Watching this trailer…was one of the most surreal moments of my life. Watching the movie will probably surpass it. I’m afraid, and not in a good way.
The poster is even more hilarious.
I’m still stunned this movie even made it past an agent. Dude..it’s called “Snakes on a Plane“. Let me break that down for you. Snakes. On. A. Plane. Seriously people.
And what’s it about? Snakes….on a plane. I can hardly contain my consternation.
Marking her first foray into film since finding success on “Desperate Housewives,” Teri Hatcher will play a TV executive in the sports drama “Resurrecting the Champ.”
The story is based on a Los Angeles Times article written by J.R. Moehringer and follows a reporter who finds a homeless man who he thinks is a famous boxer but turns out to be a lesser-known fighter of the same era. Josh Hartnett plays the reporter suddenly thrust into the spotlight and Samuel L. Jackson the fighter.
Hatcher will play the head of a TV channel who teaches Hartnett the ropes of being a reporter-turned-celebrity. Journalist-turned-filmmaker Rod Lurie is directing. The project is being produced by Phoenix Pictures and Yari Film Group.
Hatcher’s last feature was the 2003 indie “A Touch of Fate.” She is lending her voice to two characters in “Coraline,” the first film from Laika Entertainment, Nike Inc. founder Phil Knight’s animation studio based in Portland, Ore.
Jamie Foxx’s quest for musical stardom got a boost Saturday at the 37th Annual NAACP Image Awards, where the Oscar-winning actor was picked as best male musical artist.
Foxx, who received an Oscar last year for portraying Ray Charles in the movie “Ray,” has begun performing tracks from his album “Unpredictable.”
“It’s good to be surrounded by black folks,” Foxx said. “Black folks are music.”
Foxx said after the show that music was “what I always wanted to do.”
“The Bernie Mac Show” took top honors in three categories. Mac was picked as comedy series best actor, while co-star Camille Winbush took home best supporting actress and director Millicent Shelton got the top television directing nod.
“America, I heard your prayers, and you wanted me here,” said Mac, showing a bit of the standup comedy that made him famous. “The Mac Man cometh and I’m bringing hell with me.”
Chris Rock show wins best TV series
On his heels was comedian Chris Rock, whose life-story-based “Everybody Hates Chris” won best television series.
“I want to thank all the white kids who beat (me),” said Rock, joking with the crowd. “I’m rich!”
The awards honor black artists in movies, television, music and literature.
“Crash,” about racial tensions in Los Angeles, took the top movie award. The hometown film led movie contenders with six nominations, including best picture, four of the five supporting-actor slots — for Terrence Howard, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Don Cheadle and Larenz Tate — and for Thandie Newton as supporting actress.
Howard beat out his colleagues for the supporting actor nod, and also took best actor in a TV movie or miniseries for “Lackawanna Blues.”
Samuel L. Jackson took best actor award for “Coach Carter,” a story of a basketball coach who forced his players to emphasize studying over hoops.
Carey, Keys take home awards
Mariah Carey, nominated for four awards, kept her comeback streak going when her “Emancipation of Mimi” won best album. Carey’s win came just weeks after she took home three Grammy Awards.
Alicia Keys, who tied Carey for Image Award nominations, took home three awards: top female musical artist, top song and video awards for “Unbreakable.”
Two stars of the long-running soap opera “The Young and the Restless” won honors, with Shemar Moore and Victoria Rowell taking actor and actress awards for daytime drama.
Moore talked about feeling moved after meeting Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. who died Jan. 30. “I think she is sitting up there with her husband smiling as we continue to chase the dream,” Moore said.
L.A. mayor speaks
In a brief speech, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he felt the Image Awards were special in a town full of award shows because they stand for racial equality.
“We are not just reveling in the power of Hollywood, but challenging Hollywood to use that power for good,” Villaraigosa said.
Carlos Santana, who performed at the show, received the NAACP Hall of Fame Award while the Neville Brothers received the Chairman’s award. Writer and businesswoman Susan Taylor was honored with the President’s Award.
The 37th Annual Image Awards, hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr., will air Friday on Fox.
I watched this movie again a few weeks ago and I just had to mention it. It’s sensational. And I don’t know how they managed to get this much talent into one film.
In A Time To Kill, a young black girl is raped and severely beaten by two white men in a racist southern town in Mississippi. The girl’s father, played by Samuel L. Jackson, knows that it’s unlikely these men will be convicted, especially with an all-white jury in the box.
Before their trial is even over, Carl Lee (Jackson’s character) shoots and kills the two men in cold blood in the courthouse. He hires Matthew McConaughey, a young, attractive, budding lawyer who once helped his brother, to represent him in his murder trial.
McConaughey’s wife is played by Ashley Judd, and McConaughey’s eventual legal team consists of Oliver Platt and the excellent Sandra Bullock, with Donald Sutherland acting as his drunken, washed-up but smart mentor, while Kevin Spacey plays the slimy but smooth prosecutor. Kiefer Sutherland (yes, Donald’s son—the irony, I know) plays the brother of one of the white men Carl Lee killed, and he gets the Ku Klux Klan, which has been absent from the public eye for quite a while, to taunt and threaten McConaughey, his family, and his legal team for helping out Carl Lee.
Everything about this movie is excellent: the writing, the directing, the music, the acting, of course. But how could it not be, when you have a cast like this one? I mean… Matthew McConaughey, Ashley Judd, Samuel L. Jackson, Kiefer Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, Kevin Spacey (one of my favorites), Donald Sutherland, Oliver Platt… ALL IN ONE FILM?
McConaughey and Bullock really have the standout performances of the film—especially McConaughey’s closing speech to the jury, which would bring tears to the eyes of even John Madden, and Bullock’s charismatic and charming performance that seems almost effortless (which she has done in almost everything I’ve ever seen her in). Hats off to John Grisham whose book A Time To Kill inspired the movie, for writing such a true and triumphant story. I give this movie three stars on the acting alone—but combined with Grisham’s excellent writing—four stars.
When I saw the trailer for Freedomland, it really didn’t look as appealing as it tries to come off as. The trailer seems to try to trick you into thinking a lot of action-packed riveting things are happening in it, when given two seconds to think, you wonder…well what? And upon seeing the movie last night, I realized it was just the same.
Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore run around police stations, parade around town while riotous crowds of angry blacks yell and scream at Brenda (Moore), her brother Danny (Rod Eldard) wrathfully slams people’s heads down on tables, marches around with small armies of random cops, and berates his sister all for no apparent reason. This seem like an appealing movie to you? The 200 other people in the theater didn’t think so either.
The movie starts out with Detective Lorenzo Council (Jackson) talking to a few people in a low-income housing district–he apparently knows them all. While there, he and his partner get a call on their radio about a woman who was attacked and car-jacked. They go to the hospital to speak to Brenda Martin whose hands are torn up and bloody, and she explains how a black man threw her out of her car as she was taking a shortcut through a bad neighborhood, and drove off with her car not knowing her 4 year old was sleeping son in the back seat.
Seems like a pretty interesting beginning to a film. And it was. The problem is, everything pretty much goes downhill from there. And with the exception of one excellent scene with Edie Falco and Julianne Moore, the rest of the film is pretty much laughable. The movie is full of feigned action and suspense, and many random things happen in the film that have no payoff.
For instance, Ron Eldard’s character, Danny. He appears quickly in the film, as Brenda’s brother with a vengeance. He scolds her for being in the park at the late hour, and suggests that she is going back to her old ways (Brenda is a recovering drug addict). Danny (who is a cop himself) tries to take over Detective Council’s investigation and with his white team of cops from a nicer part of town, attempts to conduct his own search for Brenda’s son Cody. At one point in the film, Danny wrongly accuses a young black teenager of committing the crime, which incites even more angry behavior from the rioters (who oddly come in and out of the movie at sporadic times).
The absolute worst part of the movie is the third act, which really should have just been deleted from the movie entirely. Weirdly, Danny completely disappears from the movie without any kind of explanation, and Brenda turns completely crazy and incoherent and even starts coming on to Detective Council. Cody’s disappearance is explained and the outcome is completely boring and unrewarding, and we are all left sitting in our seats wondering why we just spent 10.75 and 2 hours of our lives being jerked around for absolutely nothing. Edie Falco’s 20 minutes of screentime is exceptional, but it isn’t enough to salvage this horrid excuse for a movie. Don’t waste your time or your money. Don’t even rent it when it comes to DVD. Just…stay away. Far away.
Edited: [GH]
