Posts tagged Michael Sheen
Admission – Movie Trailer
Mar 25th
Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Paul Rudd (This is 40) are paired for the first time on-screen in Admission, the new comedy/drama directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness.
Every spring, high school seniors anxiously await letters of college admission that will affirm and encourage their potential. At Princeton University, admissions officer Portia Nathan (Tina Fey) is a gatekeeper evaluating thousands of applicants. Year in and year out, Portia has lived her life by the book, at work as well as at the home she shares with Princeton professor Mark (Michael Sheen). When Clarence (Wallace Shawn), the Dean of Admissions, announces his impending retirement, the likeliest candidates to succeed him are Portia and her office rival Corinne (Gloria Reuben). For Portia, however, it’s business as usual as she hits the road on her annual recruiting trip.
On the road, Portia reconnects with her iconoclastic mother, Susannah (Lily Tomlin). On her visit to New Quest, an alternative high school, she then reconnects with her former college classmate, idealistic teacher John Pressman (Paul Rudd) – who has recently surmised that Jeremiah (Nat Wolff), a gifted yet very unconventional New Quest student, might well be the son that Portia secretly gave up for adoption years ago while at school. Jeremiah is about to apply to Princeton.
Now Portia must re-evaluate her personal and professional existences, as she finds herself bending the admissions rules for Jeremiah, putting at risk the future she thought she always wanted – and in the process finding her way to a surprising and exhilarating life and romance she never dreamed of having.
Midnight in Paris – Movie Trailer
Jun 25th
This is a romantic comedy set in Paris about a family that goes there because of business, and two young people who are engaged to be married in the fall have experiences there that change their lives. It’s about a young man’s great love for a city, Paris, and the illusion people have that a life different from theirs would be much better. It stars Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Carla Bruni, among others.
“Alice in Wonderland” Designed to Amaze Instead of Amuse
Mar 11th
Designed to Amaze Instead of Amuse
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
ALICE IN WONDERLAND is the 2010 version of Lewis Carroll’s wonderful ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS, it is produced by the Disney Studios and directed by Tim Burton, and it stars Johnny Depp and is definitely not your childhood ALICE.
In fact, I saw one father lead his young child out of the theater only halfway through.
And, of course, it is just the latest in a long line of recent movies to jump onto the rushing bandwagon of 3-D movies. Hang onto your seats, hang onto your glasses, and hang onto your hats.
Speaking of hats, The Mad Hatter is the star of this version, as played by Depp, and not Alice.
Oh, Alice is there, of course, but she is all grown up now. She is 19, and the premise is that she went down the rabbit hole as a child and had those amazing adventures, but her memories of that experience are just in the form of the same dream that she has had for as long as she can remember.
So, at the beginning of the movie, Alice accompanies her mother to what turns out to be a surprise engagement party for Alice to Lord Hamish, an awkward, unpleasant man for whom Alice has absolutely no feelings whatsoever.
When Lord Hamish proposes to Alice in front of all the guests, Alice says, “I think I . . . I need a moment,” and she rushes away after a white rabbit that she had seen in the bushes.
A white rabbit in a blue waistcoat, naturally, and thus begins Alice’s new adventures in what is here called “Underland.”
All the usual suspects are here, although you might realize that a few are missing or have lesser roles than in the original.
It has been foretold that Alice herself on Frabjous Day will slay the terrifying Jabberwork, which is imprisoned by the evil Queen of Hearts, played by Helena Bonham Carter with a big head, and thereby free the inhabitants of Underland from the tyranny of the Red Queen.
Yes, Dear Audience, it is Alice in Wonderland meets The Lord of the Rings.
And you have to believe that director Burton had more fun designing the film than in directing it or rewriting the beloved story.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND is designed to amaze instead of amuse.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
