What You Missed: Jan. 7, 2015

Written by O’Boyd

Another new feature in Cinema Corner 2.0 is our wrap-up file of all the movie-related events from the day. Think the Drudge Report meets Hollywood.

Why should you have to search all over the Internet for movie news when you can get it all right here. We’ll list here some of the stuff we’ve posted from earlier in the day along with other items we think you should check out. Each day, we hope to provide you with a roundup of sorts of the things we believe you’ll enjoy and want to read about.

As always, enjoy.

JoBlo.com’s 2015 mashup of films gets us even more excited about the crop of movies coming our way.

OUR HEADLINES

What You Missed: Jan. 6, 2015 (NEW)

Here it is: ’Ant-Man’ trailer, poster, magazine cover (NEW)

‘The Equalizer’ blazes path to No. 1 on DVD rental chart (NEW)

Featurette out for upcoming ‘Blackhat’ film (NEW)

‘Good Kill’ international trailer now out (NEW)

Second ‘Peanuts’ trailer much like last one … and still neat (NEW)

Producers Guild of America releases nominees for top awards (NEW)

‘Five Armies’ marches to third straight weekend victory (NEW)

Coming to DVD, Blu-Ray and Netflix: Jan. 5, 2015 (NEW)

The Playlist has first images of Natalie Portman’s ‘Jane’s Got a Gun’ (NEW)

Hate Mondays? SpongeBob is gonna help you with that (NEW)

Marvel releases human-sized teaser trailer for ‘Ant-Man’

MovieWeb.com has “short list” of nominees for The Razzies

‘Exodus’ falls short of miraculous

Cinema Corner: Jan. 1, 2015

Much more to ‘Wild’ than just the story

 GET TICKETS

Coming to Theaters: Jan. 2, 2015 (NEW)

You can always click here to get more movie news and to order tickets online for the latest films in theaters.

Fandango.com          AMC Theatres        MovieTickets.com

Be sure to check out RottenTomatoes.com, which collects and posts reviews for all the films coming out this week.

THE REST OF THE NEWS

Here’s a crib made as inspiration from the film “Jaws.” I think the baby is sleeping, not crying for help. I think. Read more from GeekTyrant.com.

• “The Interview” has been rented or purchased online and through cable, satellite and other providers more than 4.3 million times, raking in over $31 million.

• Some North Korean viewers of “The Interview” are offended by the jokes and the way their country is portrayed.

• Carrie Fisher will present a lifetime honor to her mother, Debbie Reynolds, at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards on Jan. 23.

• The “Jurassic World” 30-second commercial, along with any other 30-second spot, will cost $4.5 million to air during this year’s Super Bowl.

• “Michelle Darnelle,” a comedy starring Melissa McCarthy, will premiere for Universal on April 8, 2016. It replaces “Clifford the Big Red Dog,” which will be moved to an undetermined date.

• Russell Crowe is under fire for saying ‘actresses should act their age.’

Here’s Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer on a Vespa they’ve hijacked in a photo from “The Man from U.N.C.L.E. It is scheduled for an Aug. 14, 2015 release.

• Fandango is going into business with Hulu.

• Sony CEO Kazoo Hirai speaks out for the first time on the hacks that involved his company.

• The 19th annual Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design awards released its nominees for films.

• Will James Bond … well, Daniel Craig … be in “The Force Awakens?” Click here to read the Yahoo! Movies story and here to read from Mike The Film Guy.

#firstdayback on set #SPECTRE pic.twitter.com/I2c87zySIu

— James Bond (@007) January 5, 2015

The holidays are over and it’s back to work at “Spectre.”

• Benedict Cumberbatch dishes on a variety of things, including the upcoming film “Doctor Strange.”

• Olivia Newton-John and Didi Conn reunited in Las Vegas for a concert. Read more from Moviefone.com.

• Entertainment One and The Mark Gordon Company will form a studio for independent film and television. Gordon has been involved in films such as “Speed,” “The Day After Tomorrow,” “Saving Private Ryan,” and “The Patriot.”

• Nicholas Sparks and his wife are separating.

• Bryan Singer (X-Men: Days of Future Past director) and his friend, Michelle Clunie, have a baby boy.

• Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds also had a baby. No word on whether it was a boy or girl.

• And keeping with the family-related news, Cameron Diaz got married Monday night.

VIDEO CLIPS AND MORE

Even The Grim Reaper has a bad day, as this animated short proves. GeekTyrant.com gives us details on the short.

• Yahoo! Movies has an exclusive trailer for the film “The Atticus Institute,” which comes to on demand, DVD and Blu-Ray on Jan. 20.

• And Yahoo! Movies also has an exclusive new trailer for “The Duff,” which comes to theaters on Feb. 20.

• Anne Hathaway has some sound advice for Neil Patrick Harris as he prepares to host the Oscars.

• Christopher Nolan explains the film that gave him influence to make “Batman Begins.”

Brad Pitt explains to us how to pronounce the name of the actor who plays Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma.” Sing it with him now …

• Duncan Jones says “Warcraft” will be a huge film and even talks about whether it could end up as a franchise.

“Accidental Love,” a film that was made in 2008 with Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessica Biel and James Marsden, is finally being released. Read more about it here, from Yahoo! Movies.

• Yahoo! Movies tells us why filming the plank scene in “Unbroken” was so difficult. And don’t read it if you haven’t seen the movie. It contains spoilers.

• Ethan Hawke explains why not doing a Marvel movie (he was rumored at one time to be a finalist to play Doctor Strange) was a good idea. You can hear the entire interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast by clicking here.

• How the Twin Towers were brought back and more to make New York City more gritty for the film “A Most Violent Year.”

• BadAssDigest explains why and how the Academy Awards fell in love with eventual Best Picture selection “Shakespeare in Love.”

LISTS, BESTS, WORSTS

Mickey Mouse is hidden in numerous Disney films. Yahoo! Movies has the pictures to prove it, too, starting with the one above from 1988’s “Oliver & Company.”

• Moviefone: The 79 (79?) most anticipated movies of 2015.

• IGN: 15 movies to catch in 2015.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Eddie Redmayne, Rowan Atkinson, Gabrielle Reece

I’m always fascinated with celebrity birthdays (especially finding out who has a birthday when I have mine). IMDB.com has a neat daily list of all the Hollywood people who have birthdays. Here’s the Jan. 6 list.

What You Missed: Dec, 17 2014

Written by O’Boyd

Another new feature in Cinema Corner 2.0 is our wrap-up file of all the movie-related events from the day. Think the Drudge Report meets Hollywood. We’ll list here some of the stuff we’ve posted from earlier in the day along with other items we think you should check out. Each day, we hope to provide you with a roundup of sorts of the things we believe you’ll enjoy and want to read about.

As always, enjoy.

And we thought the “X-Men” series was confusing. This series takes the cake. Hopefully, they’ll sort it all out like “Days of Future Past” did.

Our headlines from Tuesday …

Carmike Cinemas opts to not show ‘The Interview’ after new threats issued in latest Sony hack

Viola Davis slated to be final piece to ‘Suicide Squad’ puzzle

New international trailer for Disney’s ‘Cinderella’ remake hits web

Could there be a ‘Ghostbusters’ film involving Channing Tatum, Chris Pratt?

‘Kong: Skull Island’ adds J.K. Simmons to cast

Next ‘Star Trek’ film has narrowed list to five directors

‘MoonQuake Lake’ isn’t real … and that’s a good thing

‘Let’s Be Cops’ tops DVD rentals for first time

‘Selma’ star’s next project is ‘Americana’

• On top of all the recent hacks, Sony is now being sued by two former employees.

• Activists plan to drop ‘The Interview’ DVDs over North Korea via balloon.

• Could the “Christmas Gifts” the Guardians of Peace hackers are referring to be the 20 or so unreleased films from Sony Pictures? And what are the films?

• BadAssDigest.com says the chances of Spider-Man being in “Captain America: Civil War” are slim to none now.

• Did Roberto Orci leave the third “Star Trek” movie because it’s being made in the same realm as “Guardians of the Galaxy?”

• Brad Pitt and his children sat in for Angelina Jolie at a premiere for “Unbroken.” Why wasn’t Jolie there? She has chicken pox.

• Christoph Waltz says he’s not playing the main villain in “Spectre.”

• With “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” coming out Wednesday, Rotten Tomatoes ranks Peter Jackson’s 10 best movies.

Get prepared, or something like that, for “The Battle of the Five Armies” by watching this Honest Trailer of “The Desolation of Smaug.”

• Variety says “Five Armies” will make around $70 million its opening weekend in the U.S.

• Did you know Chris Pratt was “discovered” waiting tables in Hawaii? Read more from Cinema Blend.

• The “Frozen” director apologizes for the song “Let It Go.” Seriously!

• Jason Reitman is re-staging ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for a one-night-only live-read that involves two pretty big stars.

• Natalie Portman says Mike Nichols was her savior after the “Star Wars” prequels.

• J.K. Rowling says she feels guilty for killing off this “Harry Potter” character.

• Jamie Dornan says he visited sex dungeons to prepare for “Fifty Shades of Grey”

• The Mickey Rourke fight was all a sham … at least that’s what the guy who Rourke beat says.

• MoviePilot.com has the 10 scariest horror movies you likely didn’t see in 2014.

Seth Meyers has already figured out the plot for the latest James Bond film, “Spectre.”

• Schmoes Know’s next film in its 25 Days of Christmas is “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

• Robin Williams topped Google’s list of top searches for 2014.

• The Marvel Experience will be a pretty amazing … experience.

‘Selma’ star’s next project is ‘Americana’

David Oyelowo (BET)

Written by O’Boyd

David Oyelowo, currently getting praise for his role in the film “Selma,” about the Civil Rights marches and Martin Luther King Jr., has his next project lined up.

Variety reports he’ll star with Lupita Wyong’o in “Americana.” It’s a film based on the book with the same title and centers around a Nigerian couple who leave their homeland for the U.S. The book, written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 2013.

Wyong’o is also producing the film along with Plan B, Brad Pitt’s company. It also produced “Selma” and “12 Years a Slave.” The film doesn’t have a director yet.

‘Fury’ starts slow, satisfies overall

Brad Pitt leads a small group of fighters in a WWII tank. (Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures)

It is not a good practice to compare one film to another. After all, all film is art, some of it is vastly more accomplished than others, but every film from the small independent to the giant blockbusters, all of them are artistic endeavors.

I have often said that no one is in spiritual competition with anyone else, but we are in competition with ourselves. Every day the call on our lives is to be a better person than we were the day before.

I think the same is true about art. Art should not really be in competition with other art (even though that is exactly what film awards do) but rather artists should be competing against themselves to create something even more inspired than the last artistic endeavor.

I offer these thoughts and now I will contradict them by comparing the art that is the new film “Fury” with the previous masterpiece “Saving Private Ryan.”

“Fury” is not “Saving Private Ryan.” I do not think the filmmakers are striving towards that. It is, however, difficult to not think of the earlier film while watching “Fury.”

“Ryan” is an epic. From the opening scenes of Allied troops landing on the beaches, “Ryan” announced itself as a “big” film. There are some big scenes in “Fury,” but nothing that cries out that this film is a modern grand drama on the scale of “Private Ryan.”

“Fury” is much smaller and more intimate. Both “Ryan” and “Fury” focus on a small troop of men. In “Ryan,” these men are searching for a fellow soldier. In “Fury” the small group are a tank crew who have inherited a new member.

In both films these groups of men have countless conversations, arguments and times of struggle and peril. Both groups face fierce fighting. And in both films the squads lose members along the way.

I think what sets “Saving Private Ryan” aside and perhaps above “Fury” is that in “Ryan,” the men had a very specific mission, to save one young man’s life. In “Fury,” the men go on missions, but ultimately there was not one singular mission that creates a focus in the film.

With that said, there is much to like about “Fury.” First, there is a great cast including Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf and Logan Lerman. (I still remember Lerman as the younger brother in the short-lived television series “Jack and Bobby.” I wish they would release that clever and compelling series on DVD.)

Lerman, whose character is truly the heart of “Fury,” does exceptional work here as the young man replacing a fallen comrade of the tank squad. In the beginning, these characters are not very likable, and overall the film itself is not as engaging as one might desire.

The longer these characters interact with one another and endure hardship, violence and loss together, the more endearing they become to the audience. Ultimately, the greatest difficulty of this film would be to not care what happens to this tank crew as things move toward the climatic battle.

There are also other strengths. The cinematography, especially the claustrophobic scenes shot inside the tank, is outstanding. The sets and art decoration, the countryside, the German towns and villages, also create a genuine perspective for the film.

The screenplay has several very special moments between the men. And overall, the film moves at a brisk pace most of the time. There are moments when things seem to linger a bit too long, but this is more prevalent in the early moments than the latter.

In the end, there are a great many war epics, including “Saving Private Ryan,” that are more important, dramatic and artistic than “Fury.” But standing alone, without comparisons, “Fury” is a moving, intense war drama that, in the end, satisfies.

Oct. 23, 2014 Cinema Corner

Reviews by Roger Thomas. Design by Jason O. Boyd, The Stanly News & Press.

Reviews of the Past: ‘World War Z’

The next set of reviews we’ll be publishing are some of the ones Roger Thomas has done exclusively for The Stanly News & Press. Roger has written movie reviews for The Stanly News & Press and other outlets for years, long before starting this blog. So we decided it would be good to give readers a sample of his previous work, in addition to posts of reviews of current films. Other reviews will run daily.

Brad Pitt in ‘World War Z’

The zombies have taken over. You might not have realized this, especially if you have not really been paying attention the last couple of years, but that does not change the facts. Zombies are everywhere. Television’s “The Walking Dead” on the AMC network had 12.4 million viewers for its third season finale on March 31. Among the coveted demographic of 18-49 year-olds, it was the highest rated show of the evening on broadcast and cable networks.

VOTE NOW: Best dramas of 2014 (so far)

And Zombies are not just on the airwaves. In the first half of 2013, two of the top 25 films are “Zombie Pictures: Warm Bodies” and “World War Z.” One can walk in any bookstore and find the graphic novels upon which “The Walking Dead” movies are based, a whole host of zombie novels written by Max Brooks the author of “World War Z,” and various other zombie literary works including the novel “Pride and Prejudice” and “Zombies.” (My high school English teacher is spinning in her grave at the thought of the last title, which I guess makes her technically a zombie.) Beyond these items, zombies are appearing in all sorts of other forms including “bobble head dolls” and life-size cardboard cutouts for gun enthusiasts. (I suppose someone needs to be preparing to save the rest of us from the Zombie Apocalypse.) As I said above, zombies are everywhere.

Unlike many zombie entertainment productions, “World War Z” is interested in the origin of the zombies. How did this start? What is the cause? What is the cure? How long do we have to find it? These questions are still about the same subject as most zombie stories: the quest to survive. In this case, Gerry Lane, an employee of the United Nations played by Brad Pitt, is asking these questions in an attempt to save mankind. The film is structured as a mystery that must be solved to save the human race. But for Lane, the motivation is more personal; as long as he is seeking answers, his family is safe on a U.N. ship in the Atlantic. If he fails or quits, his family will be sent ashore with almost no hope of survival.

There is much to like about the film. Visually, it is amazing. I especially like the scenes of Jerusalem, having traveled there myself. But all the various settings are impressive. The story moves quickly and does not linger too long on any one place or conversation. (A problem other films have had this summer season.) The performances are unanimously strong. Some interesting moral questions are raised along the way, which is almost always a plus in any film. The conclusion is smart and climatic but also open-ended. Everything is not tied up neatly, leaving room for sequels, but also ringing more authentic and realistic than a quick and easy resolution. Collectively, the film is well conceived and well made.

In the end, if you have missed the flood of zombie entertainment and you are curious, “World War Z” would be a good place to start. The movie is well crafted and tells an epic zombie story without the blood and gore that one usually sees in these productions. In fact, with a PG-13 rating, the film has less blood than the ads for “The Walking Dead” on AMC. “Z” is not one of the best films I have seen this year, but it is a thrilling ride with great effects, epic storytelling and a strong emotional center as one man tries to save his family and ultimately the human race along the way.

Box Office results

Domestic gross: $202,359,711

Foreign gross: $337,648,165

Production budget: $190 million

Opening weekend: $66,411,834

NOTE: Information from Boxofficemojo.com