve Jack's longtime loyal friend Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and President Allison Taylor (Cherry Jones), who right up until a few weeks ago had been a chief executive whose moral center Jack could finally respect.

Whatever happens, we can expect Jack to survive, since a script for a "24" movie is already circulating. Gordon said he'd love for it to happen "in the next year or two," though at this point "it's very much a work-in-progress."

Meanwhile, Gordon said the potential movie won't affect where the TV series ends.

"We considered several very different endings," he said. "We tried 'happily ever after' and it didn't work. This show is a tragedy. To give Jack a happy ending wouldn't have felt authentic."

Two of the show's key premises all along, Gordon said, are that "it must always move forward" and "we've never hit 'reset' with Jack. He feels the accumulated weight of all his actions over eight years."

That need to keep moving forward, which means finding new levels for a character who has already stretched every legal and moral boundary, is one reason Gordon said he's okay with ending the show after this season.

"We'd talked about" continuing, he said, but "Jack's story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and I think we felt we'd reached it."

Gordon acknowledged that Renee Walker's death was a particularly harsh blow to fans, and he also acknowledged that Katee Sackhoff's Dana Walsh character this season had a "convoluted" storyline. But he defended the character, saying he hoped that by the time Walsh departed last week, "people understood what we were doing with her."

And hey, he said, it got people talking.

"As long as people are yelling at the TV, we're happy," he said. "Indifference would have been more hurtful than outrage."

Russell on reinventing Robin Hood.

"Everybody appreciates the idea that there's somebody out there who cares, cares enough to readdress the balance," says Hollywood actor Russell Crowe.

"That's kind of where we've placed this particular character."

The 46-year-old Australian actor is speaking at the end of a long day on set of his latest movie Robin Hood.

This big budget epic has taken a few liberties with the outlaw's story - Richard The Lionheart is portrayed as a selfish, warmongering Monarch, while the Sheriff of Nottingham plays only a peripheral role.

But Crowe is insistent that certain parts of the legendary story are sacred.

"I think the core thing with Robin Hood is robbing from the rich and giving to the poor," he says.



"In our movie, we don't do it literally like, 'here's a gold coin, mate'. It's more of a metaphor."

This may aim to be a more thoughtful version of the story, but that's not to say it does not have its fair share of spectacle and action.

Crowe has spent the day filming on a back lot at Shepperton studios, along with hundreds of extras - many dressed as peasants - spilling over an area the size of a football pitch.

A huge recreation of the Tower of London can be seen in the distance, built specially for Sir Ridley Scott's film.

The upper sections of the model are bright blue so the castle can be digitally enhanced to its full glory in post production - a technique the director first used to recreate the Coliseum in his Oscar-winning epic Gladiator.
Grittier and realistic

Although the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men has been told many times, Crowe insists he doesn't feel constrained by people's expectations of the character.

"Show me the template you think that really is Robin Hood," he says.

"Errol Flynn in baggy green woollen tights and a stupid hat? Kevin Costner, the extra from a Bon Jovi video clip?"

Crowe, notoriousloy taciturn, has unsurprisingly decided upon a grittier, more realistic and believable interpretation - despite his belief that Robin never existed.

"[It's] a fascinating subject to go into, to examine the mythology of something that people so definitely believe is real," he says. "But there is absolutely no hard evidence to say it is."

Sir Ridley Scott, speaking in a break between shots, has no such reservations.

"Was this fairy story, legend, or was he actually real? My guess is he was probably real.

"He was probably some kind of vigilante fundamentalist, who was working against the constant oppression of the crown, the monarchy and probably the upper classes."

This is the fifth film Sir Ridley has directed with Crowe in the lead role.

Following Gladiator, they have produced A Good Year, Body Of Lies and American Gangster together - but they have never quite scaled the heights of that first encounter.

"When we were making Gladiator everybody was laughing at us," Crowe confesses.

"That went on and on for ages, and [it was] probably, only about four weeks before the movie came out that the word of mouth and the vibe changed, that there was something really special."

However, he refuses to be drawn into whether Robin Hood is the next Galdiator, insisting that is not what they are working towards.

"They're very difficult to make, films like that, to keep people inside the story and inside the time period.

"So Ridley and I are not thinking about that. Everyday on the set we just try and do something special. That's all we're trying to do. So who knows?"

The Showbuzz : The New Robin Hood

Get ready for an all-new take on a medieval classic. Russell Crowe returns to the screen in Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood." CBSNews.com's Karina Mitchell reports from New York.

'Iron Man 2' Star Scarlett Johansson Talks Deleted 'Repulsor' Scene 'There was a moment where there was a little bit of repulsion, a jolt of some kind,' she tells MTV News.

If "Iron Man 2" fans heading to the theater are hoping to see what MTV News has dubbed "the repulsor moment" in the flick, they may be disappointed to find that the scene didn't make the final cut. Those in need of a refresher can watch what we alluded to, at the 2:13 mark, in the trailer that premiered in March.

But moviegoers aren't the only ones in the dark about the moment in question. "A repulsor? Oh, yeah. ... It's not in the film?" Scarlett Johansson said when MTV News asked her about the now-deleted scene. "Am I with Robert [Downey Jr.]? I don't know. I have not yet seen the film, so I'll be looking out for that.



"But there is a scene where Natalie is sort of cozying up to Tony, and I do have that repulsor, as you call it," she said of her character, Natalie Romanoff, a.k.a. the Black Widow. "There was a moment where there was a little bit of repulsion, a jolt of some kind. Maybe it didn't make it into the movie, I don't know."

Although that particularly explosive scene didn't make the film, Johansson relished in the action scenes that did. "It was a bit daunting at first, especially when I was watching whatever Tom Harper, our stunt coordinator, had cut together, these sequences that he was planning and choreographing," Johansson recalled. "It was like, 'I'm going to be doing that in how many months?' It just seemed like it'd be really painful. And it was. It all paid off in the end."

"Robin Hood" Drops Tights in New Extreme Makeover

In the new "Robin Hood," Russell Crowe's iconic medieval hero wears no tights, shows little interest in redistribution of wealth, scarcely bothers with the Sheriff of Nottingham, fights alongside Maid..., sorry, Lady Marion and all but forces King John to sign the Magna Carta.

In other words, director Ridley Scott and his producers were so determined this would not be your father's Robin Hood that a checklist of familiar incidents and legendary exploits to avoid must have been handed to writers Brian Helgeland (story and screenplay), Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris (story).



The result is less a Robin Hood story than an epic action movie that sees Crowe at the center of English history at the turn of the 13th century. It's "Gladiator" in Sherwood Forest -- only, for God's sake, don't mention Sherwood Forest either.

Scott supplies a supple visual design and terrific action choreography while Helgeland's screenplay conjures up robust characters that often lack dimension but make up for this with vigor. The film could be a crowd-pleaser. If that crowd extends from devotees of the Robin of Olde to teen action fans and admirers of Crowe and Cate Blanchett, Universal may have an international hit.

The film's hodge-podge approach suggests many rewrites to forge a new angle on Robin Hood plus a desire for the movie to play to many constituencies. So, understandably some things work better than others. Its European history is so ludicrously mangled that one almost suspects Mel Brooks and Monty Python's Flying Circus lent a hand. But the Robin-Marion romance strongly holds the movie together while Scott's muscular direction and Marc Streitenfeld's brilliant score make this one of the fastest 140-minute movies you'll ever see.

The film's post-modern hero is Robin Longstride -- love that last name -- a sharp-shooting archer in Richard the Lionheart's army as it pillages its way across France while returning from the bloody Third Crusade. Robin, a yeoman (or commoner), meets the lads who will one day be his Merry Men -- only please don't evoke that phrase -- while witnessing the death of his king (Danny Huston) and then a nobleman whose identity he assumes to escape across the Channel.



Determined to bring the dead man's sword back to his kin in Nottingham, Robin encounters the man's aging father, Sir Walter Loxley (Max von Sydow), and his comely daughter-in-law Marion (Cate Blanchett). It is Sir Walter's idea for Robin to continue in his guise as his son since the family may lose its 5,000 acres if his son's death becomes known. The old man also hints he knows the truth about Robin's late father, a repressed childhood memory for Robin.

Robin is thus swept up into the political struggles of 1199 England -- the conflicts between callow Prince John (Oscar Isaac, no model of subtlety here), who succeeds his brother Richard on the throne, and his rebellious barons and the French king, who sends a spy, the insidious Sir Godfrey (Mark Strong), to ferment division in England to ease the way for an invasion. Heroes and villains align themselves without any likelihood of confusion, but you do wish Scott and Helgeland spent more time with Robin and Marion and less on politics. You'd like more scenes of them together pretending to be husband and wife while getting to know each other as man and woman.

Crowe's masculine swagger is certainly matched by Blanchett's feminine bravado. She's his match any day. This is the heart of the movie but it beats too faintly. Perhaps this film downplays Friar Tuck (Mark Addy), the Sheriff of Nottingham (Matthew Macfadyen) and the Merry Men (Scott Grimes, Kevin Durand and Alan Doyle) at its peril. The scheming barons, royals and turncoats would be more at home in Blanchett's "Queen Elizabeth" series than a Robin Hood movie.

Yet Scott has an eye -- and it's a very good one -- for sieges of castles, charging horsemen, hand-to-hand combat, glistening swords arcing through the air and deadly arrows whistling toward helpless targets. Streitenfeld's full-bore, multi-theme score beautifully enhances the visual splendors in John Mathieson's graceful cinematography while the stunt work, CGI and visual effects are all first class.

2011 Blockbusters - Highly Anticipated Movies from Yahoo Movie Talk

Next Year's Blockbusters
 
It was just announced that the prequel "X-Men: First Class" will bring Marvel's mutants back to theaters. Thor and Captain America will get their own solo movies before joining "The Avengers." Johnny Depp returns as Captain Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." A third "Transformers" movie is planned for the July 4th holiday. Animation can't avoid sequels either, with Pixar's "Cars" and DreamWorks' "Kung Fu Panda" getting second movies. And the last half of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" will mark the boy wizard's final big-screen adventure. 

The Warner Bros./IMAX deal also includes other impressive movies that don't have release dates yet. They include "Gravity," a sci-fi drama with Robert Downey Jr., "Dark Shadows," with Johnny Depp as a vampire, "Fury Road," the revamp of the "Mad Max" series, and a new take on "Superman" that Christopher Nolan is also producing. But before any of that, Nolan's next film as a director, "Inception" with Leonardo DiCaprio, will unspool on IMAX and regular screens this July 16.

And if the Mayans were right about the world ending in December of 2012, let's hope it won't be until after the release of "The Hobbit." The prequel to "The Lord of the Rings" is set to roll out on IMAX screens that month. The apocalypse will be much easier to take if we get to see that movie first.