Michael Bay (The Rock) directed this science fiction action thriller in the When Worlds Collide tradition. After astronomy students discover a comet-asteroid collision, an asteroid fragment "the size of the Super Dome" threatens. It's destroyed by a secret USA defense in space, but a large chunk veers off toward Singapore. With another asteroid "the size of Texas" en route, a plan is devised to send oil drillers to land on the asteroid and drop a nuclear device down a 1000-foot shaft, a scheme calculated to crack the asteroid into two halves, saving Earth. NASA begins a crash program to train beer-besotted oil roughnecks for the mission. During a stopover to refuel at the Mir Station, the space station is accidentally destroyed, so a Russian cosmonaut also joins the team. Produced by Bay, Jerry Bruckheimer (Con Air), and Gale Anne Hurd (The Relic, The Abyss). Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Story:Blockbuster action director Michael Bay delivers a striking look at a strange world of the future in this sci-fi action drama. Midway through the 21st century, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) lives in a confined indoor community after ongoing abuse of the Earth has rendered most of the planet uninhabitable. One of the only places in the outside world still capable of sustaining life is an idyllic island where citizens are chosen to live through a lottery. Or at least that's what Lincoln and his fellow citizens are taught to believe; the truth is that Lincoln, like everyone he knows, is actually a clone who is kept under wraps to provide needed organs when the person who supplied his or her DNA falls ill. When he becomes aware that his existence is a fraud, Lincoln escapes to the outside world with a fellow clone, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), though the powers that be are determined to see that no one gets away alive. The Island also stars Steve Buscemi, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sean Bean. Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Synopsis:British director Danny Boyle takes another intriguing career turn with this heartfelt underdog tale. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a street kid (or "slumdog") who has landed an appearance on India's...[More]British director Danny Boyle takes another intriguing career turn with this heartfelt underdog tale. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a street kid (or "slumdog") who has landed an appearance on India's version of the hit TV game show WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? Jamal exceeds expectations on the show, and the producers alert the police after they become suspicious of his methods. The young contestant is subsequently arrested and is interrogated at the hands of a nameless police inspector (played by Bollywood star Irfan Khan). As the interrogation proceeds, Boyle tells Jamal's story through harrowing flashbacks that both show the terrible poverty of Mumbai and help explain how he knew the answers to the MILLIONAIRE questions. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is a tightly woven story that has been expertly edited into shape. The contrast between Jamal's upbringing and his chance of escaping it on the show are adeptly juxtaposed. Mumbai is portrayed as a place of terrifying poverty and unforgettable brutality, and Jamal and his brother get into a never-ending succession of challenging situations. But the way Boyle ties together Jamal's life experiences with his answers on the show is quite brilliant, and the film really does run the full gamut of emotions as we see him growing up, falling in love, coming close to death, and teetering on the brink of escaping from his terrible predicament. The film belongs to Boyle's cast, who are mostly unknown outside of India. Patel, in particular, gives a startlingly mature performance that audiences are likely to remember long after the credits role on this affecting feature.
300's Zack Snyder brings Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' critically acclaimed comic book Watchmen to the big screen, courtesy of DC Comics and Warner Bros. Pictures. Set in an alternate universe circa 1985, the film's world is a highly unstable one where a nuclear war is imminent between America and Russia. Superheroes have long been made to hang up their tights thanks to the government-sponsored Keene Act, but that all changes with the death of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), a robust ex-hero commando whose mysterious free fall out a window perks the interest of one of the country's last remaining vigilantes, Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). His investigation leads him to caution many of his other former costumed colleagues, including Dr. Manhattan, Night Owl (Patrick Wilson), Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Sally Jupiter (Carla Gugino), and her daughter, The Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman). Heralded for bringing the world of superheroes into the literary world, Watchmen gave the super-powered mythos a real-life grounding that had been missing in mainstream comics to that point. The film adaptation had languished in one form of development hell or another for years after the book's release, with various directors on and off the project, including Terry Gilliam, David Hayter, and Darren Aronofsky, as well as Paul Greengrass, whose eventual dismissal stemmed from budget conflicts with the studio. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide .
It's a pretty serious conundrum to remake a classic movie. Most of the time, what makes a film a classic is that it's really, really good, so a remake is almost always doomed to fall short of the original. This inevitably angers fans -- who are mortified to see something so much less awesome done with their beloved source material -- but what are studios to do? They still need to cash in on their best titles by regurgitating them for kids born long after the film in question was released on Betamax. Well, one remake seems to have figured a way out of this maze: 2009's Friday the 13th. The reasons for this are numerous. First, it's not really a remake. Okay, maybe the first five minutes are -- a flashback to 1980, when a screaming would-be victim lobs off the head of disgruntled mom Mrs. Voorhees (who viewers will remember was the killer in the first movie, not Jason, who doesn't start killing until the second, and doesn't even get his hockey mask until the third). After that, the movie is more a tribute to all the sequels than a remake of any one. The hot, young, totally generic teenagers who trespass into Jason's Crystal Lake stomping ground all have massive early-'80s feathered hair, and they spend the entire runtime smoking weed, waterskiing topless, and having tons and tons of graphic, R-rated-and-proud sex with each other before getting stabbed, sliced, harpooned, etc. That weed, by the way, is given a fairly significant supporting role, as we learn that at least some of the previous hot teenagers to die by Jason's meat hook (or whatever) were attracted there by the area's abundant natural resources. And the breasts deserve at least second billing, appearing within the first 15 minutes to get smeared with what seems to be baby oil in the middle of a camping trip -- before copulation or water sports even enter into the equation. In addition to being awesome, it all just feels kind of celebratory, even reverent, like a tribute to what teen slasher films are all about. There are also a few strangely intimate glimpses into Jason's inner world, but nothing in the script feels like the filmmakers were trying to mess with the mythology of the franchise (not that they really could, since the last movie had him killing people in space). It's not an openly meta take on the genre like Scream, but it's a slasher movie for people who love slasher movies, and if your heart will flutter when a woodchipper casually appears in the first act, it's probably worth watching.
Story:Bryan Mills has only recently given up his government career as what he calls, a "preventer" to be near his daughter Kim, who lives with Bryan's ex-wife Lenore and her new husband. To make ends meet, Bryan joins some former colleagues for special security details (like guarding a pop diva), but most of his time and energy are spent re-connecting with Kim. But, when Kim requests his permission to spend time in Paris with a friend, he reluctantly consents.
Bryan's worst fears are realized when Kim and her friend Amanda are suddenly abducted - in broad daylight - from the Paris apartment at which they've just arrived. Moments before Kim is dragged away by the as yet unseen and unknown assailants, she manages to phone Bryan, who begins to expertly piece together clues that will take him to the darkness of Paris's underworld, and to the City of Light's plushest mansions. He will face nightmares worse than anything he experienced in black ops - and let nothing and no one stop him from saving his daughter.
Cast: Kirk Cameron (Caleb Holt), Erin Bethea (Catherine Holt), Ken Bevel (Michael Simmons), Stephen Dervan (Wayne Floyd), Eric Young (Terrell Sanders), Jason McLeod (Eric Harmon), Harris Malcom (John Holt), Phyllis Malcom (Cheryl Holt), Perry Revell (Dr. Gavin Keller), Stephanie Makulinski (Robin Cates), Renata Williams (Latasha Brown), Dwan Williams (Deidra Harris), Amberly Marquard (Ashley Phillips)
Since "Growing Pains" signed off the airwaves in 1992, eldest Seaver son Kirk Cameron has largely kept off Hollywood's radar. The 1980s teen heartthrob hasn't joined the ranks of former child star wrecks; there have been no reality TV gigs, drug addictions, or scandals of any kind. At the same time, Cameron hasn't enjoyed major stardom the way his seventh season protégé Leonard DiCaprio has. Cameron's post-"Pains" work includes a 1½-season sitcom vehicle, a couple of Disney Channel movies, the infrequent TV guest slot, and a pair of "Growing Pains" reunions. None of that pointed to a newsmaking big screen return, but that's exactly what Cameron received in last fall's Fireproof. Made for just $500,000 and released in under 1,000 theaters, this PG-rated drama opened in fourth place at the box office. It would go on to earn back its budget over 65 times. To date, Cameron's little film has grossed over $33 million domestically. That may not scream blockbuster, but it's more than what was garnered by widely-released 2008 films starring George Clooney (Leatherheads), Mike Myers (The Love Guru), and Owen Wilson (Drillbit Taylor).
Of course, it's a little bit of a stretch to call Fireproof a "Kirk Cameron movie" (a phrase that hasn't much been invoked since 1989's Listen to Me). Though Cameron is top-billed, the clear lead, and undoubtedly the most famous name onboard, Fireproof is first and foremost a "Christian movie." That domain was not new for the actor; he became a devout Christian at the height of his popularity and earlier this decade starred in the Left Behind trilogy of post-Rapture films. Nor was it unfamiliar to Alex and Stephen Kendrick, the brothers and pastors who founded a film company out of their well-attended Sherwood Baptist Church. Fireproof is the megachurch group's third film.
Set in Sherwood's hometown of Albany, Georgia, Fireproof tells the story of a married couple in conflict. Fire chief Caleb Holt (Cameron) and his wife of seven years, hospital PR administrator Catherine (Erin Bethea), are not getting along. In fact, they can hardly stand each other's company. Both are seriously considering a divorce. Caleb's father (Harris Malcom) discourages such an action, instead pleading with his son to spend the next forty days on something called "The Love Dare." A handwritten book provides daily instructions and Bible passages for salvaging the marriage. Taking Dad up on his offer, Caleb quietly follows the rescue plan and starts making one gesture each day to show his appreciation for his wife. You might anticipate Caleb's efforts being a painless cure-all in the world of homegrown films, but in fact a number of obstacles still stand in the way of the Holts' union being healthily restored. Suspicious of her husband's carefully-metered thoughtfulness, Catherine grows increasingly close to a suave colleague doctor (Perry Revell). Meanwhile, Caleb has his own demons to conquer, the most pressing of which seem to be his lack of faith and his appreciation for the Internet. Nothing else needs to be said about the plot of Fireproof, which the DVD cover dubs "The #1 Inspirational Movie in America!" in an unattributed quote.
That you can guess where things are going is of little detriment. You don't watch a movie like this for the twists and turns. You do watch a movie like this expecting to get something worthwhile out of the time devoted. This is where Fireproof fails. It certainly means well, providing a how-to for saving marriages with Christ's help. But that makes it more of a motivational workshop than a dramatic motion picture. Judging it as the latter finds it lacking in many ways.
The acting is unpolished, which perhaps is to be expected of a cast short on experience and largely unpaid. Even the best work, coming from the reasonably accomplished Cameron, is subpar and synthetic, handicapping characterization and draining whatever realism might have survived the mawkish script. The widespread incompetence gives the proceedings a basic cable TV movie feel, which the rambling focus, untidy pace, and unspectacular technique all seem to actually fall short of.
In the filmmakers' defense, the movie does seem to be earnest. These aren't folks churning out slush for a paycheck. Everyone involved seems to believe in the message and the means. (38-year-old Cameron will celebrate his 18th wedding anniversary in July.) That doesn't make it any better than it is, but it does mean that artistic dismissals should come with an extra touch of consideration and, for me at least, guilt.
Comedy Starring Kevin James, Jayma Mays, Keir O'Donnell and Shirley Knight. Directed by Steve Carr. PG. 87 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.
Possibly the unanimated screen cousin followup to Kung Fu Panda, Paul Blart: Mall Cop answers the pressing question - Can a chubby guy be a superhero too - in the resounding affirmative. TV's King of Queens lovable working stiff Kevin James relocates to suburban Jersey in an even larger than life silly but good natured laughathon on the big screen as the corpulent crimefighter mall cop in question, who's more than a little obsessive about cornering anyone shopping around for trouble. Directed by Steve Carr (Daddy Day Care, Next Friday) and co-written by Kevin James, Paul Blart: Mall Cop stars James as the hapless 21st century Jackie Gleason, scorned and ridiculed both on and off the job, but not hearing any of it. Between nurturing elaborate fantasies of supersized superheroics, Blart spends a typical day running over a neighborhood dog tailgating his scooter on the way to work, directing civilians to exactly which stores the heated toilet seats are located in, and being subjected to a Victoria's Secret beatdown by an irate shopper dissing the slutty underwear.
Blart is also a single dad duped into a green card marriage by an even more rotund illegal alien femme fatale, who left him to raise preteen daughter Maya (Raini Rodriguez) alone. But he's showered with plenty of maternal doting, emotional support and platefuls of food at home by both Mom (Shirley Knight) and surrogate parentally inclined Maya.
And though the family is eager to match him up with a mate online, Blart wears his heart conspicuously on his sleeve at work, nursing a crush on perky wig saleslady Amy (Jayma Mays). But running interference on his courtship moves, is a gang of cutthroat shoplifters who show up one day, intent on conspiring a hostile takeover of the premises on skateboards, and committing assorted acts of mall malice.
Not to worry, Blart singlehandedly sets his sights on finally getting a chance to seriously show his stuff chasing down these athletic accomplices. Which includes making the most of his mountainous assets like gargantuan sliding and slithering around the mall, and flattening the felons with the advantage of his ample torso, when not beating up a perp with a handy tanning machine. He also gets a little help from a jar of some sort of wickedly spicy condiment called The Devil's Crotch, enough said.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop is an affectionate if often sitcomish ode to creative copping and mindless mall madness. In any case, James sweats it out lifting the material above the mundane and derivative, and nicely proves that in an emergency, size matters and extra large superheroes can rule.
Jackman and Nicole Kidman in ''Australia.' 20th Century Fox Directed by Baz Luhrmann PG-13 for some violence
The Story Kidman stars as Sarah Ashley, an uppercrust Brit who believes her husband's cheating on her. After he refuses to return home from tending to their business interests down under, Sarah packs up dozens of bags and hightails it to Australia. Her goal: find out who he's cheating with and get him to sell off their land and go back to England. Sarah's plans abruptly change when she reaches their cattle ranch only to find out her husband's been killed. An Aboriginal medicine man has been named as the culprit, but Sarah soon catches on to the fact there's much more going on at the ranch than meets the eye. Her husband's right hand man, Neil Fletcher (David Wenham), is a nasty fellow who treats the locals worse than cows and wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and slapped him in the face. Sarah fires Neil, an act which elevates her standing in the eyes of all the hired help on the ranch, including a young part-Aborigine boy, Nullah (Brandon Walters), who forms a special bond with Sarah.
Without Neil, Sarah needs someone who can drive her cattle to market. Sarah has to sell off her cattle to the military in order to keep the ranch afloat and to stave off an offer to buy the place from King Carney (Bryan Brown), an offer her husband rejected outright. King Carney's the biggest cattle baron on the continent and he desperately wants her piece of land. And Neil, who happens to be his son-in-law, is willing to do just about anything to help King Carney take over the strategically located property. Sarah hires the very reluctant, extremely good-looking Drover (Hugh Jackman) to lead the cattle through treacherous terrain. Drover, his occupation and the only name he goes by, isn't a fan of King Carney or Neil. He's not really a fan of Sarah's either, but they're forced together due to their mutual dislike of the competition. Of course, being that this is a romantic epic, they soon discover there's an attraction between them that can't be denied.
As the hero of the feverish hip-hop biopic Notorious, newcomer Jamal Woolard nails the first thing that any actor playing Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., must know: how to throw his weight around. Cast as the imperious-on-the-outside, haunted-on-the-inside rapper, who grows up in the '80s in the hustler's paradise of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Woolard swaggers down the street like a mountainous gangsta John Wayne, and he doesn't just stand tall. He looms, imposing himself on each encounter. In the movies, and pop music too, overweight people are usually outsize clowns, but the real Biggie used his bulk (300 pounds), height (he was 6 foot 3), and merciless dead-end stare to cultivate a larger-than-life presence of theatrical power: the image of a clown–turned–doughboy badass. That image eventually turned against him, and he became a martyr, killed in a drive-by shooting in 1997, at 24. Notorious is a luridly unapologetic trip through the violence, hunger, verbal bravado, and money fever of the hip-hop world, which it views as both liberating and destructive (often for the same reasons). Dressed in a pin-striped suit and bowler hat, Woolard does an uncanny impersonation of the Biggie who strutted on stage like some mack daddy from the '70s. Look closer, though, and that fleshy face might belong to a giant pouting baby. Woolard's Biggie comes on like a thug, with a voice commandingly low and grumbly, but there's a twinkle in his eye, a look that says I'm a playa who's playing you. He's a real crook who becomes a put-on crook who is then reborn, through a rap style so incendiary it's like spontaneous combustion, into a superhero. Hip-hop feeds on mythology, but Notorious sticks close to the details, and the hell-bent spirit, of Biggie's life. Ignoring the admonitions of his Jamaican-born mother (Angela Bassett), he starts to sell crack in his teens, when he's still boyish, friendly Christopher Wallace, going up to a roof to change out of his school duds and into his dealer's paraphernalia (white sneakers, gold medallion, handgun). The director, George Tillman Jr. (Soul Food), catches us up in the excitement that seduces a kid into the hustler's life, yet the film doesn't glamorize it. Chris learns his lesson the hard way — he goes to prison — and when he hooks up with the budding impresario Sean "Puffy" Combs (Derek Luke), Notorious turns into a funky capitalist message movie. Biggie craves stardom as freedom, as his one ticket out of the inner city. When he does the hedonist anthem "Party and Bulls---" at a concert, he flips the meaning of the lyrics (based on a song by the Last Poets) so that a critique of nihilism becomes a salute to it, and it's such an intoxicating number, who'd resist? Biggie makes up a lot of his dark, smoky raps on the spot. He uses his words, too, to seduce, winning over a slew of women, like the blond soul diva Faith Evans (Antonique Smith), whom he marries, and Kimberly Jones (Naturi Naughton), whom he makes over into the ferocious skin-flashing novelty act Lil' Kim. At first, they see a big fat man acting like a sex symbol. But the movie teases out the glee in Biggie — he's like a kid with a supersize sly grin, cracking up at his own self-confidence. That's how he gets to be a sex symbol. Biggie treats his women like a harem, and he thinks that makes him a man. Does it, or is he just caught up in the pathology of what he thinks a man is? That's the question that propels Woolard's remarkable performance. Notorious has a fascinating trajectory, but certain episodes leave you wanting. The film would have been stronger if Biggie's pop-star squeezes were as fully realized as the women in Ray, and Anthony Mackie, as Tupac Shakur, lacks Tupac's electrifying snakish charm. Biggie and Tupac become pals (in underwritten scenes), then mortal enemies, and the film's re-creation of the East Coast–West Coast rap war, while entertaining, is too simplistic. As presented, the entire feud spiraled out of Tupac's paranoia, his misguided belief that Biggie put a hit out on him. But why did Tupac think that in the first place? And what did these two say to each other when no one was looking? Notorious makes the death of Biggie Smalls look like a tragic mistake, instead of the outgrowth of a culture devoted to selling the fantasy of who's the biggest man. B+
There is only one reason to watch My Bloody Valentine 3D.
Director Patrick Lussier Stars Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Betsey Rue, Edi Gathegi, Tom Atkins, Kevin Tighe and Megan Boone
I’ll give you a clue - it has nothing to do with ‘My Bloody Valentine’ – although we’re sure there are many horror fans who will be interested to see a virtual remake of the 1981 flick Quentin Tarantino dubbed “the greatest slasher movie of all time”. And, no, it isn’t Betsy Rue’s lengthy full frontal scene – although it is probably worth the price of admission alone. It’s the 3D effects. Of course, making horror movies 3D is nothing new. But judging by the two notable examples which spring to mind – Jaws 3D and Freddie’s Dead: The Final Nightmare – it’s fair to say it’s a largely been an unsuccessful marriage - so far. My Bloody Valentine at least delivers the 3D goods. Throughout the course of the movie you will spend your time dodging pickaxes, tree branches and various body parts – all good fun. But take away the effects and you really are not left with much. In fact, watching My Bloody Valentine 3D is like peering into Kirsten Dunst’s mouth – a big gummy mess. Sure, the 3D effects are a nice distraction, but not enough to brush aside the film’s eminent shortcomings. First, we have the rather ludicrous plot, which admittedly sticks quite closely to the much-feted original. Now, this could take a while. It basically revolves around Tom Hanniger – played by Wentworth Miller lookalike Jensen Ackles (Smallville and Supernatural) - who, as an inexperienced coal miner in his father’s mine, causes an accident which traps and kills five men and sends the only survivor, Harry Warden, into a coma. A year later, Warden wakes up in hospital on Valentine’s Day and proceeds to hack 22 people up with his pickaxe – as you do. He is finally tracked down and killed, but the guilt sends Hanniger over the edge, who leaves the sleepy town of Harmony and girlfriend Sarah (Jaime King – Slackers, Sin City) and best mate Axel (Kerr Smith – Final Destination) to pick up the pieces.
A decade later, he returns to find his ex-girlfriend and best mate, now the sheriff, are hitched. But, even worse, within minutes of his return, a killer dressed in Harry Warden’s coal mining gear and gas mask (think Darth Vader’s inbred, redneck cousin) is once again wreaking havoc, killing dwarves and hacking pieces off the good townspeople of Harmony. Bugger! Then there is the acting and the script. Now, we realise that director Patrick Lussier has tongue firmly pressed against cheek throughout most of the movie, but by the end of it we were not even sure which bits were supposed to be funny. It didn’t help that a lot of the actors spent most of their time spitting out their lines while wearing the expression of someone who had been forced to smell their mate’s fart. Old pros Kevin (Lost) Tighe and the great Tom (Creepshow) Atkins do their best, but the only thing that really adds any depth is the effects. Even the rats cannot act. But where My Bloody Valentine 3D really falls down is as a horror movie. Strip away the gimmicks, it’s a very sub-standard slasher movie. The death scenes are unoriginal and fail to exploit the effects in great, er, depth. Plus, there is very little suspense. A crime for someone like Lussier, who has served as horror auteur Wes Craven’s editor for many years. In fact, the scariest thing about the film is the randy dwarf who owns the local motel. My Bloody Valentine? More like My Bloody Waste of Time.
Release: 2008 Country: USA Cert (UK): PG Runtime: 99 mins Directors: Adam Shankman Cast: Adam Sandler, Courteney Cox, Courtney Cox, Guy Pearce, Jonathan Pryce, Keri Russell, Lucy Lawless, Russell Brand, Teresa Palmer More on this film
As co-producer and star of Bedtime Stories, Adam Sandler has made a cold, shrewd, almost actuarial decision about what keeps his box-office dollars up. People like to see him act opposite little kids. Here, he plays Skeeter, the laid-back maintenance man at a huge, soulless hotel - which was once a sweet family motel run by Skeeter's old dad, played by Jonathan Pryce. His sister has gone away, leaving Skeeter to mind the kids; he entertains them with bedtime stories that come true. Russell Brand plays Skeeter's best friend. There's a surface liveliness to the movie, but it has that plasticky Disney quality and lack of real heart.
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More LinkS: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/dec/22/bedtime-stories-review http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/film-review-bedtime-stories-1003924274.story http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/01/05/131755.php http://www.gotriad.com/content/2008/12/31/article/movie_review_bedtime_stories
Xcelsius offers an impressive array of features that can turn your Excel charts and tables into flashy, interactive PowerPoint slides.
The Good:
1.Flash-powered interactivity to Excel charts and graphs 2.Wide array of charts available 3.Sliders and gauges let users create different scenarios that can be saved and shared 4.Xcelsius graphs can be exported to PowerPoint, HTML, and PDF files
The Bad:
1.Won't work with Excel macros or charts that draw data from other Excel files 2.Limited formatting options 3.Can print only a screenshot
Review:
Creating glossy Excel charts for your presentations is all well and good, but your static charts and graphs won't help much if your boss wants to play what-if games with the projected fourth-quarter sales. Add some interactivity with Infommersion's Xcelsius, an easy-to-use Excel add-in that lets you insert sliders, check boxes, clickable maps, and gauges in your charts and graphs -- perfect for playing with the numbers and creating alternate scenarios on the fly. While Xcelsius disappoints with its inability to handle advanced spreadsheet features such as macros and references to other Excel files, the possibilities will impress those looking to create interactive charts, maps, and graphs. Getting started with Xcelsius is simple; once you've launched the setup file and entered your registration key, you're ready to go. However, you will need to activate the program over the Net within the first five uses, so don't plan on using it on multiple machines without the appropriate site licenses. We liked Xcelsius's clean, spare interface, which makes ample use of tool palettes that you can shrink or hide entirely. The most useful tools include the Components palette, a smorgasbord of charts, sliders, maps, lines, and other graphic and interactive components that you can drag and drop onto your work space, and the Properties palette, which lets you tweak the behavior and the appearance of the various charting elements. We also like the Object Browser, which lets you hide or reveal project elements by ticking a simple check box.
Features
Xcelsius is a snap to use. You just import your Excel file, drag a chart from the Components palette, and associate axes, labels, and legends with the corresponding Excel data. There's a slight learning curve, but within half an hour or so, we were creating interactive charts, sliders and dials on our own. The sheer number of available components is impressive. Charts run the gamut from line, pie, column, and bar to bubble, area, XY, and radar, with plenty of variations and combinations in between. You can import your own images or choose from a variety of backgrounds and art elements, such as rectangles and vertical and horizontal lines. You can format the charts to some extent, including changing the chart colours, the label and legend fonts, and the point sizes, but we wish you could do more. For instance, we'd love to change the orientation of the data labels and create 3D charts and graphs, both of which you can do in Excel. That said, Xcelsius provides various templates to get you started, and global styles let you make presentation-wide changes with a single click.
With a potpourri of sliders, dials, gauges, check boxes and radio buttons, Xcelsius lets you incorporate a host of interactivity options into your charts and presentations. Want to create a variety of scenarios for your company's fourth-quarter net income? Just drag and drop a slider onto the canvas, associate it with the Q4 projections in your Excel chart, and click and drag the slider to watch the columns in your chart rise and fall. Xcelsius also outputs your interactive charts to Macromedia Flash, then automatically embeds the SWF files into your PowerPoint files (or PDF files with the Professional version). During your presentation, you can save the scenarios you create to your local drive for later reference. With the Professional version, those remotely viewing the presentation can create their own scenarios and share them with the rest of the group in real time. But Xcelsius also has its fair share of shortcomings. The current version won't work with Excel files that draw data from secondary Excel files, and it can't work with Excel macros. In addition, the only way to print out an Xcelsius-powered chart is by taking a screenshot -- not the most elegant solution. Infommersion offers a wide range of online tips and tutorials (in QuickTime, Flash and PDF formats) for Xcelsius, as well as a lengthy but straightforward, downloadable manual.
As an old woman named Daisy lies in her deathbed, she relates to her daughter, the story of the most important man in her life, a fellow named Benjamin, who began his life in the oddest of ways, displaying all of the effects of old age on an infant’s frame. As Benjamin grows older, he physically gets younger, leading to a perspective on the world wiser than can be expected… And to say more about the story of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button would be to say too much. This story is better experienced by actually watching it unfold. And when you do watch it unfold, you’ll be experiencing yet another in a string of masterpieces from director David Fincher and easily one of the very best movies of 2008. Fincher’s well known for the exacting control he takes on his movies (and if you’ve ever watched any of the special edition DVDs of Fight Club, Panic Room or Zodiac then you know what I mean) and Benjamin Button is no exception. This is a long movie, nearly three hours long, and yet it’s all so well paced and written so well that it never feels that way, for me, the time flew right by. Originally based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald (which I haven’t read and I do know that liberties have been taken with the story), this screen adaptation is truly a magical experience. It’s the sort of movie that I’d like to watch as a double or triple feature with movies like Forrest Gump and The World According to Garp. Brad Pitt plays Benjamin and Cate Blanchett plays Daisy and the performances are just excellent (Daisy is a dancer and it really looks like Blanchett learned her stuff here- and it’s not just in the steps but in her gait and how she carries herself in the non-dncing scenes). It’s easily, at least for me, the most heartfelt thing that Brad Pitt has ever done, and you feel his genuine kindness and sense of wonder about the world in most every scene. This movie would be my actual pick to win a Best Visual Effects award for the year. Now I really like movies with big splashy effects as much as the next guy, but admire stuff more that’s just not so obvious. And here, the effect of aging is just seamless, and though it’s amazing to see, it doesn’t detract whatsoever. One scene in particular, where Benjamin is literally around the age of 18 is just about as convincing as it can be, you’ll swear that somehow or another, David Fincher has this amazing time machine and he was able to go and pluck Brad Pitt from that point in his life to play in this movie. Right now, this is looking like a big contender at Oscar time, probably being pitted against Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon and The Dark Knight (these movies have been grabbing the nominations from the Writer’s Guild, the Producer’s Guild and the Director’s Guild) and even without having yet seen either Milk or Slumdog (and I do hope to before the Oscars come around) and whatever awards it garners, it’s totally well deserved. Don’t miss this one for a moment, it’s a terrific experience and as I said above, easily one of the best movies of 2008
Dogs may be the real beneficiaries of "Marley & Me." After pet owners see the adaptation of the John Grogan book, they may want to slip their four-legged family members some forbidden table scraps or chewies or take them for a nice long walk instead of hustling them outside as quickly as possible and waiting impatiently by the door. But, as with the best-seller, "Marley & Me" is about more than a yellow Labrador that grows to nearly 100 pounds and manages to devour almost anything, from drywall and diapers to flooring and sofa cushions. It's about the challenges of marriage and parenthood and juggling babies, deadlines and jobs -- office and stay-at-home -- and the occasional argument fueled by exhaustion, frustration and barking that wakes the children who just fell asleep at nap time. As Jenny Grogan (Jennifer Aniston) says to husband John (Owen Wilson) after a particularly trying stretch, "No one tells you how hard this is going to be," or how much you have to give up. Or maybe they do and you don't listen. As the Grogans, Aniston and Wilson manage to never lose their boyish or girlish figures and golden tans and hair highlights but they are cinematic stand-ins for couples everywhere who start off as twosomes and weather surprises, heartbreak and much happiness along the way.
The movie opens with the newlyweds vowing to trade snowy Michigan for someplace warm, which happens to be Florida, where they are hired as writers at competing newspapers. (No, this isn't a fairy tale, it's the early '90s when dailies were thriving and hiring.) As a birthday surprise and to slow Jen's biological clock, John gets her a puppy he christens Marley in honor of reggae singer Bob Marley. The movie follows the couple's futile stab at training Marley and successful attempt at integrating him into their growing family and changing lifestyle. If you've read the book, you know that the Grogans are like pet owners everywhere who must face the fact that their dogs are going to grow old. That element of the movie and what it brings are the most tender and tearful. David Frankel, who directed "The Devil Wears Prada" and is the son of former New York Times columnist Max Frankel, directs the screenplay by Scott Frank and Don Roos. It eliminates a few elements from the book -- notably a second, somewhat more successful try at obedience training and a job that precipitates a move -- but remains remarkably faithful and also smartly conveys the passage of time. In addition to the leads, the cast includes Alan Arkin as a gruff but supportive, wise newspaper editor and Eric Dane (McSteamy on "Grey's Anatomy") as a skirt-chasing globe-trotter whose freedom and immaturity stand in marked contrast to John's obligations and family joys. Aniston and Wilson are a handsome pair with good chemistry, although the former "Friends" star isn't the most naturally maternal actress on screen. In the end, it's Owen Wilson and Marley -- all 22 of them sharing the role -- who will win and break your heart.
Starring: Odette Yustman, Gary Oldman, Meagan Good, Jane Alexander.
Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.
Rated: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images, thematic material and language including some sexual references.
Let's treat the horror film "The Unborn" as a teachable moment. The movie's not very good, but there are ideas, good and bad, in its execution that are worth mulling over. Cast the best actors you can afford. If you can get Jane Alexander to play a Holocaust survivor, James Remar as a two-scenes dad, Carla Gugino as a ghost-mom with no lines in her flashback scenes and Gary Oldman and Idris Elba as a rabbi and a priest who moonlight as exorcists (hey, we all have to take on second jobs in this economy), you do it. Putting your skinny young leading lady (Odette Yustman of "Cloverfield") in panties in several scenes and on the poster? Again, smart move. Know your audience for PG-13 horror. Yustman, an indifferent Jennifer Connelly clone, is so thin you could roll a bagel, with lox, between those thighs. Not that you'd want to do that sort of thing. But this fright show from writer-director David S. Goyer ("The Invisible," and he wrote the awful "Jumper") is a maddening hodgepodge of plot distractions, gimmick fights and too many characters. It's a pretty but pretty cluttered, un-frightening mess that brings in the Holocaust, Jewish myth and mysticism, mental illness, unsafe sex and a very strange-looking little boy (Atticus Shafer) who seems willing to hurt people to get a message to his baby-sitter, Casey (Yustman): "Jumby wants to be born now." This freaks out Casey and sends her running to her boyfriend's arms (Cam Gigandet) and off to seek help from her superstitious friend (Meagan Good, another plum in the cast). As Casey hallucinates more visions of dogs with their heads upside down and demons in her medicine cabinet, she recalls her dead mom (Gugino) and begins to decipher this mystery, which is why she goes to the rabbi (Oldman, professional as always). There are hair-raising moments here, though they're not the shock-edits (complete with loud musical effect) that Goyer hurls at us, the bugs or even the creepy dogs and people whose heads spin around upside to mimic the Dybbuk, an evil spirit described in Jewish folklore. A scratchy old home movie is the most chilling bit. But who takes home movies of the place where Mom was institutionalized and hung herself? And black-and-white home movies from "six years ago"? Finally, a word of caution to parents wanting to turn their little darlings into child stars. It's bad enough naming your lad Atticus. He's going to get teased until his classmates see or read "To Kill a Mockingbird." Cashing in on your child's odd appearance (it's not makeup) is kind of creepy, no? He was a punch-line in "American Carol," too. Let him age out of his Eddie Munster years in peace.
Comedy. Starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson. Directed by Gary Winick. (PG. 90 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
It's hard to imagine a less palatable premise: Two privileged young Manhattanites morph from best friends into bridezillas and tear each other apart over who gets to have the Best Wedding Ever. The concept seems dated. Throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars on the perfect flowers and the perfect dress and the perfect save-the-date announcement is so early 2008. In these recessionary times, it's not just misogynistic to assume that intelligent women turn into feral dogs at the sight of a Tiffany gift box, but it's also beside the point. Excessive spending is as declasse as the Bush administration. And yet, for all its clunky moments, "Bride Wars" isn't a complete disaster. Anne Hathaway, who plays schoolteacher Emma to Kate Hudson's power-lunching young lawyer Liv, gives a parallel performance to her turn in "The Devil Wears Prada"; both films walk the line between glorifying and satirizing the wedding and beauty industries, although "Prada" is the more effective of the two. "Bride Wars" finds fertile ground to mock but spends too much time in the trenches of slapstick warfare to deliver any really stunning takedowns. As far as broad comedy goes, though, it's no more or less silly than the latest Will Ferrell movie and delivers enough laughs to justify its more ridiculous stunts. The setup is that Emma and Liv, childhood best friends from New Jersey, once glimpsed a wedding at the Plaza Hotel and then spent countless hours re-creating it in Emma's attic. The question of how that fantasy managed to stay at the center of their lives through high school, college, graduate school and adult life in New York City is never answered; it's the central weakness of the film, in the same way that the refusal to consider abortion makes Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up" difficult to swallow. As women in their late 20s, Emma and Liv have maintained their close friendship (with improbably great wardrobes), but change is around the corner: Both have live-in boyfriends and real jobs and friends who are getting married. The hard-charging Liv can't wait for her ring - she literally can't wait, as an accidental discovery leads to an engagement party without an actual engagement - while the softer Emma is less maniacal, but both are eager to jump into a new era of adulthood. Hudson, who has inherited at least some of her mother, Goldie Hawn's, great timing, doesn't quite have the depth of Hathaway, who has demonstrated that she can take on shallow comedic roles and intense dramatic turns with equal aplomb, but she makes a credible Liv. With Cleopatra-like eye makeup and shiny blond hair, Hudson certainly looks the part of a type-A achiever, ready and willing to take control of a situation. Both actresses are fun to watch, even in the lamest moments of their fight. Once their sugar-and-spice characters have been sketched, the plot kicks in. Emma gets a surprise proposal, and all of a sudden, both women are marching into famous (?) wedding planner Marion St. Claire's pink office to plan their nuptials. The shrieking and hugging come to an abrupt stop, though, when both get booked at the Plaza on the same afternoon. One of them will have to find another venue and date. The horror! The film is well paced, but there are a few recurring problems: One nagging annoyance is the narration by Candice Bergen, who plays St. Claire. She delivers great, droll one-liners - stealing scenes in lowbrow comedies seems to be her niche since she appeared as a Vogue editor in the "Sex and the City" TV show and movie - but her halting cadence makes for cringe-worthy voice-overs. The fuzzy photo montages also need to go away. After the fur flies - let's just say a Butter-of-the-Month club, a tanning salon and an extremely inappropriate wedding video are involved - the finale brings home the message that friendship trumps wedding planning. The larger issue, about the meaning of impossibly lavish and obsessively planned weddings, goes ignored, but this film isn't trying to be a probing examination of the American female psyche. If you came to see two pretty girls in wedding dresses wrestle, you won't be disappointed. The sequel is a no-brainer, too: After the ideal wedding comes deluxe strollers, Baby Einstein and the sprawling industry of perfect parenting. "Bride Wars" will beget "Baby Wars." Maybe, next time, instead of fighting each other, Emma and Liv can take on more worthy opponents.
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney HerRunning
Time: 116 minutes
Score: 8 / 10
This review by Babubhaut - Possible spoilers ahead
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Clint Eastwood, the director, fan. However, Gran Torino is getting buzz like crazy. I'll agree that it is a very good movie, well composed and paced with a fantastic final act; I just can't quite allow myself to call it a masterpiece. As I said, I'm a fan of Eastwood the director, not necessarily Eastwood the actor, and, with his performance here as Walt, I won't be changing that mindset. I found myself laughing more often at his growls and scowls than feeling fear or menace. He isn't the only one at fault, though; I think everyone falls pretty flat acting-wise here. I'll give the Hmong characters some slack being that they aren't trained actors, but instead authentic people from that culture, and kudos to the filmmakers for going that route. As for our lead, the priest (a very uninspired Christopher Carley), and even a couple good actors as Walt's sons in very limited roles, I found their performances detracting from a solid story.What I liked about Gran Torino was its humor. You may be thinking: what is this guy talking about? But honestly, I laughed a lot, and I think it was intentional. The first three-quarters set up the climax to be powerfully dramatic with much deserved weight and as a result needs to have an infusion of levity to keep us off-guard when the bottom finally falls out. I wouldn't be surprised if Clint decided to act as Walt rather than find a better actor because he just wanted to have fun with racial epithets—boy there are plenty. His utter disregard for the opinions of those he insults and his overly tough exterior just make the words funny to me. Many times he is saying these things because that is "how men talk" with friends. His comradery with folks allow him the freedom to act like a bigot without recourse, (my favorite character in the film being one of these men, John Carroll Lynch's barber, who is involved in a priceless scene with Clint and Bee Vang as Thao), and that lightness makes his under-the-breath tirades become acceptable. Now, they aren't acceptable as far as societal right and wrong, but his character is built to be this Korean War vet, an old and bitter man, so you almost have to give him the benefit of the doubt. In his mind, the country he fought for is now being over-run by those he was ordered to kill. Seeing the denigration of his neighborhood and the utter lack of respect on behalf of the youth, he paints the simple picture that it's all a result of the turning tides of immigration.This humor, I believe, is what makes the ending so effective. Eastwood goes through a transformation from old man that wants to be left alone, to old man that finally has someone he can be a father to. Does it change his attitude or demeanor? Absolutely not. Does Eastwood have the acting range to make that evolution apparent on screen if necessary? Probably not, so let's say it was good that while he softened to the Asians living next door, he never let his guard down … that would have just come off as inauthentic and manipulative. By getting to understand Walt Kowalski's character, however, allows us to believe he would do what he does. Never clicking with his own sons, never being able to be a father to them and listened to for his experiences made him distant to them. Coming into the life of a traditional Hmong family, on-the-other-hand, allows him to finally feel that patriarchal duty. Ahney Her's Sue tells Walt that she wishes her own father were more like him because he was too old-school for a boy like Thao. Walt is confused thinking that he is set in the old ways too, but Sue shows the cultural disparity by saying, "but you're American". The customs and way of life are different, and after all these years blaming the Orient for making him into a killer, a sinner, Walt can open his eyes to the humanity they all share.While the gang backdrop really just stands as a way to give Walt a measure of redemption, it is the main catalyst for all that happens in the film. He never would have gotten to know the Lor family if Thao wasn't made to steal his Gran Torino as a gang initiation, and the conclusion never would have happened if the bond between he and Sue and Thao hadn't sprung out from that event. The film is not about the opposition and violence of those street thugs, though, it is about the relationship of Walt and Thao. While the script does wonders at making that friendship work, the acting just doesn't do it justice. Again, I found myself laughing each time Clint scowled at the boy—it was just too over the top. And unfortunately for Bee Vang, his delivery came across as staged and reading from a prompter. He is young, though, and inexperienced in acting, so I can't blame him too much. Instead I blame Eastwood, especially in one instance when Vang is locked in the old man's basement, screaming at Clint to let him out. The anger and frustration is so forced that the director should have known when to cut. Yet Eastwood not only shows us the pounding on the door once, but a second time after he comes back into frame to explain what it feels like to kill a man, this time lingering on the boy even longer. It's a moment like this that brings an amateur quality to an otherwise stellar tale, making the sub-par performances overshadow the tightly constructed plot.
