THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Press Conference

L to R: Jamie Bell as Tintin, Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock, producer Peter Jackson and director Steven Spielberg.

The press conference for THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN was held on Saturday, December 10^th in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York's Columbus Circle, in a conference room offering a sweeping view of Central Park. On the panel sat director Steven Spielberg, producer Kathleen Kennedy, special effects supervisor Joe Letteri, actor Jamie Bell (who plays the title character) and actor Nick Frost, who plays one of the two bumbling Thompson detectives.

There was an excitement in the air over the presence of one of — if not the — most influential directors of the last three decades of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. So while most questions were aimed at Spielberg, being the gracious man that he is, he would steer questions, attention and compliments to his co-panelists. (And the articulate and thoughtful director was so fascinating to listen to that I'm including many of his quotes in toto, with only a few snips here and there.)

The first question concerned the painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell. What inspired Spielberg's passion to collect his work, and how have his images inspired his films, especially TINTIN?

"Norman Rockwell has been one of my favorite artists over the years, and I was raised with [him], because when I was a kid we used to get the Saturday Evening Post… I realized the old cliché that one picture is worth a thousand words, which is really true with Rockwell. His images just spoke volumes about America, family, community, religion, faith… When I first started collecting art, the first art I collected was Rockwell. And [George Lucas and I] had a very successful exhibit at the Smithsonian. You probably are seeing images that remind you of Rockwell in TINTIN only because of… the color palette and because it's bright… Rockwell always painted very, very vivid paintings, and also because I will allow the camera sometimes in just a simple frame to say a lot about what’s going on inside the story."

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THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Review (3 out of 5 stars)

THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN, one of two highly anticipated Spielberg movies to come out this Christmas season — the other being the WWI-epic, WAR HORSE — sets a high mark for motion capture animation and provides moments of visual ecstasy on the big screen. An extraordinary level of attention was paid to every pixel-sized detail and the three-dimensional adaptation of the fresh-faced, wholesome boy reporter from the 20^th century comic books, with his trademark shock of red hair.

Perhaps it's due to the screenplay’s combination of elements from three (and arguably more) of the original books (The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, and Red Rackham's Treasure), but the film's sprawling, international storyline challenges our comprehension. And some of the action scenes — as with too many modern, big-budget adventure films — are so replete with CGI and swooping camera work that it can be hard to discern what's going on those high-adrenaline moments as well...

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HUGO Press Conference

The press conference for Martin Scorsese's HUGO took place on a recent Saturday morning at the Ritz Carlton in Manhattan’s Central Park South, a light and happy affair centered around a film that obviously delighted both cast and crew. And not just because they got to work with one of the greatest living filmmakers, but to shine a light on the life and work of Georges Méliès, the pioneering director of hundreds of early twentieth century films. Méliès shot three of his little silent masterpieces each week in a glass-enclosed studio by day while also performing magic shows at night. The storyline is an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s award-winning 2007 bestselling illustrated novel, The Invention of Hugo Cabret (A Novel in Words and Pictures).

On the panel were Asa Butterfield (THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS), Chloë Grace Moretz (LET ME IN), Sacha Baron Cohen (BORAT), Sir Ben Kingsley (SHUTTER ISLAND), Emily Mortimer (SHUTTER ISLAND), Hugo Cabret author Brian Selznick and co-producers John Logan and Graham King. And while Martin (or "Marty," as everyone referred to him) Scorsese's absence was noted, there was no lack of enthusiastic discussion about working with the fabled director.

Méliès's whimsical filmmaking style lost favor with moviegoers as World War I began to take its toll on Paris and the rest of the world. Losing his fortune, burning his costumes and sets and selling his films to be melted down for chemical use, he  ultimately wound up behind the counter of a toy store in the Montparnasse train station, where he languished for years in depression. But his contributions to film were rediscovered in the '30's, and he was properly celebrated in Parisian society before his death in 1938. It's this rediscovery and rehabilitation of the man and his work that HUGO partly covers...

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ANONYMOUS Review (2 out of 5 stars)

I felt lost throughout ANONYMOUS: its editing is a train wreck, and its characters (and their loyalties) are easy to confuse, since they're referred to interchangeably by their titles and names. The roles of England's neighboring countries (Ireland, Spain, France) are perplexing. And the story's so poorly written, I couldn't keep track of who the actual genius playwright in the story was supposed to be, given the film's allegation that Shakespeare was a fraud.

The idea that Shakespeare didn’t write the material attributed to him is an interesting theory to ponder, but Sir Derek Jacobi's onstage soliloquy (as part of a modern, fictionalized play — Anonymous — presaging the tale to unfold) fails to support the claim with adequate context. Is this fantasy — an Oliver Stone-like conspiracy theory reshuffling of history for entertainment’s sake? Or is it credible speculation based on scholarly facts? You’ll have no idea if you didn’t read up ahead of time. And while the gaps in what we know of the great bard's life story may call his authorship into question, negatives still don't prove a positive — this abstrusely detailed "what if" is made up of guesses, coincidences and fictions...

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THE SKIN I LIVE IN Review (4 out of 5 stars)

We see a woman in a body stocking receive her meal by dumb waiter in a hermetically sealed room. Is she suffering from a rare disease? Is she a wealthy eccentric? Thus begins the torrent of questions you'll inevitably have in the opening moments of THE SKIN I LIVE IN, Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar's newest creation.

The sprawling tale of murder, revenge, passion and surgical nightmares it unspools — from present day to years ago and back again — will answer each in time, drip drip. And while the big twist, which is one for the books, is presented in a less plausible way than can be imagined (which robs SKIN of some of its power), you're sure to be riveted, the marvelously unique story ensnaring you in a sticky web. Unsurprisingly, Spain's award-laden director has again summoned so much cream-of-the-crop talent to his side, including a trio of his favorite actors from work past...

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THE THING Review (2 out of 5 stars)

Finally, here it is: the prequel to John Carpenter's cult-classic 1982 horror film, the identically titled THE THING. The new one doesn't quite match up in quality, and its marketing materials' giveaway of so many adrenaline-pumping surprises doesn't help matters. (So don't watch them beforehand.) But it does cleverly and methodically set the stage for the Carpenter film, itself a remake of 1951's THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, based on John W. Campbell Jr.'s 1938 novella, Who Goes There?

In the '82 film, an American team explores the burned-out wreckage of a Norwegian camp — the prequel tells the Norwegians' story, and it ends with the Carpenter film's iconic beginning, in which a Norwegian helicopter chases the alien (in wolf form) to the American outpost.

At the start of Dutch director Matthijs van Heijningen's feature film debut, the Norwegians follow an ominous radio signal into the wilds of Antarctica until their vehicle crashes through the ice, lodges in a crevasse and illuminates a spacecraft below.

Enter young paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, listening to Huey Lewis in the one sign that this is the 80's). The Norwegians recruit Kate to help extract the craft's survivor from the ice nearby, its talons just visible beneath the surface. They haul it to camp, where cocky lead scientist Dr. Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen) drills through the ice it's encased in for a tissue sample. Which is a bad move: the resulting cracks and building's higher temperature enable the beast to break free and begin to stalk, absorb and then replicate the camp's international denizens one by one. And so this team of Norwegian, American, French and British scientists and their helpers must carry out the nerve-wracking task of rooting out and destroying the alien within their ranks...

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TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL Review (1-1/2 out of 5 stars)

TUCKER AND DALE is a spoof on college-kid-slasher movies – the FRIDAY THE 13TH films (all fifty-six of them), CABIN FEVER, even BLAIR WITCH – and, like most of those, becomes boringly predictable from early on. Still, Tyler Labine (as Dale) and Alan Tudyk (as Tucker) have a ball playing the title characters, a duo of lovable hillbillies upending an all too often grotesque stereotype in popular entertainment. It's them and their hilarious one-liners that make my recollection of the film a bit warmer than I actually felt watching it in the theater; they alone could make this B-movie a cult classic.

The two are best buds in the West Virginian Appalachians and thrilled to spend some much-needed vacation time in a dilapidated, lakeside shack in the woods forty miles outside town. While stocking up on supplies at the local store – the drawling owner reads out their list of hilariously sinister purchases, which include a machete and chainsaw -- they encounter a gaggle of obnoxious, entitled college kids. The frat-tastic, boorish males and boobalicious, ditzy cheerleader types get an immediate, negative impression of the sweet-natured duo when Dale approaches them, cluelessly, with a Grim Reaper scythe in hand and asks between anxious giggles, "You guys goin' campin'?" His pseudo-psycho behavior is Tucker’s fault however, who gave him the questionable advice to hide his nervousness around women with laughter...

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TAKE SHELTER Review (3-1/2 out of 5 stars)

The wonderfully unique and beautifully shot TAKE SHELTER features performances by two gifted actors and images that will stay with you well beyond the theater. It's not easy to watch – the main character, Curtis (Michael Shannon) wakes gasping from nightmares of apocalyptic scenarios, people scrabbling for his daughter and leviathan-sized storms, and his life and relationships spiral from the envy of others to what may be the undiagnosed beginnings of schizophrenia. Indeed, the movie teeters on the brink of madness or annihilation or both, framed by a foreboding score full of weird, discordant notes, Curtis's agitation and spaced-out distraction, news of a chemical spill nearby and visions of birds falling from the sky, levitating furniture and furious twisters materializing on the horizon.

Working-class Curtis LaForche has a beautiful, loving wife Samantha (the incredible Jessica Chastain) and a six year-old, deaf daughter Hannah. His horrifying dreams seem to carry over into his waking life as he shudders at nonexistent thunderclaps or experiences excruciating pain from a dog bite that never actually happened. All these events convince him that doom is nigh. So he prepares for it, but doesn’t inform Samantha, first buying a shipping crate and then burying it in the back yard while she's selling hand-stitched wares at a local fair. He sinks every last bit of the already struggling family's savings into the underground shelter, and then takes a risky home loan to continue to finance it. He stocks up on canned food and gas masks. He installs electricity and plumbing and spends his nights there, eyes shut tight in thought. Hell does eventually break loose – not with the weather but those close to him, and most of all the woman he loves, in pain over being misled then ignored.

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50/50 Review (4-1/2 out of 5 stars)

50/50 successfully navigates a very tricky line between pathos and humor – and nails them both in the process. Joseph Gordon-Levitt knocks it out of the park as the main character Adam (possible Oscar nod, I'm thinking), Seth Rogen is wonderful as his loudmouth pal and Anna Kendrick, Anjelica Huston and Bryce Dallas Howard each rock in their respective roles. The film smacks of recognizable realness (especially when compared to another recent hipster-with-a-tumor show, Gus Van Sant's RESTLESS – which this leaves in the dust). It offers a new and refreshing take on cancer diagnosis and the daily, often banal squirms and struggles to follow, in a way that’s neither condescending nor sentimental nor cutesy. And the humor is delightful. It's even got a fantastic soundtrack. This "cancer comedy" – an idea that sounds so dreadful on its face – really wowed me in the end.

It's inspired by a true story, and written by the real-life Adam – Will Reiser – who's actually buddies with Rogen, meaning the latter reenacted his experiences. Adam is a writer for Seattle Public Radio, a cute, self-effacing, mellow guy thrown for a loop when the source of his back pain is revealed to be a tumor growing along his spine -- he thought it was due to his positions during sex. "I don’t smoke. I don’t drink… I recycle?" Alas, his cancer’s genetic.

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PUNCTURE Review (2 out of 5 stars)

PUNCTURE provides a great service in documenting the corruption surrounding an innocuous-sounding but important medical device: the safety syringe. Yet in the hands of a first-time screenwriter and co-directors, this cinematic retelling of the late Houston attorney Mike Weiss's (Chris Evans) gripping, uphill battle with insidious corporate forces in the late 90's falls into such an instantly recognizable formula that much of its entertainment potential is lost.

It begins with Vicky (Vinessa Shaw), a pretty, young local ER nurse, who accidentally sticks herself with a needle while attempting to sedate a shaking PCP addict. Then flash forward three years to the shirtless, rippled CAPTAIN AMERICA physique of Chris Evans as hotshot personal injury lawyer Weiss, snorting coke and speed-talking through a case in his hotel room.

And… I'm already bored. (And tempted to call their number, 1-888-GOT-PAIN.) It's already crystal clear that Evans is the anti-hero meant to grow on me (didn't happen) as he slugs away for justice. Tony Goldwyn's CONVICTION (2010) comes to mind, another gripping, true underdog story (Hilary Swank vs. small-town police corruption) and also sadly reduced to mediocrity. But similar to ERIN BROCKOVICH or THE CONSTANT GARDENER, PUNCTURE faces off with nasty, behemoth corporations – yet feels like a retread from the get-go.

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RESTLESS Review (2 out of 5 stars)

This prettily shot, sweetly performed film about dying young suffers due to a simplistic script, despite the proven talents of two-time Oscar-nominated director (for MILK and GOOD WILL HUNTING) Gus Van Sant.

Enoch Brae (Henry Hopper) is a handsome young teen heartthrob type with tussled blonde locks and self-consciously hip, vintage outfits (i.e. poseur). While brooding in a double-breasted black suit, outsized collar and pocket watch at a funeral, he's busted by unfazed hipster mourner Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) for crashing the proceedings. She too is a pretty, skinny blonde delighting in duds from decades past, her pixie do reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn or another Mia, in ROSEMARY'S BABY. And so they begin crashing funerals together, which we're meant to find cute but to me felt insensitive and mocking of people's pain; that they're young and foolish and it's their own coping mechanism for personal tragedies is no excuse.

These two eccentric model-types engage in a sweet, first-time romance over the course of the coming autumn, each finding solace in the other's similarly close acquaintanceship with mortality, between his coma following a car accident that killed his parents and Annabel's mere three months left to live due to a brain tumor.

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DETECTIVE DEE AND THE MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME Review (1-1/2 out of 5 stars)

This Chinese murder mystery (with a title that sounds like a Scooby Doo episode — ruh roh) and wannabe epic positively bursts at the seams with nonstop hand-to-hand combat, often on a phony-looking stage set or framed by inexpert CGI. Unlike its lineup of far superior kung fu predecessors over the past decade-plus — CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON; HERO; HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, even May's TRUE LEGEND — DEE’s lack of compelling characters and abstruse storyline had me primarily wondering when it would end. The title character is based on legendary Tang Dynasty official Di Renjie, a real-life judge known in every Chinese household today and made famous in the West in the mid-twentieth century by Robert van Gulik’s Judge Dee novels.

The fictional story's setup informs us that it's 689 in the city of Luoyang. A series of bizarre deaths — in which victims spontaneously burst into flame — prompts the wise Empress Wu (Carina Lau) to release her political prisoner, Detective Dee (Andy Lau, of 2004’s HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS), with the proviso that he crack the case. The victims are all involved in the ongoing construction of a skyscraper-sized Buddhist statue, the official unveiling of which is timed to coincide with Wu's inauguration as China’s first female emperor. She assigns her trusted bodyguard Jing (Li Bingbing) to keep an eye on the p.i.

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OUR IDIOT BROTHER (1-1/2 out of 5 stars)

The spontaneity of the moments captured by OUR IDIOT BROTHER's outtakes, shown during the closing credits, in no way resemble the insipid and even insulting blather of the film itself. IDIOT is another ham-handed attempt to throw together a lengthy list of famous faces (I'm looking at you, VALENTINE'S DAY) in a bland cavalcade of cinematic clichés and flat characterizations. It's yet another corporatized, profit-maximized "comedy" showing neither ingenuity nor insight and barely qualifying as entertainment.

Paul Rudd — an actor whose innately clever sense of humor always emerges in unscripted interviews but is all too rarely displayed in his abysmal choice of films — plays Ned, a sunny, oblivious hippie type who naively asks a stranger on the subway to hold his cash. After serving an eight-month jail sentence for selling dope to an undercover cop (in a clear case of entrapment, if you ask me), he couch surfs with each of three sisters while working, not terribly hard, to get his life back on track.

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FRIGHT NIGHT (2 out of 5 stars)

This predictable, paint-by-the-numbers remake of the scarier '85 cult classic is chock full of moments that may have proven suspenseful or hilarious had they not been so sloppily timed. Colin Farrell, Anton Yelchin and David Tennant's characters are all dreadfully dull, the dialogue is trite and multiple details go unexplained in a script not too different from the original (with a few modern touches such as iPhone apps and Real Housewives), yet still somehow worse.

Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) is a semi-geeky teen in puce-colored sneakers living in a remote desert McNeighborhood bordering Las Vegas. Imogen Poots plays his gorgeous girlfriend Amy, and unlike most nerd-and-a-hot-girl film items, they're believable together. His spurned childhood friend Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) rightly suspects a vampire behind the growing number of classmates' disappearances, a disparity not necessarily easy to gauge given the many strippers and other nocturnal entertainers who hide away in the daytime.

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5 DAYS OF WAR (4 out of 5 stars)

5 DAYS OF WAR astounded me, especially considering its mere $20 million budget (per IMDB), lack of stateside publicity and disappointing marketing materials. (A badly Photoshopped poster and heavy metal-fueled trailer framing it as a run-of-the-mill blow-'em-up.) The Georgian army apparently gave director Renny Harlin — known for big-budget action flicks like DIE HARD 2 and CLIFFHANGER — free use of their tanks, helicopters, jets, guns and even military personnel, contributing greatly to a vastly entertaining, horrifying war film.

Documenting a five-day war in the summer of 2008 that few Americans were fully aware of due to round-the-clock Olympic coverage coming out of Beijing, the movie also serves as a worthy tribute to war correspondents who risk their lives to communicate urgent news to the world, a sacrifice all too easily taken for granted. Indeed, the film is dedicated to the more than 500 reporters who've perished in action over the past decade.

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THE HELP (3-1/2 out of 5 stars)

Based on Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel, THE HELP is an unexpectedly amusing film about a segment of American history rarely explored on the big screen: the daily lives of African-American maids in the segregated South.

The story pulls you in from the get-go and may make you shed tears as its misty moments increase proportionally to the characters' raised stakes. Some performances are sure to receive recognition come Oscar season, although the one character who’s lacking — and my primary complaint about the film as a whole — is Emma Stone's "Skeeter," a sort of Erin Brockovich without the sex appeal.

The year is 1963 and Eugenia Phelan (a.k.a. Skeeter) has returned home to Jackson, Mississippi after graduating from Ole Miss with a journalism degree. She moves in with her ailing mother Charlotte (Allison Janney), hiding the effects of chemo with an array of ugly wigs and determined to marry off her only daughter before she dies.

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GOOD NEIGHBORS Review (1 out of 5 stars)

Given GOOD NEIGHBORS' fiercely unlikeable characters, weak stabs at black humor and dour, predictable film noir sensibilities, the real mystery here is why it didn’t head directly to DVD.

Despite its gray, snowy bleakness, perhaps the film's one redeeming quality is its Montreal setting in 1995, during Quebec’s failed referendum for independence; unfortunately though we get little sense of the tumult on the ground.

Louise, (Emily Hampshire) a bland, depressed thirty-something waitress at a Chinese restaurant, has a crush on her neighbor, sunny Spencer (Scott Speedman), always inexplicably grinning despite being stuck in his apartment, paralyzed in a wheel chair. They soon become pals with the geeky new tenant in the building, Victor (Jay Baruchel).

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HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 2 Review (4-1/2 out of 5 stars)

I am happy to say that the eighth and final installment in the planet's top-grossing film franchise is far and away the best of the series: a dazzling action adventure that’s epic in scope and wows from start to finish. Due to superb editing, the zigzagging plot never misses a beat, the dialogue's timing’s spot-on and no scene lags or feels wasted. Harry, in other words, goes out with a bang.

Longtime friends and enemies perish, monsters run amuck and magical mayhem (plus lots of explosions) preside as the forces of good and evil clash on the battlefield, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (which we saw little of in the last film). All as our young wizard protagonist (Daniel Radcliffe) and BFF’s Hermione (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) struggle in desperation to unearth and destroy the final four Horcruxes — and eliminate the serpentine Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) once and for all. Unlike in the dreary, exposition-heavy PART 1 — in which Harry’s world falls to the Death Eaters — loose ends from throughout the series are tied, secrets are revealed with panache and long simmering attractions are spectacularly consummated, minus its predecessor's ickiness. DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 is scarier, creepier, far more thrilling and more profound than most HP's preceding it, a cathartic climax to a long and eventful but inconsistently satisfying journey over the past decade...

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WINNIE THE POOH Review (4-1/2 out of 5 stars)

It's been 35 years since our honey-colored friend last ambled across the big screen, and this latest mini-tale's clever pencil and watercolor flourishes serve as a tenderly delightful reintroduction of the beloved icon to a new generation of moviegoers. It will also entertain folks of all ages. Indeed, grownups will feel like kids again and can even take it from Pooh's creator back in the 1920's, A.A. Milne, who claimed they were meant for adults in the first place.

You know the backstory: Pooh (voiced by Jim Cummings) is a portly, sweet-natured bear owned by young Christopher Robin (voiced by Jack Boulter and named after Milne’s son). But he’s really a stuffed animal come alive, just like his pals: Eeyore the gloomy donkey (Bud Luckey), scared, stuttering Piglet (Travis Oates), pretentious Owl (Craig Ferguson – woohoo!) and rambunctious Tigger (also Cummings) among them.

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THE LEDGE Review (2-1/2 out of 5 stars)

THE LEDGE boasts an engaging script, commendable performances and images that truly stay with you. Its characters are also so intriguing that a television series should be made to carry their lives past the silver screen. Although the story could take place anywhere, it's set in Baton Rouge, a refreshing change from the typical LA or New York. THE LEDGE has its flaws, sure: it could have used tighter editing, Charlie Hunnam's oddly masked British accent can be distracting (though his performance still works) and more suspenseful crescendos would've been nice instead of saving it for the climax, which is riveting nonetheless. But movie-making ain't easy, so I congratulate both cast and crew for keeping me consistently entertained...

Gavin (Hunnam) is a likeable, laid back guy who manages a pleasant hotel. His over-drinking is of some concern, but his happy-go-lucky ease around his HIV-positive roommate reflects a charm and maturity not seen enough among male characters in film. His eye is on the shy, reserved woman across the hall, Shana (Liv Tyler), who is married to a fundie Christian named Joe (Patrick Wilson), quick to condemn anything he deems immoral. Shana takes a job cleaning rooms at Gavin's hotel, an introduction made by one of Gavin's part-time workers, a college student attending grad school with Shana. She and her hubby invite their neighbors — Gavin and his gay roommate, a pair they assume are a couple--over for dinner. Joe's homophobia sends an infuriated Gavin marching out the door, only for them to go tête-à-tête later on in a fiery debate about God, a discussion this critic welcomes from an often controversy-averse Hollywood. Their argument boils down to whether an atheist, like Gavin, can die with peace of mind.

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